this morning I watched Mathieu Ricard give a speech a google on how to change your brain by changing your mind.
I've seen him give a shorter version of this speech as a Ted Talk. In fact that Ted speech which I watched a few weeks ago is what has motivated me to come back to this practice. I do believe that well-being is something that we can and should cultivate. And once we've cultivated it we must help others cultivate it.
So after I watched the speech I took a half hour to cultivate the pleasant energy that is begining to tickle my tan tien again. The tan tien is of course that part of your gut that fills with chi as you practice any of the chi based martial arts. For now though I'm going to all it my belly ball. I need to give it something concrete so that I come back to it everyday and throughout the day.
Ricard's speech brought to my attention again, how much love really is a skill that we need to cultivate. Not just a feeling that we should allow to come and go as it pleases. I found myself starting to take the words of the traditional lovingkindness meditation and turning it towards my belly ball. Sort of like "may my belly ball fill with a sense of well being", may I have this sense of well being available to me at all times.
And as I started to imagine my life with a feeling, a conceret physical feeling of joy and well being, I started to think of all those people struggling through life without that (myself included). Of course I want that for everyone. If we could have free happiness for ourselves, how could we not want that for everyone. How could we want to hoard it?
