Sylvia Boorstein's (2013) little book Making Friends with the Present Moment is full of sweet insightful thoughts. In her discussion of the Buddha's reputed final words, "Transient are all conditioned things. Strive on with diligence." Boorstein muses about those two sentences:
Things pass. ... however painful this moment is, it will change. ... Things happen and, as a result, other things happen. We need the understanding of impermanence. And we need the understanding of contingency, of interconnection, that things happen because other things happen. ...
... and ...
... what we do makes a difference. We're not individually in charge of the world. We don't run the world. But what each of us does makes a difference. This doesn’t contradict contingency. ...
Boorstein talks about wisdom:
Wisdom is really the goal of practice. Mindfulness is the tool to arrive at wisdom. It's the clarity of mind that allows for wisdom to arise. The Buddha taught that there are three essential insights that constitute the whole of wisdom: the insight of impermanence; the insight of contingency or interconnection; and the insight of suffering and how it arises or disappears depending upon the ability of the mind to accommodate change, and change, and change.
We practice mindfulness in order to, over and over again, see those same insights. It isn't a one-time deal to understand the insights of impermanence, contingency, the causes of suffering, and the end of suffering. It's not as if you understand them and then you're set for life. ... We need the continual practice of mindfulness—being aware of what's happening now, what’s going on—to remind us.
and about different forms of meditation:
... walking meditation is equally potent as a path to insight as sitting is. Each is a posture in which the practice is to have the attention rest steadily with the experience at hand. In both cases the experience involves simplicity—it is just plain sitting and just plain walking. Both have a repetitive rhythmic quality. Breathe in and out. Take one step, then another. The plainness of both of them calms the mind. The constant predictable changes keep the attention steadily focused. Keen, balanced attention allows the mind to see things in new ways. Insights about how the mind operates as well as how life operates are both born out of that calm alertness.
At a typical mindfulness retreat, periods of sitting meditation alternate with periods of walking meditation throughout the day. It seems that sitting has the tendency to deepen concentration since there are fewer stimuli for the mind to process. And walking keeps the attention from becoming drowsy because there are more stimuli present—we need to walk with the eyes open and all the body moving.
She summarizes metta, the meditative practice of lovingkindness:
The technique and practice of loving kindness, in the largest sense, is to wish all beings well as you go about the day, as you meet them on the bus, as you see them on the plane, as you see them in the supermarket, as you encounter them in line. The practice of continual wishing well rescues the mind from falling in on itself in self-concerns. It pulls you out of a well of despair, disgruntlement, unhappiness, or fearfulness and connects you in a warm way with what’s happening out there.
and says that peace is possible:
... Each of us knows that at some point in our lives there have been times—short or long—in which everything was really okay, just the way it was. Peace is possible. That doesn’t mean we won't have loss or difficulties. But we can learn to be with them in a different way.
... such a beautiful collection of gentle, helpful ideas!
(cf It's Easier Than You Think (2011-04-07), Quiet in There (2011-05-31), Verbs, Not Nouns (2011-06-29), SHIP of Lovingkindness (2015-08-15), Unconditional Friendliness (2018-08-10), ...) - ^z - 2023-08-19