Inner Smile on a Cold Day

Yesterday was one of those days, you wake-up completely on the wrong side of the bed. Tripping, spilling, cursing the morning away. I thought for sure it was going to be a horrible day. To boot, I’m late and there is ice all over my car. So, after de-icing the car and cranking up the heat I feel the heat of being late. Not that I was going to get in trouble, I just really hate to be late anywhere. So, there I am in my car, driving through my neighborhood, thinking of nothing but being late and how bad of a morning it was.

Freeze……Can you see how the day is shaping? It’s going to be bad and I’m determined to make it so. Ok Go!

As I get to a corner in my neighborhood I notice my neighbor and her grandchild waiting for the bus. This woman always waves to me and I wave back but it will take a huge undertaking to remove my negative thoughts. And then it happend. Although I might have been 20 degrees and ice everywhere, her Grandchild looked up with that pom on top of her knitted cap and her stripped mittens to “smile and wave” at me. I was stuck in my tracks, unable to move.

The moment of seeing a child smile and wave changed everything. I felt that “Inner Smile” blurb up and fill my body. The last thing to hit was the smile on my face. A simple act of joy and a smile melted me, turned everything around.

I couldn’t stop smiling the whole way to work…..then it cascaded to a spring in my step and my humor…….I felt like bouncing to every meeting.

The “Inner smile”, from Lao Tzu to Buddha, a concept of love from the inside.

What I felt was a massive amount of Qi cultivation at that moment, continuing throughout the day, thinking of my Qigong instructor saying “let a smile float up to your face” only brought more Qi. My practice of “Loving-Kindness” as of late came to mind as well and I was again washed in Qi and calm.

Some call it the Buddha Nature or Loving-Kindness and some call it the “Inner Smile”, I called it unexpected.

This just goes to show how much of a quality day we create by just thinking it as well as the power of a wave and a smile from another being.

For meditation and more articles:

Meditation from Yoga Journal

Metta: The Practice of Loving Kindness by Kris Vockler

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Update “Spread the Love NOW! Group Writing Project”

Photo Credit

As many of you know we were part of a wonderful project called “Spread the Love NOW! Group Writing Project“. Created by those wonderfully enlightened folks at [The Middle Way], [Zen-Inspired Self Development], and [UrbanMonk.net]. The project was fantastic and led me to a whole new group of enlightened ones to read and be a part of on this crazy path we each share yet walk alone. To read Beyond Zen’s part of the project, check out this post: A Story of Compassion and Dying.

I want all of our readers to also enjoy some of the great writing from this project; stories of compassion, concepts of compassion from many spiritual themes, and discussions on definition of the word “Compassion”. The list is below, enjoy!

~La Boheme

Entries

Ben Lumley at The New Horizons Project.

Kris Vockler at Beyond Zen.

Corinne Edwards at Personal Growth with Corinne Edwards.

Isabella Mori at Change Therapy.

Paula Kawal at Journey Inward Coaching.

Liara Covert at Dream Builders.

David Bohl at Slow Down Fast.

Deb Estep at Deb_Inside.

Swami Nirmalananda Giri and ReddyK at the Atma Jyoti Blog.

Mary Jaksch at Goodlife Zen.

Takuin Minamoto at Daily Action and Natural Expression.

Robin at Reflections on Compassion, posted at Yogini Myspace Blog.

Karen Zara at Abaminds.

Jenny Mannion at Heal Pain Naturally.

Evan Hadkins at WellBeingAndHealth.Net.

Shawn Williamson at do you LIVE or simply EXIST.

Patricia Singleton at Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker.

Alex Blackwell at The Next 45 Years.

Akemi Gaines at Gratitude Magic.

Vitor Bosshard at The Fractal Forest.

CG Walters at Into The Mist.

John Torcello has also contributed an entry by email, I’ve included it in the comments below.

Brightdays at Brighter Days for you and me!

Karen at Loving Awareness.

Krista at Lucid Amphibology.

Karen Lynch at Live The Power.

Andrea Hess at Empowered Soul.

Waters at Waters: The Last Thing I Wanted To Give.

Eric Grey at Deepest Health.

Stephen Hopson at Adversity University.

Em Dy at Pulse: Intention to Treat.

Iain Hamp at Follow Your Passions.

Rahul at Raw Speak.

Stephen Miracle at AltNoise.Net.

Pearl at Interesting Observations.

Mark at My Tropical Escape.

Matthew at Loving Awareness.

Daylle Schwartz at Lessons from a Recovering Doormat.

Charities Link at Charities Link.

Mihaela Lica at Pamil Visions eWritings.

David at Virginia Breeze.

Jerry Summers at Nothing Like Now.

Wishbone at Wishbone.

Arvind Devalia at Make Things Happen.

Samir Bharadwaj at Samir Bharadwaj dot com.

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Power of Gratitude…How To.

There are so many tools for which one can bolster and build their spiritual path, one of the most powerful is Gratitude. It’s a simple act yet has so many chemical reactions in the brain and affects on life. Gratitude at it’s definition is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. Yet it goes further than that, it’s not just something that one has received but a practice in seeing the gifts that might not be so obvious. Doing some practice in seeing what you might have that needs gratitude can be all that one needs to get started. Often we overlook things we need Gratitude in; our family, waking up in the morning, our meditation practice, the sun, the rain, a co-worker, our health. It need not be saved for that which was just given to us, the act of expressing Gratitude builds a positive flow of energy to us.

Now, it’s time to try the practice out, maybe starting with the following post on Gratitude Magic; The Gratitude Project. Try the exercise out and see what happens. Another great way to do this is to simply integrate it into your meditation practice. As of late, as I sit to do my mindfulness meditation, I do two things first; one is to express Gratitude for something, just one thing and then second I practice Loving-Kindness. If you aren’t sure what Loving-Kindness or Metta is, check out my last post on what it is or this article published. I simply state my Gratitude and then state the Metta practice and then I sit. What have I noticed? Well, quite a bit, first I’ve noticed that I am softer towards those who might have normally rubbed me the wrong way. It would appear that the Metta statements are falling over into the wake life and I find myself wishing happiness and a lack of suffering to those who are seemingly engaging me in negative things. The Gratitude builds a feeling of happiness over what I have and what I didn’t know I had.Gratitude is at it’s base a practice of many paths, from the simple act of bowing in Gassho or Namaste to a friend or teacher to appreciating what you have.Try it, unless you really don’t want to see positive changes.

Gassho,

~La Boheme

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Awakening the Heart

The pic above is of a lotus flower, a sacred and meaningful flower to Buddhists and other Eastern Philosophies. The reference to the lotus flower is a wonderful icon that describes the path we take to become enlightened. A lotus flower is the icon of purification of the body, the speech, and the mind; blossoming of insight into the true reality and then into liberation. The lotus makes reference to the path; growing from the mud (otherwise known as samsara), climbing through the muddy water to appear clean on the surface of the water (purification) as a bud, then moving to flower (enlightenment). It’s a wonderful thought, practice that leads to rising from the mud and into the light with purity. You have to give it to us Buddhists for great imagery. Although I think the Hindus have it on us.

Through all this talk of desire and feeling desire and working with desire and transforming desire, I forgot to do one important thing and that’s practice loving-kindness towards myself, metta. So I picked up a book by Thick Nhat Hanh called True Love; A Practice for Awakening the Heart. Less metta and more how to have an open heart for those we love. Without self-love one is not able to give present love to their family.

The book was great, I really enjoyed reading it. From it I took some good mantra’s or thoughts:

The Four Aspects of Love

• Maitri - loving-kindess, ability to bring joy and happiness to the one you love, training to do so is to practice deep looking toward the person you love. Understanding this person is love and without understanding love is not possible.
• Karuna - compassion, not just the desire to ease pain in another but the ability to do so. Deep looking to understand the suffering in another so that you can help the change. Meditation is key as it is the looking into the nature of things.
• Mudita - if there is no joy in love, it is not true love, suffering all the time (in yourself or causing it) this is not love, but the opposite.
• Upeksha - equanimity or freedom, when you love you bring freedom to the person you love, loving in such a way as the other person you love feels free; “Dear one, do you have enough space in you heart and all around you?”

Love for self can be applied accordingly, the same concepts can be applied to the ego-self relationship. Loving another is the fertile ground of study and understanding we Buddhists crave.

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