| “Joy has its roots in mindfulness, which sensitizes us to our world of the moment. Mindfulness brings intimacy with all things. With mindfulness we simply learn to make room for joy; learning to see, listen, and attend to all things with a spacious heart.” -Christina Feldman 16. I have taught my Introduction to Meditation Class at 16 public libraries since the end of May. It has been a wonderful experience and I have met and talked about meditation with a lot of people. There is only one of these classes left. So, if you’ve been wanting to go and have missed it so far, this is your chance: 7/26/22. 7:00pm (central): Introduction to Meditation @ North Independence Library. 317 W 24 Hwy. Independence, MO  I have a drop-in meditation group at the Rime Buddhist Center on the 4th Wednesday of every month at 7pm (central time). You can come show up and meditate with me or you can access the meditation group through zoom. I always prefer in person things, but I know many people are unable to attend things like this in person. Meditation is better together. Show up if you can. So, I’ll be doing this one day after my last introduction to meditation class. Here are the details: 7/27/22. 7:00pm: Drop In Meditation @ Rime Buddhist Center. 2939 Wayne Ave. Kansas City, MO. Also on Zoom.  Some Guided Meditations for you: Mindfulness of Breathing + Loving Awareness Metta (Loving Kindness) I want to tell you about Joy. Joy makes us feel alive. It’s part of our innate potential. We can have joyous lives. With mindfulness we can learn to see the roots of our joy and to have some understanding of what gets in our way. A lot of things do get in the way of our joy. We get caught up and obsessed with fulfilling our desires. We start telling ourselves stories and convince ourselves that if just one or two circumstances in our lives were different, then we could be happy. It’s, of course, totally understandable that we would want to strive for getting our desires and wish for things to be different. It’s just that state of mind that says, “I’ll have time to be happy later.” that gets us all mixed up. Sometimes we keep ourselves so busy that there’s no room for joy. Sometimes we need to slow down and appreciate the good in the world. But we’re often so busy chasing after the next thing, that we don’t appreciate anything in our lives. This doesn’t serve us very well. I can’t take much joy in seeing the mailman get a promotion. But what if I could? If I can extend my circle and take joy in the success of more and more people, then happiness is always out there for me. The foundations of joy are Integrity and Appreciation. Integrity has been described as ‘the bliss of blamelessnesss’. I like to think of that Mark Twain quote, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” When we don’t live ethical lives we get in our way. It’s easy to feel like we aren’t good enough when we aren’t making the best choices. We always know what harmful actions we’re letting ourselves get away with. This is a way to live with less regrets and to have more harmony and trust in our day to day lives. Appreciation is when we learn how to focus on the positive instead of getting caught up in the negative or the imaginary all the time. There’s an old traditional Chinese saying that is relevant here. It is, “Write your sorrows in sand and etch your joys in stone.” Christina Feldman says, “Mindfulness teaches us to reclaim our capacity for appreciation. We learn to cultivate many moments when we pause, step out of our busyness and our stories, and truly see what is before us, to listen wholeheartedly, to be touched, and to make room for joy.”When we appreciate what’s happening, we make room for joy to exist in our lives. WRITINGS Training in Joy Training in Compassion Book Review: The Path to Peace Book Review: That Is Not Your Mind Some books I recommend: Boundless Heart by Christina Feldman The Path to Peace by Ayya Khema |
Meditation with Daniel 