Sweet Miracles

Some gems of wisdom from the trainer Dr Jain that i wish to share with u guys…

• Asking “how to get peace of mind” is the wrong question. The right question is “How do we create our problems?”
• Who is holding onto the anger?
• Why should things go our way?
• The mind is a machine that is turned on by good things and turned off by bad things – we own this machine
• Why should we punish ourselves cos of other people’s mistakes (such as them getting angry at us)
• It is impossible for others to hurt our feelings if we don’t allow it
• We cannot think and laugh at the same time
• “Trying” is part of the mind (ego)
• We do not need to learn how to breathe (meditate). Breathing is something we naturally knew as babies. Just by paying attention to our breath, we would remember how to breathe properly.
• Mind-body health is a by-product of meditation, not a goal. Awareness (enlightenment) is the real goal.
• If you meditate with the idea of benefits, the benefits are very few
• Don’t start with the end in mind (don’t have expectations)
• Mind is the invisible part of body. Body is the visible part of mind. Body follows mind. Mind follows body.
• The change in our breathing is the 1st sign of stress. If we focus on our stress, our breathing will become more shallow. But if we focus on our breathing, our stress will reduce.
• When angry, take 2 weeks to react.
• This too will pass

The analogy of the boat with a leak – no matter how much you pour water out, the boat will continue to sink. You need to find where the leak is and repair it.

The analogy of the dark room – when in a dark room, the logical question is “where is the door”. But once light is brought into the room, one will not even think about asking where is the door.

Story 1

A man who asked his teacher everyday how come he is not seeing progress in his meditation. Finally, the teacher took him out in a boat and he rowed the boat with one paddle. The boat ended up going round in circles.

The man asked him why he was doing that.

The teacher replied, this is what he is doing as well, and hence, he sees no progress in meditation. One paddle is effort. The other is patience.

Story 2 (i really like this one!)

A thief came to a saint’s house hoping to steal some treasures. The saint heard the thief and called out to him, i know you are here, in such a calm voice that the thief felt something was wrong and decided to leave.

The saint stopped him and said, since you came here to find something, i will give you something. And the saint gave him a blanket as it was cold outside.

Eventually, the thief was caught by the police and the saint, amongst other victims, were called upon to testify in court. The saint was asked if he was a thief. The saint replied that he was not.

Nevertheless, others testified against the thief and he was still put in jail. When he completed his sentence, he went to look for the saint and asked him how come he said that he was not a thief when the fact was that he was.

The saint replied, i could not see a thief in you because there wasn’t a thief in me.

Moral of the story: you will see what you want to see