#227 Worried about worrying Sun May 27th 18

                                                         Worried about worrying

This email was sent to me: “I am worried almost all the time and about everything. How do I work against it?”

Anxiety is a growing mental state affecting all ages even the youngest ones. The causes are numerous and beyond the scope of this talk.

“ Working against it” is similar to “ Escaping from it and trying to relax”.

Anxiety and escaping from it or trying to relax don’t go together. In fact, the more we try to escape from it, the stronger the anxiety may become. (more…)

#226 SELF-CARE: spiritual & material May 20th 18

                                                     Spiritual and Material self-care

When we talk about self-care, we usually referring to proper diet, exercise and sleep. This is only part of global self-care.

In Zen, however, self-care is an oxymoron. Why?

A fundamental teaching of Zen Buddhism is the concept of “no-self”. No-self does not mean that we don’t exist as living being. This is absurd. It means simply that the self is not a unique, permanent, independent, separate self-entity with a self-intrinsic life. We are all interconnected and interdependent with our environment, which is providing life to us.

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#225 Breathing: our app to calming reality

                              Breathing: your app to the calming reality of the moment

Reality is what we are experiencing concretely in the moment thru our consciousness.

It should not be confused with virtual reality that our mind is producing. Thoughts and feelings do exist but are, by definition, virtual, fictional and the fruit of our imagination.

When I am looking, touching and eating an apple I am experiencing concrete reality.

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#224 WHEN BOREDOM becomes an opportunity

                                               When boredom becomes an opportunity

 We don’t like to be bored. When we are actively engaged in something, there is no boredom.

But when there is nothing interesting or mandatory to absorb our attention or entertain, it starts to hurt our self-image very quickly.

But if we suddenly become idle in our space-time, we begin to seek for something to do.

If not, boredom kicks in. We feel being in a vacuum, a no-body.

Our ego feels empty, useless or wasting its time and our self-image is wounded.

“Me, doing nothing: it is impossible, I should be busy”. Boredom can make us anxious

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