Monday, May 4, 2020
To compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be running through May on YouTube and are now archived on YouTube, I am posting what I call a daily ‘Meditation Nudge’. These short posts will offer a meditation instruction or practical meditation tip. I am posting them on my Micro.blog site. If you bookmark this page and refresh it each day, you can read the latest post. I hope to have them up mid to late morning (Hawaii time) each day.
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Meditation Timer This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. A practical piece today. I learnt to meditate before electronic aids were available. Well, some electronic timers were becoming available, but they didn’t work for me. Yes, I could have set an alarm clock for 15 minutes hence, but I found the sound rather jarring and so I didn’t use them.
I was just reminded of this quote by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
Setting up, trying out and getting used to Indiepaper. Liking that I can pick up my saved articles in Feebin & NetNewsWire. // @cleverdevil @brentsimmons
I found myself in a field of sunflowers today.
With a bit of digging around to find out “how”, I updated my YouTube page to hopefully make it a little more navigable.
I’m ten posts off hitting my one thousandth post on Micro.blog. Make that nine now!
Saturday, May 2, 2020
Beware of looking for good and bad meditations This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. Whatever my meditation practice is, from my experience it is very easy to have judgements of how well I am doing. I can set arbitrary goals for myself based upon what I feel I should be aiming for, with the judge of whether I meet those goals being myself.
I just sent out my second newsletter using Buttondown and was reminded how much I enjoy using the service.
Friday, May 1, 2020
The Meditation Posture This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. First and foremost, be comfortable. If you are not comfortable, the body will be screaming, you will be distracted and at worst be put off the idea of meditation completely.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Update on December 17, 2020: I have now moved the videos from YouTube to my YouTube page. Following the daily meditation sessions through April, I have decided to continue the meditations through May, just with fewer sessions. During May I will host two sessions a week, Monday and Thursday. They will be held live at 1:00pm Hawaiian time (to help - 3 hours behind the US West coast, 6 hours behind the East coast, 11 hours behind the UK, and 22 hours behind New Zealand).
Friday, May 1, 2020
With the April meditation series now over. The question came up for me as to “what next?” I set up the April series not only as a class for those who wanted to learn more about meditation, but also as a resource for people struggling with the stay-at-home order. Through meditating individuals can start to build tools for themselves to work with their minds, quite often the source of these struggles.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Update on December 18, 2022: I have now archived the videos on my YouTube page. After 3½ weeks, in 45 minutes I will streaming my last daily April meditation session. Please do join me on my YouTube page. I have enjoyed doing this through April and because of interest will be running further meditation sessions through May. Details to follow. 🧘🏼♂️
I know that I haven’t been out that much when cobwebs start appearing inside the truck! 🕸
Monday, April 27, 2020
Today is the 31st birthday of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as recognized by the current Dalai Lama on 14 May, 1995. Three days after His Holiness' recognition of the young boy, then aged 6, the Chinese government placed him under house arrest, location unknown. Twenty five years later, the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts is still unknown and is undisclosed by the Chinese Government. At the time of his disappearance, human rights organizations called him the “youngest political prisoner in the world.
Living on the North Shore of Maui, I see a little more rain than elsewhere on the island. The sun and warmth is appreciated, but the break the rain brings adds variety. Then I wake to a misty, wet morning. That is icing to the cake.
A friend parked his car outside our house before heading off on a bike ride. On returning we sat outside, 6 feet apart, and chatted for a good while. I just appreciated the human contact, even at a distant.
This Sunday Morning Jazz playlist on Apple Music reminds me of when I was a kid and the sort of music that my dad would have playing on a Sunday morning.
The cliffs at Ho’okipa.
My wife and I are just back from the cliffs near to Ho’okipa Beach Park. We went there to get some air and perspective. The exercise was a bonus! 🚶♂️
I suddenly find myself having a craving for a Chocolate Hobnob, a great British biscuit (cookie) for the uninitiated. There are certainly none here in Maui!
We were blessed with a beautiful rainbow this morning.
As life has got simpler, quieter with the stay at home order, I find myself marking the week by the evening that I put the trash out.
Over the weekend I saw a view on the other side of the island for the first time for a long while, and in the current climate it will probably be a long while before I see it again.
My late afternoon office.
It’s feeling as though summer is arriving early this year. That and that summer might be hot. If that is the case and social distancing is still in place, that might be difficult for those looking to cool off at the beach.
At least mornings and night time are still cool.
Looking up.
I’ve just finished reading Fog Island Mountains by Michelle Bailat-Jones. Set in Japan it is a story that deals with two storms. In one, a typhoon descends on a small town, and in the other a family confronts the terminal illness of a dear one. A loved it. 📚
‘Prayer Is Not Enough.'. The Dalai Lama on Why We Need to Fight Coronavirus With Compassion.
I just discovered this playlist on Apple Music and am enjoying it very much, 2019 Autumn. I’m listening to it while appreciating the cool spring evening breeze blowing through the open doors.