Day 72 of 14,600

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I took a course in mindfulness last year. I think it was towards the end of last year. The jury is out on just how effective it is or will be. But I took it because I felt a little clueless about how to navigate this human existence with a goal of being a half-decent human being. It sometimes feel heart-rippingly tough. Not just because you meet hostile people. But because you may become one of them. With dangerous righteousness.

At the core of this teaching, or at the core of any teaching involving the myth and mania of the mind, is the axiom that nothing is external. Therefore, nothing other than your own reaction is ''real" (whatever that might be). So the way out when you feel intensely is to locate it in the body (and it will manifest as pain in the body), isolate it, observe it without judgment or resistance and breathe through it.

There are some good meditations in the course regarding it. And I can tell you that it is bloody hard sometimes. Today, I had not anticipated to feel this stung but I did. Anyway, it is what it is. Only more lessons for me to learn.

Never mind. Things could have been worse. What is wonderful, though, is how one can really simply breathe through anything. 

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