Currently Sogyal Rinpoche is conducting a retreat in Amsterdam called "How to be Happy." We started yesterday with a very powerful teaching that seamlessly blended integration instructions with a deep teaching on meditation. What struck me in particular was how Rinpoche taught on how we can work without stress. We can work hard, yet we have to not create stress. And when do we create stress? Rinpoche mentioned two ways: one is when you bang your head against the wall, you keep forcing yourself to go on when your at a dead end. Sometimes it is then better to take a short break, so you'll feel better, and often in that break you'll see a new solution.

Can empathy and compassion meditation help reduce stress? This was the focus of a study published last year by researchers at Emory University in the US.
Sixty-one healthy students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group participated in six weeks of twice-weekly classroom training in a secular compassion meditation while the other group (the control group) spent a similar amount of time in health discussions.

When was the last time you missed a turnoff, misplaced your cell phone, lost your car keys or overlooked an important detail at work?

If you counted the number of times these small errors of mindlessness occur in a single day, you might be taken aback.  In fact, a great deal of time, energy, and money can be lost through these simple mishaps of mis-attention.

Mindfulness is not just an esoteric practice for monks ensconced in Himalayan caves.  It actually has a very powerful and practical application at work and in daily life.  It can increase your effectiveness and productivity, bring more presence into your interactions, and foster more joy in your family life.

This site crossed a milestone today.

The spiritual teachings tell us that meditation can help us find true happiness. It is a small hobby of mine to collect quotes and post them on my twitter account!  So here are my favorite quotes on happiness:

Three yogis are meditating in a cave...

Is compassion contagious?

To my mind, some of the most convincing evidence that meditation has a serious impact on one's functioning is how serious long-term practitioners deal with pain. One example is a story relayed by Matthieu Ricard of a lama who was tortured by the Chinese for many years, and when after his release the Dalai Lama asked him what he was most afraid of, he said it was of losing his compassion for his torturers. Similarly, Garchen Rinpoche, during his visit to Lerab Ling said that he did not suffer at all during his time in prison camp. Clearly they have a different way of dealing with pain than we do. 

Here is Lynda from down-under back again...

Death comes to us all

I was reminded of that death comes to us all in the last couple of weeks. My good friend, a Tibetan lama, told us of the death of his younger brother in Tibet. I knew his brother and had spent many days with him. Then my father-in-law’s younger sister died, both of them from lung problems. And then, a few days later, my very dear cat died in her sleep. The next day, my sister told me my nephew’s 18 year old best friend had killed himself while on suicide watch in hospital. As soon as I got back to work in the New Year, I heard a man I work with had fallen down a cliff and also died.

I was born and raised in Bavaria. Yes, I know, everybody around the world who´s ever heard of that place, now thinks of Sauerkraut, Beer, Oktoberfest. (If you did think of something else, you are probably also Bavarian.) In fact, that´s all true. It´s also true that it´s a really wonderful part of Germany with huge mountains and romantic hills, lots of lakes and rivers, and in some ways I miss it. And it´s also very Roman-Catholic, nowadays, and definitely when I lived there.  That´s why  my spiritual path began as a pioneer in “What a Roman Catholic mass really can be”.