mindfulnessasia1 3Speak Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Listen and watch the latest videos from mindfulnessasia1. Hosted by 3Speak.tv. The free speech video platform on the HIVE blockchain.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/dbfuambw
Do not try to control or stop any thoughts. Instead let the mind think about anything. Now as a detached observer or witness observe your mind and its everchanging contents. As you observe your mind as a completely disinterested viewer, just say to yourself “I am the silent witness, I make no effort to think. But thoughts come automatically. I am watching thoughts flow through my mind, but I am aloof from them. I am the silent witness to my mind’s activities.
Now imagine that you are sitting beside a stream. Observe the water flow by. See how thoughts flow through your mind just like sticks and leaves float down the river as you watch from the riverbank. The stream may be very clear or it may very polluted. Similar, the stream of mind stuff may be very clear, or it may be very polluted. But you are not the stream or the sticks or leaves flowing in the stream. You are the detached observer sitting peacefully on the riverbank. Just observe any sensations, thoughts, desires, fears, plans, emotions etc. as they bubble up to the surface of your mind and then disappear. Remember, don’t hold onto or judge any particular thought or emotion. If you find yourself holding onto a particular thought or emotion, then consciously let it go. Just remain a detached observer of the mind and its everchanging contents.
It is extremely liberating to realize that you are not your mind. The mind is the sitting place for an endless number of desires, demands, thoughts, emotions, images, speculations and so on. When you identify with your mind, you get pushed, pulled and affected in various ways by the mind’s constant and everchanging contents. This could be demands, plans, emotions, desires, images etc. When this happens, you are like a person who is helplessly getting swept downstream by very strong currents of a swiftly moving river. You do not have to react to what is entering the stream of your mind. If I jump into a raging river, I will lose control over where I am going. Similarly, if I act upon strong emotions that are appearing in my mind, then I will almost surely lose control over what I am going to do or say.
As long as you identify yourself with your mind or the contents of your mind, you can never be at peace. But if you understand that you, the self, are not your mind or its contents, then you can be an unaffected perceiver and observer of the mind’s contents, including its demands, plans, emotions, desires etc.
When you remain a witness of your mind’s activities, then you will not be swept away by the mind’s strong currents.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/awsplzuh
Because we are eternal living beings, we are looking for a source of happiness that will last and will stay with us. Everyone knows the saying “And they lived happily ever after.” To be happy eternally is a spiritual longing that we all have inside ourselves so we are very attracted by this saying. However, in this material world we cannot fulfill this spiritual longing. No one can live happily ever after here because everything comes to an end sooner or later. But the fact that we do have this very strong longing for eternal love and happiness proves that this must exist somewhere.
Our natural condition is to experience spiritual happiness and to be satisfied within. This is why it feels completely unnatural and wrong for us to be unhappy or depressed. We automatically try to get away from suffering, but we don’t really know how to get back to our natural condition. We are always yearning for happiness and spiritual love. We don’t only crave it, we need it.
Yet how can we again come to the condition where we experience an inner happiness that will be there even during the ups and downs that we will encounter while we are in this temporary world?
When we talk about happiness this is a completely different condition than experiencing pleasure from the senses. Pleasure from the physical senses and the mind is a material experience that has a beginning and an end and which does not really touch or satisfy me, the spiritual being. Therefore, I could have endless sensual pleasure and stimulation, but still feel empty and depressed inside afterwards. Happiness is actually a spiritual condition where I, the eternal living being, feel spiritual love and blissfulness. This type of spiritual experience is in harmony with our eternal nature.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/kmefnagg
In our last video we made the proposition that using little to no control over our mind and following all of its desires, urges and proposals has not resulted in making people happier. Instead what we have been seeing in recent decades is a significant increase in anxiety, unhappiness, depression and suicide, especially in younger people.
In order to go along with the experiment of endless consumption of material things and experiences, people had to compromise values that they held dear for centuries such as modesty and caring for others. Instead we have been encouraged to become more and more self-centered. We are encouraged to harden our hearts, to not see those who are in need. We are being told that this is ok as long as you get what you wanted. In order to get ahead materially, we had to adopt new values of greed, envy and lust. Why have we been warned for thousands of years that developing a greedy mentality is harmful? Because greed fosters an attitude of always wanting more and more, never being satisfied. This will ultimately lead to anger and frustration.
Living a self-centered life where we basically only care about ourselves and not about others is a dead end street. It can never produce happiness. There is truth in the saying “Giving is better than taking”. Why is this? Because to give and to share is in harmony with our real spiritual nature. Our spiritual nature is to love others as much as we love ourselves. When a person experiences real spiritual love, they are completely happy and don’t need to take anything from others. Rather they are very eager to want to give and help others.
When we go against our spiritual nature, this is the original root cause of all the problems that we experience in this world. Society overall has been promoting the purpose of life being one of becoming increasingly self-centered, hedonistic and not caring much about others in the process. Many younger people especially when they hear this message, they feel that something is not quite right, that something must be missing. They often become social outfits or rebels because they are unhappy with what the mainstream society is offering to them. When one does not have a purpose of life that renders meaning to one’s existence, this will leave a big hole in one’s life.
People in this world are trying to cover up their anxiety, unhappiness and depression in many different ways. Some will take drugs, both legal and illegal, while others just stay busy with endless stimulation of the mind and the senses. But underneath of this is a sea of unhappiness and depression. In 2018 leading health insurance companies Blue Cross and Blue Shield looked at medical health insurance claims from 41 million insurance holders and determined that major depression is on the rise among Americans from all age groups, but is rising fastest among teens and young adults. Regarding suicide statistics there are many studies in recent years who show increases anywhere from 20-50% over the last 10 to 20 years. According to the American Psychological Association, suicide was the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States in 2016. It was the second-leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 34 and the fourth-leading cause among people ages 35 to 54.
We hope that our mindfulness videos do not make you depressed! Rather we will be focusing on the solutions to the problems of life in our future videos. In our next video we will be looking at what our natural condition is and how we can get back on track.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/ayibmwrt
In our last video we were talking about the need for a person to become more aware how the mind works and suggested that one should not blindly follow all the demands and desires that arise in the mind.
In the last few decades society has been very strongly promoting this idea that people should not have any restraints and just follow any desire or idea that comes up in their mind. Why are others so eager to tell us what we should do? Is this for our benefit? Or is someone else benefitting when we cannot control our mind and desires?
For many thousands of years people lived in a very different way where life for the very large majority was very simple. They did not travel long distances nor were they shopping often or using many services. After World War I, corporations considered how they can overcome the threat of overproduction. They developed a manipulative psychological strategy. Paul Mazur of Lehman Brothers stated,
"We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old had been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man's desires must overshadow his needs."
This conspiracy, enabled by new sophistication in advertising and supported by the government, was shockingly effective. Within a few short decades and with the help of credit being given to almost all adults, consumerism had taken over America. This new consumerism had completely replaced the old mentality of saving money before one would buy something new.
Many people would argue that having so many choices of products to buy and things to experience is certainly better than how life used to be before, isn’t it? It certainly is more stimulating. But have people really become happier?
For thousands of years society looked upon the qualities of greed and envy as something very undesirable. But with the rise of advertising in the 20th century, people were increasingly encouraged to want more and more, to become greedy and to desire what other people have. When we look at what tends to happen to most people is that they are never satisfied even when they get what they desired. Instead they always want more and more. It is never enough.
The advertising industry knew one thing very well, and that is that people felt some inner emptiness, that something was missing in their lives. This is why they always promise to fill this emptiness with their products and services. Some commercials very blatantly make such promises, e.g., Coca Cola promising “Coke is it!” Coke is what? They imply that Coke is what you are looking for.
We even feel that it is my desire to buy this new car. When in fact yesterday I did not have this desire, and if I had not seen this TV commercial, then surely this desire would not have arisen in my mind. So it becomes clear that many desires that pop up in my mind are actually not really my desires. Rather we are being moved around like puppets. We are not very much aware of how much others influence us in our daily lives, and it is usually not for the better.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/rpqjsyjb
The next question that we want to consider is “Am I the mind?” This question is arguably even more important than “Am I the body?” because we have a tendency to live in our mind and to identify very closely with the content in our mind. The mind and the emotions arising from the mind can cause us great problems. An out of control mind is the cause of so many mental health issues. We will spend a few videos to better understand the nature of the mind because this will be the foundation to the solution that we would like to share with you.
So the first thing to consider is that the mind is not the brain. The mind is closely connected with the brain, but it is a separate subtle body that I am wearing. There was a well-documented case of a person having a brain surgery and being drugged out. The surgeons were absolutely sure that this person’s brain was not functional during the operation and were having a conversation with each other during the surgery. When the person came back to external awareness after the operation, he was informing the surgeons that he could hear their conversation. The surgeons were astonished as they didn’t consider this possible before. This suggests that the mind can function outside and separate from the brain.
The mind is considered a memory bank where all the experiences are stored that we had with our external senses. Everything that we saw, that we heard, that we tasted, that we smelled and that we touched is recorded in the mind. Sometimes we notice that the mind, without our direction, is playing back an experience from a long time ago. Other times we might be searching the memory bank of our mind to remember something that happened a while ago. The mind travels with the living being from one body to the next. This is why it is possible for a person to have memories from a previous life.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/oadefzwa
For many centuries we can observe that the language that has been used to describe the experience of death is how people viewed the identity of a person. Typically, those who had some spiritual or religious connection would refer to the event of death as “The person has passed away or has passed on, or “The person left and went somewhere else, perhaps to be with God.” Such kind of references imply that there is a continuum of personhood and existence beyond the duration of this current body.
On the other end is a different worldview that has become very popular in the last 150 years, and that has been promoted by some leading scientists. It is the idea that all we are is chemicals and that chemicals somehow combined to create life. That the person’s presence does not bring life to the body, but rather life somehow mysteriously came from somewhere else. And that when the body dies and does not show any symptoms of life anymore, I also am finished. In fact, they suggest that we will never exist again. But it was our natural condition to cease existing, then why do we struggle so much with death? Why does it feel completely unnatural to us to not exist?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/ginyrgsp
Generally speaking, one can observe that most people are living their lives as if this is the only life they have. Most have adopted the worldview that we are material beings and pursue material things and experiences. If we indeed only exist temporarily and everything is finished at the death of this current body that we have, then it would make sense that we pursue short-term goals because we don’t have that much time to achieve longer term goals. But if we continue to exist in some form after the current body dies, this would dramatically change the reality of our existence. Rather than this current life being everything, it would just be a tiny chapter in a very long and perhaps eternal existence.
If I do exist beyond this current experience, this gives rise to many questions; Do I really want to spend all my time and energy to achieve things which I will not be able to take with me when this body ends? Does it make sense to place all of my focus on temporary and passing goals and experiences?
If I do exist eternally, is there an eternal function and purpose that is different from what I am doing now? And if there is an eternal function for all living beings, is there something that we can do now to move towards being more in harmony with our eternal function?
These are questions which many of us probably don’t spend much time thinking about. Yet, for us to have more fulfillment and happiness in our lives, it is very important that we clearly understand our identity. This understanding can then serve as a foundation that we can stand on when we consider which goals will be worthy and beneficial to pursue.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/xrovbgph
Many people are subconsciously afraid to become more mindful and consider the purpose of life because they may not know if there is a worthy purpose. Some might argue that there really is no deeper purpose or meaning of life and that what we are experiencing now is everything. But we cannot agree with such a pessimistic view. In the ancient context of meditation, being mindful means that a person becomes more thoughtful and considers what do I want to achieve in this lifetime.
Do we ever pause to consider what we want to be the goal of our life? Not what someone else expects us to do with our life. But rather what is really a worthy goal that adds meaning and greater value to my existence? There is an unspoken expectation of society and most people around us that we should pursue what most others around us are doing. We look at others and see how they spend their time and energy. Especially with children we can see that they look around for guidance from others and often just do what others do without understanding if it is good for them or not.
So, if I want to progress in a desirable direction in life, it is absolutely crucial that I embark on a journey of self discovery. Who am I really? And how should I be relating to others around me and the world?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/xrefnfac
We will first be looking at the challenges and obstacles that we face living in this modern age and that we face in our quest to lead a more mindful life. A bit later we can see how we can add Mindfulness practices to our daily lives.
First, I want to talk about the importance of becoming more introspective and finding time by oneself. It can be challenging to find quiet time by myself when I can be calm and introspective. Many people these days almost constantly watch their phones, computers and TVs and keep their mind occupied that way. Thus, we are being bombarded with what is commonly called information overload. This has a tendency to keep the mind in an agitated state. If we want to have a more mindful life, we will need to become more aware of what we expose ourselves to. And we need to be aware of how I am being affected by what I expose myself to.
For example, the type of music I listen to has a profound influence on how I am feeling afterwards. Different people prefer different types of music, but we have all experienced how some type of loud music that we don’t like has caused us irritation. There have been tests performed how some plants wither away when they were placed next to loud heavy metal music. At the same time, they flourushed when some relaxing music was played. Similarly, we make choices who we want to spend time with, what we see and read, what we eat and drink, etc. All of these choices can have a significant impact on whether we experience peace and happiness in our lives or if we feel unfulfilled and disturbed. Being introspective is an important part of mindfulness. It is like taking your temperature to see how your health is. If we are introspective, there is a better chance that we can be in touch with ourselves and notice when something does not feel right.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mindfulnessasia1/tjmxwypb
Mindfulness has become a popular buzzword in recent years. We want to take a close look at what real mindfulness is and how being mindful can help a person lead a more fulfilling life. Some of you probably haven’t heard the term mindfulness until recently and might wonder if it is a new practice. But Mindfulness has actually been around for thousands of years as it is an important component of meditation.
Now let us take a look at the definition of Mindfulness that we can read in Wikipedia, “Mindfulness is the psychological process of purposely bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment, which one can develop through the practice of meditation and through other training.”
It is definitely important that we put our attention and care on what we are doing in the moment. We have all seen that the outcome is not very good when we are doing something in an absent-minded fashion. Yet we want to suggest that just living in the moment is not enough and want to offer an expanded definition for mindfulness. “Mindfulness is being aware of how one’s current choices and actions can help a person move towards a more fulfilling and happy life. Being mindful also includes considering how my choices and actions affect other living beings and the world around us.” So, we can be aware of whatever experiences are happening in any passing moment. But true mindfulness actually includes me taking charge of my future and making choices and performing actions with the intent of creating a good outcome for all involved.