lara simmons

Be kind to yourself.  Do not harm others.  Purify your soul.  -- SN Goenka  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ Want more kindness in your life? Try 28 Days of Kindness .

"Help Yourself First." -- S.N. Goenka In one of his nightly lectures via videotape , S.N. Goenka advised against getting involved in any situation or taking any action until you are feeling equanimous .  If you know anything about Vipassana meditation , you know it is all about equanimity . Equanimity is the thing. Equanimity is defined as, " mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, esp. in a difficult situation ." I like to think of it as getting to neutral. This advice reminded me of the part in the airline safety speech about putting on your own oxygen mask first before assisting others and made me realize how often I leap into situations when my equanimity is something less than perfect. This is especially true when my kids are fighting. Nothing gets under my skin like the two of them going at it. Invariably I jump in, blood pressure rising, voice raised, and more often than not, make things worse. There are certainly times when we need...

"You are the master of your own life; you are the master of your own future." -- Gautama the Buddha One of many quotes from the retreat whose basic message is: you create your reality. What the Buddha is saying here is that we decide each day, each moment what kind of life we want to live by HOW we live it. By how we act. By how we think. By how we treat others. By how we treat ourselves. Decide what kind of life you want to live and then plant the seeds of that life. At the retreat S.N. Goenka told a story during one of the nightly video-taped discourses , about a man who planted seeds from the Neem tree (known for its bitter fruit) on his land. When the tree grew and began to produce fruit he was very upset that the fruit it produced was bitter and not sweet like sugar cane. Of course we are meant to laugh at this man for his foolishness, but are we any different? We lie, we cheat, we steal (in large or in small ways), we give into anger and then we want life...

"If there is no peace in the mind...how can there be peace in the world?" -- S.N. Goenka Last year at about this time I went on my first 10-day silent meditation retreat at the NW Vipassana Center. When I came back, I knew I wanted to go again. And that time has come. I leave today for another ten days. Last year I was a bit nervous and unsure. This time, I am excited. I know what to expect and what will be expected of me. And I am ready. I can't wait to sit in meditation for most of my waking hours. To walk in silence for all of them. And to be free from the constant barrage of mind-thoughts that I am subject to each day. I look forward to oatmeal and stewed fruit for breakfast every day. To the delicious vegetarian lunch. And nothing but a cup of tea for dinner. I know that there will be new things too. New ideas. New discomforts. New fears. I look forward to these as well. While I am gone I will be posting one meditation quote every day to inspire your...

Three Rules for Life:  1) Be kind to yourself  2) Do not harm others  3) Purify your mind  -- S.N. Goenka I tried writing about my 10-day silent retreat at the NW Vipassana Center yesterday, but I couldn't do it justice. I got bogged down in the details and the essence somehow went missing. So instead of spitting it all out in one L-O-N-G post, I think I'll just share a few of the juicy tidbits over the next few weeks.  This quote is the first thing I "wrote down" at the retreat. Mind, I use the term "wrote down" loosely here. One of the precepts you agree to live by while at the retreat is "no sensual entertainments." This includes music, television, computers, cell phones, and, yes, pencils, pens and journals. Woah, talk about hard. Everyone thought the silence was going to be the tricky part. Being silent is easy because no one else is talking. No one else is even looking at you so the temptation to talk is really quite rare...