Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind

Mind Body & Soul book post: Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind - The Zen Journal and Letters of an Irish Woman in Japan by the late Maura Soshin O’Halloran, published by her mother upon her early death. 

At a time when female monks were rare, Maura having gained a very good degree at Trinity College, Dublin, studied Zen in Japan and wrote this remarkable and moving journal. Her mother published the journals after her daughter’s death. The name that Maura was given, Soshin means Pure Heart. Waking up to enlightenment requires intense chanting meditation known as zazen. The privations amount to malnutrition, being cold and uncomfortable.She became second in command of the Buddhist Temple and she tended the gardens. Begging was an important spiritual practice for a once a day meal.

Praying the 'Hours'

 Praying The Hours - An Introduction

Praying The Hours provides a rhythm for our days, establishing a rhythm in order to connect with the sacred. Bee is speaking about the Catholic way of praying the hours. The Liturgy of The Hours has changed over time and is sometimes called The Divine Office and within that are the canonical hours (hours that mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals). A book known as a ‘Breviary’ containing weekly cycles of psalms, prayers, hymns, antiphons, and readings which changed with the liturgical season is commonly used.

Bee will be making her own book of hours and is collecting quotes and images that are meaningful for her. In Bee’s favourite book about praying the hours there is a wonderful quote- Meister Eckhart says,

 ’If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is Thank You, it will be enough’

If we just stop what we are doing to say thank you, if we come out of clock time/calendar time to move into sacred time then we’ve done it. A pause is enough.

‘Pete Greig says the reason for praying the hours is to get to know the creator of a hundred billion galaxies’

Let Me Go - A Poem

When I come to the end of the road, And the sun has set for me,

I want no rites in a gloom filled room Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little, but not for long, and not with your head bowed low, 

Remember the love that we once shared, miss me but let me go. 

For this is the journey we all must take and each must go alone.

It’s all part of the master plan, a step on the road to home. 

When you are lonely and sick at heart, go to the friends we know. 

Laugh at all the things we used to do, miss me but let me go.

Convergent & Divergent Thinking

 

There are two types of thinking:

Convergent thinking focuses on arriving at a single well-established answer to a problem. Convergent thinking is used as a tool to problem-solve. When someone uses critical thinking to solve a problem, they consciously use standard probabilities to make judgements. This contrasts with Divergent thinking where several possible solutions are sought.

First Force Field Analysis

Hello! The light in me bows to the light in you! Here are some life tips taken from my old diaries!

Be specific with the following questions. Write the answers down and refer back to them after 1 month:

What one thing would add to/improve/enhance your life?

What are you prepared to do to achieve this?

Is it within your control to get it? What might be the obstacles or not within your control?

How could you sabotage yourself from getting it? 

Will others know you want it?  Will they know when you get it?

Is it in keeping with your standards, judgments and ethics?

Rules for Debate

10 Commandments of logic and debate

1 Thou shall not attack the person’s character but the argument (ad hominem)

2 Thou shalt not misrepresent or exaggerate a persons argument in order to make them easier to attack (straw man fallacy)

3 That shall not use small numbers to represent the whole (hasty generalisation)

4 Thou shalt not argue that position by assuming one of its premises is true (begging the question)

5 Thou shalt not claim that because something occurred before, it must be the cause (post hoc/false cause)

6 Thou shalt not reduce the argument down to 2 possibilities. (false dichotomy)

7 Thou shalt not argue that because of our ignorance, the claim must be true or false (ad ignorantum)

8 Thou shalt not lay the burden of proof onto him that is questioning the claim (burden of proof reversal)

9 That should not assume ‘this’ follows ‘that’ when it has no logical connection (non sequitur)

 10 Thou shalt not claim that because a premise is popular, therefore it must be true (bandwagon fallacy).

If Nobody Smiled - A Poem

IF NOBODY SMILED

 

If nobody smiled and nobody cared, and nobody helped us along; If every fellow looked out for himself, and the good things all went to the strong; If nobody cared just a little for you, and nobody thought about me; And we stood all alone in the battle of life, what a dreary old world this would be.

Life is sweet because of the friends we love, and the things that in common we share; And we want to live on, not because of ourselves, but because of the people who care. It's giving and doing for somebody else - on that all of life's splendor depends; And the joy in the world, when you've summed it all up, is found in the love of our friends.

Fifth Field Analysis

Words to live by: - Integrity, Authenticity, Discernment, Responsibility, Accountability, Courtesy, Resilience, Empowerment, Truth, Honesty, Empathy, Equality, Humility, Service to others! 

4 types of family systems: 

Distracting, Placating, Computing, Blaming. 

Defence mechanisms: Retroflexion It’s all my fault. Attribution: To assume, interpret and judge. Projection: Your unowned trials and emotions attributed to others. Seeing the splinter in their eye not the log in your own. Introjection: to swallow whole, attitudes, values, beliefs. You believe what you are accused of without question. Deflection: Backing away, denying. Confluence: agreeing and never risking disagreement. 

Which is your easiest zone? Comfort zone, Learning zone, Panic zone, Stretched zone? 

What do you want to communicate? What would heal your pain/ brokenness?

What do you consider is unacceptable behaviour?