Don’t Just Stand There

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What’s best for us, many of us don’t get around to doing. What we want to do takes a back seat to more pressing issues involving family and work, rather than to our own personal needs. My new year’s resolution was to do yoga on a regular basis. I loved yoga when I started last summer and went at least once a week, in which it became easier to do as time went on. Then the cold weather came, I changed jobs and my time of doing yoga at a studio dwindled. I tried to do stretches at home, however with a pug licking my face every time. Now, my own experiment on how yoga keeps you fit is about to begin. I began to have moderate arthritic pain at my age of 29 in the past week, and now although I don’t feel like moving much, I need to keep moderately active to keep the pain subsided without resorting to popping painkillers every four to six hours. Finding time to meditate and do yoga without straining my joints can pose a challenge, but it’s what needs to be done. I’m still a novice, but have considered hot yoga or Bikram yoga a possibility to warm my joints and muscles and do yoga. However, having limitations, I could end up feeling like a fish out of water, trying to catch up with practitioners that have been doing it for at months to years. But, we all start somewhere.

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” – Buddha

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

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“I believe the purpose of our life is to seek happiness.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV

Even when the day has not been as I had hoped it to be, there is solace in the tiniest of things that did not go wrong that day. A question to ask would be “am I happy despite my hardship?” At the end of the day, when everyone has gone home and everything is closed, do you still worry even when there’s nothing that can be done?  As one of the many Buddhist philosophies state “if there is a solution then there is no need to worry; if there is no solution then there is no need to worry.”

Happiness is believed to be a state of mind that can withstand turmoil and difficulties. I have been through some tough times, like most of us have experienced from time to time, and tried to find escape from each one by fleeing and moving on to something thought to alleviate the situation. Because it is our nature to seek pleasure, avoid suffering and stay indifferent to the neutral. But through reading and study and after trial and errors, I have learned to stay put, appreciate my surroundings and stop looking for the “greener side of the fence.” The seeds of happiness are inside us. We have Buddha nature. Many of us seek external forces to appease our misery. But, if we’re not happy with ourselves, how can we be happy with others?

When I’m feeling in a good or bad mood, I try to do a good deed. This action (karma) will increase my good fortune more or at least help improve my misfortune. What harm can that do to do good for another? The idea of karma helps to put into explanation the irrational reasoning behind why unfortunate things happen to good people. For example, a few months ago, things had turned very fortunate for myself and I wondered how long this karma would last. This month has been a decent month, but things have been in decline. Whether this karma is from this lifetime or from four hundred lifetimes ago, I know that I am clearing that slate and dealing with it now. It takes away the thought of “why me” and put into proactive state of mind to do something about it as oppose to feeling pity for myself. Now, although sometimes, a good cry can release stress from the body, it doesn’t solve the situation but can help clear thoughts and get down to work.

In all the things we must do everyday to maintain our livelihood, remember to be happy, do what makes you happy within the precepts, and be compassionate to others and yourself.