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Brew Monkey
Big Wall climber
Bend Oregon
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Apr 18, 2008 - 12:12pm PT
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Beer, Bolts, and Babes! Classic!!!!!!!
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Dick_Lugar
Trad climber
Indiana
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Apr 18, 2008 - 12:58pm PT
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Way to go Jrenee...now all the Hari Krishnas will be flocking to the climbs, enjoy it while it lasts people!
BTW, the "Power of Now" sounds like another recycled version of Zen. Whose becoming a millionaire now selling this to gullible 'murcan's?
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Apr 18, 2008 - 03:03pm PT
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What a bunch of western wanna-be buddhist garbage. Of course you need to live in the now, it's called focus and concentration. You also need to learn from the past so that you can create a future that suits you. You don't, or shouldn't, need a book to tell you that at this stage of your life.
Self awareness...paaalease!
Gordon's got it right though - Beer, Bolts, and Babies, err I mean Babes. (After a certain point in you life the Babes part turns into Babies though, just ask Todd).
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jstan
climber
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Apr 18, 2008 - 03:07pm PT
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You all do realize jrenee is working for a market research corporation?
Just checking.
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Dick_Lugar
Trad climber
Indiana
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Apr 18, 2008 - 03:31pm PT
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I hope her MR company didn't shell out any money to have someone tell them this? They could've gotten that info for free here on ST...wait a minute...this is an attempt at free research isn't it? Mums the word everybody!!!..unless we get an equal % of jrenee's cut!
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FinnMaCoul
Trad climber
Green Mountains, Vermont
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Apr 18, 2008 - 03:42pm PT
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I like to get high.
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Uncle Salty
Ice climber
Fun Diego, CA
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Apr 18, 2008 - 03:51pm PT
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Be Here Now! EST! The Power of Now! A lot of unhappy people out there wishing for a magic cure to their angst. Gotta figure out how to tap into this...
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divad
Trad climber
wmass
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Apr 18, 2008 - 04:42pm PT
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I get to play with my nuts and nobody gets offended.
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Lost Arrow
Trad climber
The North Ridge of the San Fernando
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Apr 18, 2008 - 10:26pm PT
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Only the now exists, so how can you not be in the now.
Its not difficult to be mindfull. I spent a lot of time yesterday just watching a Ladybug climb from blade of grass to blade of grass.
It could be the Morphine?
Juan
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Apr 18, 2008 - 10:33pm PT
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"If it's not now, like, who cares?"
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Apr 18, 2008 - 11:14pm PT
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If its not now,
It's yesterday's news
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Dick_Lugar
Trad climber
Indiana
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Apr 18, 2008 - 11:50pm PT
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You now though, as soon as you are aware of or are in the "now", it's now the "PAST"?! It's impossible to be in the "Now". Think about that...as soon as you consciously try to be in the now and say "ok, I am now in the "now", a nanosecond passes before you make the mental acknowledgement, therefore, it is now the past, not the "now".
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Apr 19, 2008 - 12:08am PT
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Power of Now is a great book. To diss it without reading it just shows intellectual bigotry.
The more you know people, the more you know most aren't really happy. Really being in the moment is more rare than the lip service paid to it. Folks who dismiss the angst of others without compassion aren't likely to be "in the moment" when they do so.
Spiritual stuff makes some folks uncomfortable. Anybody care to take a stab at why? Don't just say something off the top of your head, feel the discomfort and tell me where it comes from.
Peace
Karl
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WBraun
climber
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Apr 19, 2008 - 12:15am PT
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Well then?
What is the sum substance of this so called "Now"?
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Dick_Lugar
Trad climber
Indiana
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Apr 19, 2008 - 09:49am PT
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Joseph Campbell said basically the same thing as Eckhart does about extreme sports and being in the moment, but he used fighting in a war and realizing death could happen at any time as his vehicle of explaining this similar level of consciousness. In other words, soldiers never felt more "alive" or "in the moment" when surrounded by death.
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Lost Arrow
Trad climber
The North Ridge of the San Fernando
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Apr 19, 2008 - 11:03am PT
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The Basics of Buddhist Meditation
Dr. C. George Boeree
Shippensburg University
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Buddhism began by encouraging its practitioners to engage in smrti (sati) or mindfulness, that is, developing a full consciousness of all about you and within you -- whether seated in a special posture, or simply going about one’s life. This is the kind of meditation that Buddha himself engaged in under the bodhi tree, and is referred to in the seventh step of the eightfold path.
Soon, Buddhist monks expanded and formalized their understanding of meditation. The bases for all meditation, as it was understood even in the earliest years of Buddhism, are shamatha and vipashyana.
Shamatha is often translated as calm abiding or peacefulness. It is the development of tranquility that is a prerequisite to any further development. Vipashyana is clear seeing or special insight, and involves intuitive cognition of suffering, impermanence, and egolessness.
Only after these forms were perfected does one go on to the more heavy-duty kinds of meditation. Samadhi is concentration or one-pointed meditation. It involves intense focusing of consciousness.
Samadhi brings about the four dhyanas, meaning absorptions. Buddha refers to samadhi and the dhyanas in the eighth step of the eightfold path, and again at his death. Dhyana is rendered as Jhana in Pali, Ch’an in Chinese, Son in Korean, and Zen in Japanese, and has, in those cultures, become synonymous with meditation as a whole.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basic Meditation
The most basic form of meditation involves attending to one's breath.
Begin by sitting in a simple chair, keeping your back erect if you can. The more traditional postures are the lotus position, sitting on a pillow with each foot upon the opposite thigh, and variations such as the half lotus (one foot on the opposite thigh, the other out in front of the opposite knee). This is difficult for many people. Some people kneel, sitting back on their legs or on a pillow between their legs. Many use a meditation bench: kneel, then place a little bench beneath your behind. But meditation is also done while standing, slowly walking, lying on the floor, or even in a recliner!
Traditionally, the hands are placed loosely, palms up, one on top of the other, and with the thumbs lightly touching. This is called the cosmic mudra, one of a large number of symbolic hand positions. You may prefer to lay them flat on your thighs, or any other way that you find comfortable.
Your head should be upright, but not rigid. The eyes may be closed, or focussed on a spot on the ground a couple of feet ahead of you, or looking down at your hands. If you find yourself getting sleepy, keep your eyes open!
Beginning meditators are often asked to count their breath, on the exhale, up to ten. Then you begin back at one. If you loose track, simply go back to one. Your breath should be slow and regular, but not forced or artificially controlled. Just breathe naturally and count.
A few weeks later, you may forego the counting and try to simply follow your breath. Concentrate on it entering you and exiting you. Best is to be aware as fully as possible of the entire process of breathing, but most people focus on one aspect or another: the sensation of coolness followed by warmth at the nostrils, or the rise and fall of the diaphragm. Many meditators suggest imagining the air entering and exiting a small hole an inch or two below your navel. Keeping your mind lower on the body tends to lead to deeper meditation. If you are sleepy, then focus higher, such as at the nostrils.
You will inevitably find yourself distracted by sounds around you and thoughts within. The way to handle them is to acknowledge them, but do not attach yourself to them. Do not get involved with them. Just let them be, let them go, and focus again on the breath. At first, it might be wise to scratch when you itch and wiggle when you get uncomfortable. Later, you will find that the same scant attention that you use for thoughts and sounds will work with physical feelings as well.
A more advanced form of meditation is shikantaza, or emptiness meditation. Here, you don't follow anything at all. There is no concentration -- only quiet mindfulness. You hold your mind as if you were ready for things to happen, but don't allow your mind to become attached to anything. Things -- sounds, smells, aches, thoughts, images -- just drift in and out, like clouds in a light breeze. This is my own favorite.
Many people have a hard time with their thoughts. We are so used to our hyperactive minds, that we barely notice the fact that they are usually roaring with activity. So, when we first sit and meditate, we are caught off guard by all the activity. So some people find it helpful to use a little imagination to help them meditate. For example, instead of counting or following your breath, you might prefer to imagine a peaceful scene, perhaps floating in a warm lagoon, until the noise of your mind quiets down.
Meditate for fifteen minutes a day, perhaps early in the morning before the rest of the house wakes up, or late at night when everything has quieted down. If that's too much, do it once a week if you like. If you want, do more. Don't get frustrated. And don't get competitive, either. Don't start looking forward to some grand explosion of enlightenment. If you have great thoughts, fine. Write them down, if you like. Then go back to breathing. If you feel powerful emotions, wonderful. Then go back to breathing. The breathing is enlightenment.
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The Ananda Sutta
Ananda, Buddha's cousin, friend, and devoted disciple, once asked him if there was one particular quality one should cultivate that would best bring one to full awakening. Buddha answered: Being mindful of breathing.
"There is the case where a monk, having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree, or to an empty building, sits down folding his legs crosswise, holding his body erect, and setting mindfulness to the fore. Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out.
"Breathing in long, he discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, he discerns that he is breathing out long. Or breathing in short, he discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, he discerns that he is breathing out short. He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the entire body, and to breathe out sensitive to the entire body. He trains himself to breathe in calming the bodily processes, and to breathe out calming the bodily processes.
"He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to rapture, and to breathe out sensitive to rapture. He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to pleasure, and to breathe out sensitive to pleasure. He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to mental processes, and to breathe out sensitive to mental processes. He trains himself to breathe in calming mental processes, and to breathe out calming mental processes.
"He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the mind, and to breathe out sensitive to the mind. He trains himself to breathe in satisfying the mind, and to breathe out satisfying the mind. He trains himself to breathe in steadying the mind, and to breathe out steadying the mind. He trains himself to breathe in releasing the mind, and to breathe out releasing the mind.
"He trains himself to breathe in focusing on inconstancy, and to breathe out focusing on inconstancy. He trains himself to breathe in focusing on dispassion, and to breathe out focusing on dispassion. He trains himself to breathe in focusing on cessation, and to breathe out focusing on cessation. He trains himself to breathe in focusing on relinquishment, and to breathe out focusing on relinquishment."
(adapted from The Samyutta Nikaya 54.13,)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obstacles
The Five Hindrances (Nivarana) are the major obstacles to concentration.
1. Sensual desire (abhidya)
2. Ill will, hatred, or anger (pradosha)
3. Laziness and sluggishness (styana and middha)
4. Restlessness and worry (anuddhatya and kaukritya)
5. Doubt (vichikitsa) -- doubt, skepticism, indecisiveness, or vacillation, without the wish to cure it, more like the common idea of cynicism or pessimism than open-mindedness or desire for evidence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more original sutras on Buddhist meditation, see the following:
The Arrow -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn36-006.html
Analysis of Mental Faculties -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn48-010.html
The Ship -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn22-101.html
Analysis of the Frames of Reference -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn47-040.html
The Relaxation of Thoughts -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/majjhima/mn020.html
The Simile of the Cloth -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/majjhima/mn007.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources
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ec
climber
ca
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Apr 19, 2008 - 12:37pm PT
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'Cause when I'm climbing, I'm not at work NOW! Thus, I am happy.
 ec
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Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
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Apr 19, 2008 - 03:30pm PT
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To quote myself --
"They seek those moments when time stands still.
The catalysts are as varied as the individuals who pursue this path: a meteor shower; a
night sky so star-filled that it snatches your breath; another rise of the sun over distant
mountains vast and untouchable; dodging a rock careening crazily down a gully; a
desperate icy struggle through whiteout and ground blizzard down to the safety of camp
after an unsuccessful summit attempt; standing atop a mountain with a friend, the whole
world at your feet, a blinding sun blazing out of a flawless sky, taking the time to watch
that sun dip below the horizon even though camp is still many miles and many thousands
of feet distant; stumbling over boulders and through brush in the darkness; watching the
starlight and the storm wrest for possession of the night sky, seated on a narrow ledge
beside your rope-mate with only the clothes on your back for shelter, shivering the night
away, knowing that, sometime in a distant place you cannot now touch, the world will
once again grow bright, the sun will rise, and you will look out on the infant day with
new eyes."
The NOW is the only contact that we humans have with eternity.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Apr 19, 2008 - 03:35pm PT
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I guess the point of bringing up this "Be Here Now" stuff is to note that when you experience that climbing gives you a higher experience by forcing you into the moment, that you can actually learn to be more present in EVERY moment and that even our miserable work can be bearable if we accept our reality and be centered in ourselves while doing it.
Or be centered in ourselves while quitting it and accepting a more modest lifestyle.
We don't have to settle for a few bright moments of fulfillment in a life of menial drudgery and stress.
peace
karl
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