Life, Liberation, And The Pursuit of Satisfaction

We've all been gifted life. It's not important 'how' we received this gift nor is it important from 'whom' we've received this gift. We have it now so what to do with it. Living, in the most basic sense, is easy, one only needs to wake up from sleep, find sustenance, and shelter, and you live. Cats do this. Birds do this. Worms do it too.

But these actions simply keep us alive, perhaps as humans we need, or at least, are capable of more.

In fact we are capable of more which is why we have the ability to experience the conditions of 'liberation', 'dissatisfaction' and 'satisfaction'. As people, most of us transition from dissatisfaction to satisfaction back to dissatisfaction continuously there are even fewer that experience liberation.

Let's start with a basic understanding of the terms life, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and liberation.

Life isn't consciousness. It's not Rene Descartes "I think therefor I am". Life is the body's ability to maintain homeostasis day in and day out. All living beings do this, from humans all the way to the simplest single-celled organism.

Satisfaction and dissatisfactions is the condition of having a need or expectation met or not. 

Liberation is ending the cycle of samsara, the continued cycle of rebirth until Nirvana is achieved. And to get there emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness are the doors that one may walk through. Or put another way emptiness is 'This is because of that'. Signlessness is that the form of an object changes but the 'object' is still there, like water evaporating to vapor, it's still 'water'. While aimlessness means you don’t put anything in front of you as the object of your pursuit.

Ok, liberation sounds like a lot to remember but in essence it's that nothing exists without being formed from the destruction of something else and what we see isn't all that it is.

Aimlessness is what we'll mostly focus on here since our society strives for the accumulation of 'things' and 'status'.

To put it plainly, you will not be satisfied once you achieve what you've set out to acquire or accumulate, at least for very long. Why is that? Because that's not what you're truly looking for. 

Others have placed the seed inside you that if you're a doctor, lawyer, professor, married, have a fast car, have a big home, travel around the world, and more...that you'll be happy. Society has watered that seed of dissatisfaction with certain ideas, concepts, and notions are necessary to achieve happiness. The Buddha teaches us that to understand we must see through these ideas, concepts, and notions. We let them go.

Some of you reading this probably have achieved some or most of these items. Are you happy? Or are you working on 'the next item'? That next item is not what you're looking for. 

Let's see if that's a true statement. 

Reflect on whare you are now, at this very moment.

This moment is exactly where you wanted to be yesterday and here you are. You should be happy and content but yet you're striving for more. And when you're striving for more you're living in a future that does not exist all the while forsaking today, the here and now. Because what you're seeking is not what you're looking for.

So, how do you pursue satisfaction?

You don't. 

Satisfaction is already within you. You only need to let the condition of dissatisfaction melt away so that satisfaction may be watered and bloom, just like emptiness and signlessness.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Wishing you continued peace and wellbeing,

 

Vladimir

 

You are warmly invited to follow on us on Facebook and Instagram at @bluelotuscenter for more ways to improve your mindfulness practice and wellbeing.

Blue Lotus Meditation and Mindfulness Center is a registered 501(c)(3) religious organization.

Website and monthly newsletter: www.bluelotusmeditation.us

For guided meditations and Dharma talks, please visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Mindfulness And Civil Conversations

How often do we see public figures speaking unkindly towards another person or group of people?

This results in suffering for all. 

How often do we see videos where someone is verbally attacking another person?

This too, results in suffering for all.

It seems it’s easy to speak harshly towards another when we view them as less than we are. Maybe they’re African, Asian, Hispanic, Caucasian, Christian, Muslim, atheist, gay, straight, transgendered, conservative, liberal, or socialist. All you know is that they are not ‘you’ and you feel that justifies harsh speech.

Maybe someone made a mistake on your food order. Maybe your package arrived late and damaged. Maybe you had to wait in line too long for a service in your opinion. Perhaps you’re displeased with a grade on an assignment and your teacher is firm in their scoring.

It may even seem justifiable to express yourself harshly when your expectations are not met to your satisfactions. But it’s not. In fact, there never is an appropriate time to speak harsh words towards anyone, ever.

Civility in speech, behavior, and thought is vital to nurturing your wellbeing.

Let’s consider a viral video example: recall a video where you saw a woman speak harshly to someone over a parking space, or a food delivery, or any number of instances. We see the woman loud, perhaps even using profanity, and her hands and arms flailing during this instance. The recipient of her behavior, depending on the location and their position, may be doing their best to remain composed and trying to deescalate the situation. All during this experience someone is filming while others are exposed to harshness.

No one in this situation is experiencing a nurturing environment. The woman is now referred to as a Karen. This perpetuates her suffering. And all others, no matter their level of involvement, experienced a perpetuation of their suffering. 

People who watch the video experience suffering. How? When you laugh at someone’s suffering you are harming your own wellbeing. You are watering the seeds of heartlessness. That is suffering even though you may not realize it.

Now consider, if you please, a public figure that makes wildly speculative and broad statements about any group of people. Perhaps they say that a certain group of people are lazy and don’t want to work. This statement may resonate strongly with this public figures’ supporters, increasing their popularity, but is it true? Of course not.

Degrading a group of people certainly is not civil in and of itself and not only continues suffering within that group but it also waters suffering in the supporters. How so? By allowing a group of people to feel a sense of superiority over another perpetuates that view point of ‘us versus them’. The ‘us versus them’ mindset is divisive. It sets up walls of intolerance. It doesn’t allow for compassion or empathy. It doesn’t allow you to see ‘you’ for ‘you’ nor does it allow ‘you’ to see others as ‘you’. It doesn’t allow you to see beyond yourself.

When we are mindfully aware of our present moment, we know that suffering exists and that we do all we may to help ease suffering for ourselves and for those around us. We are mindful of how we communicate. We are mindful of how we act and present ourselves. We are mindful in what we read. We are mindful in what we watch.

 

Wishing you continued peace and wellbeing,

 

Vladimir

 

You are warmly invited to follow on us on Facebook and Instagram at @bluelotuscenter for more ways to improve your mindfulness practice and wellbeing.

Blue Lotus Meditation and Mindfulness Center is a registered 501(c)(3) religious organization.

Website and monthly newsletter: www.bluelotusmeditation.us

For guided meditations and Dharma talks, please visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Mindfulness For An Overrepresented Yet Underserved Population

When we read stories about mindfulness and meditation we usually hear about how the practice has changed this wonderful persons life in a positive way. These positive stories are very heartwarming and inspirational and most certainly deserving of being shared for all experience. So, please keep them coming.

What I'd like to shift focus on for this posting is that mindfulness is for all, every living being, including the ones we typically overlook. I'm referring to the incarcerated.

The United States leads the world in incarcerated persons with about 2.3 million locked away in prisons and jails. Some for minor infractions, others for major offenses. Most of the incarcerated population consists of men of color. Men of color account for nearly half of the prison population and are imprisoned 4.8 times higher than Caucasians. These statistics were collected from here for you reference.

Too often incarcerated individuals are considered as disposable, less than someone else. After all, they need to repay their 'debt to society'. Maybe. Maybe not. 

Without delving into the myriad reasons resulting in this circumstance there are 2.3 million people in the US that are in need of developing a mindfulness and meditation practice. No one is unworthy. No one is more or less deserving than another.

If you are not familiar with the story of Buddha and Angulimala it will be my pleasure to briefly retell it here.

There lived a robber named Angulimala during Buddhas time. Angulimala lived in the forest and ambushed travelers on the roads and killed them. He never robbed them but he did remove a finger and attached it to a necklace he wore. He had many fingers on this necklace.

Buddha sought him out, unafraid.

Buddha and Angulimala did meet and Angulimala did proceed to try to attack Buddha. Buddha, being who he is, did not retreat but instead shouted 'You, stop!' Angulimala was unable to move upon hearing this command.

Buddha was able to transmit the Dharma to him and Angulimala was then awake. In fact, whenever Buddha talked to anyone, they woke up. Angulimala then repented for his past actions and he asked to be a monk. Buddha shaved his head and accepted him into the sangha immediately.

Here was a man who was so scary in life but yet when approached with nonjudgment, kindness, and compassion he shed his unwholesome ways for one of peace and wholesomeness. This is how we, as mindfulness practitioners, may share and strengthen our practice.

Sharing is a gift. And as with all gift giving there are two recipients, the receiver as well as the giver. When one receives a gift, warm feelings begin to arise. Anger dissipates to be replaced with joy and hopefulness. The giver too feels joy and even a sense of accomplishment. This is a wonderful experience that is shared by both individuals.

So with hearing all of your beautiful stories of self-development if you have the time, as part of your outreach efforts, perhaps you too may share your compassion and empathy with someone that may need it as much as you did. 

 

Wishing you continued peace and wellbeing,

 

Vladimir

 

You are warmly invited to follow on us on Facebook and Instagram at @bluelotuscenter for more ways to improve your mindfulness practice and wellbeing.

Blue Lotus Meditation and Mindfulness Center is a registered 501(c)(3) religious organization.

Website and monthly newsletter: www.bluelotusmeditation.us

For guided meditations and Dharma talks, please visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Mindfulness: A Path Towards Unity

What is a body?

A body is nothing more than some bones, skin, organs, blood, ligaments, viscera, and water. Simply put a body is a collection of living cells performing a specific function in order to serve as a vessel for you to exist in the current state you're in. Although your cells are living they are not conscious and therefore they are not ‘you’. And like all vessels they come in many different shapes, colors, sizes, some with handles, some without. Some are made from clay or porcelain, while others are made from plastic, glass, or maybe perhaps leather. 

Any vessel is nothing more than a container used to transport something or store safely some precious item. The precious item being stored and transported is ‘you’. And although you inhabit a body the body is not you just like tea is not the cup it resides in. The tea simply takes the form of the cup it resides in. When you drink the tea it then takes the form of you.

So why do we judge so many vessels, 8 billion of them in fact, on the superficial exteriors as good or evil, kind or stingy, ugly or attractive, male or female, gay or straight, or any number of skin deep qualities?

Simple, some is biological or evolutionary but the majority of our 'tastes' are taught. We are indoctrinated as what is safe or likable, most being superficial qualities, by where we live. A square jaw and broad shoulders in a male symbolizes safety and security in Western and European culture but maybe not so much in Indian or Asian. In essence it’s tribalism. And tribalism in modern societies is hurtful and damaging to everyone, including towards the ones that are within the tribe.

But when we alter our perspective to what it means to be ‘you’ we embrace a more unified, open, and mindful understanding. We invite in the understanding that whatever emotions you are capable of, others are capable of the same emotions as well. The singular difference being the vessel those emotions are emanating from. A heterosexual couple's love is no different than that of a gay or lesbian couple. When a female from Egypt feels joy that joyfulness is no more or less than that of a Hispanic boy from Costa Rica. And when an African male experiences fear during a traffic stop, that fearfulness is just as real as a Caucasian male soldier in a war.

When we embrace and diligently practice mindfulness although we see these exterior differences, we validate each and every person's life experiences as they relate it to us, we understand that every emotion they have felt, we too have felt.

When we are truthful with ourselves that we do not like to experience feelings of fear, inadequacy, uncertainty, pain, disappointment, anxiety, separation, irrelevance, disenfranchisement, how can we inflict these conditions on others. That goes back to tribalism.

To begin ending tribalism, harmful divisive thoughts, and violent actions, we simply return home, to our breath.

We may begin with an in breath - I see the pain that my brothers and sisters have experienced.

And with an out breath - I walk with compassion and unity with all living beings as we are all brothers and sisters.

Wishing you continued peace and wellbeing,

Vladimir

You are warmly invited to follow on us on Facebook and Instagram at @bluelotuscenter for more ways to improve your mindfulness practice and wellbeing.

Blue Lotus Meditation and Mindfulness Center is a registered 501(c)(3) religious organization.

Website and monthly newsletter: www.bluelotusmeditation.us

For guided meditations and Dharma talks, please visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Behaviors That Are Mindfully Unskillful

Oftentimes during our day we seem to navigate on 'autopilot'. Going through the motions of what has been our routine day in and day for years and even decades. These routines or behaviors, which we often overlook, are opportune actions to engage and strengthen our mindfulness practice.

I have selected some of the more common daily activities I think we all experience at some point and am warmly sharing with you how you may turn your innocuous habits into ones that may be transformed into times of mindful awareness.

Cooking

Cooking may truly be an experience filled with sensations, smells, textures, and tases that are commonly overlooked. I know that by the end of your workday you may not want to do a lot of meal preparations. Perhaps not much more than slicing a few peppers or onions for spaghetti sauce is all the energy you're able to muster. Peppers and onions are more than enough to include in a mindfulness practice. Each pepper came from someplace, has it's own color that is slightly different than another, texture or crispness may easily vary slightly too. Onions, red, white, or yellow also have their own characteristics. When you slice into their layers does the aroma smell sharp and make your eyes water? Is one species more flavorful than another? Do you sauté them in olive oil along with the peppers before incorporating them into the sauce?

Driving

When was the last time you truly 'felt the road'. After all that's what the automobile commercials sell to you, an experience worth experiencing. Your driving experience begins as soon as you open your car door. Is the handle cold or hot? When you sit are you sitting on an old fashioned bench seat or are you cradled in a bucket seat? How does your vehicle smell? Is it neat and tidy inside or is there trash all over? As you drive is the radio on and you're absorbed in the music or talk radio? Or are you truly paying attention to the minute vibrations in the steering wheel as you drive towards your destination. Are you lost in thought about yesterday or what you're expecting to experience once you arrive at your destination?

Shopping

We all need to purchase items for nutritional, comfort, health, and safety and even entertainment at times. But what is your shopping experience like? Do you 'grab and go'? Do you buy what you'll use in the near future or to have 'just in case'. Maybe you wander up and down each aisle not looking for anything particular but allowing advertisers to subliminally catch your attention with their skillful packaging designs. Or maybe you carefully plan your trip, preparing a list of items you need and generally adhering to the list. Do you shop just to pass the time away either online or in-store? We all work hard for our money so why should we not be more discerning in how we part with our earnings. Select fresh fruits and vegetables according to each variety, but in doing so only purchase enough for one week. Buying too little, and you may run back to the store. Buying too much and you risk spoilage. When buying clothing, buy seasonally appropriate items that are replacements for something you have parted with or are willing to part with upon your return home. Remember higher prices or brand names do not equate to superior quality. When we bring awareness to each and every item we allow ourselves to live in that moment. 

Avoiding Painful Situations

The first Noble Truth states there is suffering in this world, but as humans we do our best to avoid situations involving hurting others, situations where the likely outcome is not in our favor, or those that challenge our personal beliefs. It is understandable that we all desire an easy life but it is impossible to avoid suffering. When we avoid something we are not skillful at, not only human interactions, we remain unskillful at it, we remain in an undeveloped condition. When we remain unskillful at addressing painful or hard circumstances we in fact perpetuate our own suffering as well as perpetuate or even increase the suffering of others. Whereas when we mature communication skills, suffering eases. We never purposefully decide to hurt an individual or group so we always approach painful situations with love and compassion for others as well as ourselves. We utilize Right Speech, Right Thought, and Right Action. 

Talking

The purpose of talking is to relay information, thoughts, ideas, and feelings from one person to another. We all have the desire to be seen and heard. But do you listen to respond or listen to understand? The same desire that you have, to be acknowledged, the other has that same desire as well. Your view point or statement is no less or no more valid than another's view point. When we speak to respond we have closed our mind to what another is thinking or feeling. We are saying, to ourselves, that they are wrong and we are right. We have closed our ears, openness, and awareness to another their being, even if only momentarily.

Social Media

It seems as if we've lost the ability to be comfortable with ourselves in silence without some form of stimulus. We may be sitting in a doctors office, waiting in traffic, waiting to meet someone, or even simply sitting at home on the couch. We're always looking for a distraction to take us somewhere anywhere but where we presently are. Scrolling mindlessly down your social media feed to look for the latest news that has zero affect (and effect) on your life, the latest clothing style that you'd never wear, conversations that are initiated or moderated by an AI algorithm promoting divisiveness, or even recipes that you have no intention of ever making. Social media does have its place. It truly is a wonderful application to help promote true, heartfelt, and meaningful connections if used with mindful awareness. But most use it as a form of escapism much like someone with depression may use drugs or alcohol to numb their pain.

Wishing Away Time

'Ugh, I can't wait for this meeting to be over' or 'If I had only done this yesterday'. How many times have you made a statement like this at one time or another. Statements like this minimize the value of the current experience, in fact it's judgmental. You're reinforcing the notion that the time you're currently in is less valuable than one in the future or past. The future is always unformed and therefor will always hold no value. You cannot not hold a loved one in the future, but you can in the present moment if they are with you. You may never relive a past moment. The same water will never flow under the same bridge again. The idea of wishing time away takes us out of the present moment and into times that no longer exist. This creates suffering because we are attaching an expectation to a moment that has passed or is unformed. This moment, the present moment, right now, is the most valuable.

Wishing you continued peace and wellbeing,

Vladimir

You are warmly invited to follow on us on Facebook and Instagram at @bluelotuscenter for more ways to improve your mindfulness practice and wellbeing.

Blue Lotus Meditation and Mindfulness Center is a registered 501(c)(3) religious organization.

Website and monthly newsletter: www.bluelotusmeditation.us

For guided meditations and Dharma talks, please visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Back To The Present: Living With Mindful Awareness Today

How often do you find yourself revisiting the past regardless of whether it was a good event or one of suffering? 'If I would have only...' statements are a common preamble to such reimaginations.

How often do you fast forward your life, waiting for the present moment to end for a time that you anticipate will be filled with ease and joy. 'When I earn my college degree my life will be easier', are common conclusory statements as well. 

Holding grudges is living in the past. Continually judging someone from an action they did many years ago is living in the past. Thinking and longing for the past, well...is living on the past. And living in the past robs us of the precious jewel we have today. 

Trying to read someone's thoughts or mindset is living on the future. Anticipation or dread is living in the future. Wishing that an experience is over is living in the future as well. It is living in the future in the sense that we are expecting that some future moment will be better than the present one you are currently in. 

Many of us, including myself, enjoy a good sci-fi time travel movie. They offer us a nostalgic view of when we were younger or perhaps of a future time when the problems of society have been eradicated. Yes, I'm still waiting patiently for either a hoverboard or flying car.

But imagine continuously judging every current situation under the lens of a distant past. A past that will never, under any circumstance, present itself again. Or imagine judging an old high school classmate, friend or otherwise, as they were from when they were only 16 or 17 years old? Are you still the same person from that age? Probably not. These examples are not two isolated circumstances, they are intrinsically intertwined. Mindset such as these limit us from experiencing the moment or person as it truly is. We are busy making the situation fit our narrative. We have allowed an idea, concept, or notion, to rob us of the present moment.

Conversely, when we try to 'figure out' what someone else is thinking our minds are consistently active in trying to stay one step ahead. In doing so our minds are playing out so many potential scenarios that most likely will never even manifest. For example, recall a hard conversation you were about to partake in. Did you explore several 'hypothetical' outcomes? How many paths did you walk down? 'If I say this' their response 'could be'. This is a fine example of living in the future and for what purpose? Did the conversation unfold as expected? How much time did you spend in preparation that could have been spent mindfully elsewhere? But more importantly we aren't listening to understand, we are listening to respond. Listening to respond is living in the future and results in a disservice to both parties.

Regardless of whether or not the sci-fi version of time travel isn't important to our daily lives, many of us are already living in the past or the future robbing us of the time we already exist in. We rob ourselves of the true joy of being with ourselves at the expense of a past that will never happen again or a future that will always be unpredictable.

So let's all get back to the present moment...no flux capacitor needed. 

Wishing you continued peace and wellbeing,

Vladimir

You are warmly invited to follow on us on Facebook and Instagram at @bluelotuscenter for more ways to improve your mindfulness practice and wellbeing.

Blue Lotus Meditation and Mindfulness Center is a registered 501(c)(3) religious organization.

Website and monthly newsletter: www.bluelotusmeditation.us

For guided meditations and Dharma talks, please visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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What I Think About You: A Mindfulness View Of Self And Others

You may have heard a saying something to the effect that when we judge someone that is a quality within ourselves we do not like or covet. Something akin to looking at ourselves in a mirror and finding flaws. For instance, if you see someone you feel is overweight maybe you assume something about their lifestyle. 

You may describe them with words like, lazy, sloppy, unmotivated, or gluttonous. But you yourself haven't been to a gym or exercised in years. Maybe you have a health condition that precludes you from doing so...maybe they do as well. You judged someone knowing nothing about them. 

Do you find yourself condemning a particular persons (celebrity or other) action whom you personally do not even know? Maybe they wore an outfit that made a headline and you made a judgment about that style or a recent role they played in a movie. Maybe your coworker ate a little too much at the company's annual potluck lunch and you made a comment under your breath about portion size.

Consider this, if you are joyful that you are alive, that you are capable of walking this Earth, doing good for other, then how do you have the mindset to judge others? When we see that celebrity wearing an expensive dress or suit be joyful for them. They worked hard, just like you do. And even though their circumstance is not like yours they are deserving of the same joyful emotions that you seek.

When an individual or group of people are the beneficiaries of a windfall that at one time you might have been a part of be joyful that someone has had their burdened eased. Jealousy, envy, the 'what about me' statements are poisons that destroy wellbeing. 

These examples, and many more, are judgments of not someone else, but of ourselves and reflect the suffering we are experiencing.

So how may you start to minimize and then ultimately stop judging? We simply start small.

You don't like her lipstick? They're not your lips so it's not an issue for you.

His belt is on the last hole? Maybe the belt has was a gift from a loved one who passed.

This person has a face tattoo or piercings. They are working hard to provide for their, or family members, daily care just like you.

As you catch yourself in these small situations the practice naturally migrates towards larger examples, like a co-worker get the promotion you felt should have been yours.

As mindfulness practitioners we engage in non-judgmental awareness, ‘this is this and that is that’. It is neither good nor bad, neither desirable nor undesirable. It simply is. By adopting this mindset, we allow ourselves to truly experience freedom and liberation from hurting ourselves and others. We reduce the suffering in the world.

When you allow openness into your mind and heart you no longer have room for judgment. Instead, that space has now been filled with the joyfulness and compassion for others...and us.

Wishing you continued peace and wellbeing,

Vladimir

You are warmly invited to follow on us on Facebook and Instagram at @bluelotuscenter for more ways to improve your mindfulness practice and wellbeing.

Blue Lotus Meditation and Mindfulness Center is a registered 501(c)(3) religious organization.

Website and monthly newsletter: www.bluelotusmeditation.us

For guided meditations and Dharma talks, please visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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