Personal experience (2nd post): caution over "goodwill " & "mindfulness" practice
Last updated on 8th April 2012
"No man was ever wise by chance." Lucius Seneca
"No man was ever wise by chance." Lucius Seneca
"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger." Franklin P. Jones
I recently wrote about the fifth week of meditation practice - chapter nine in Mark Williams & Danny Penman's book. This post is about the sixth week of practice and chapter ten "Trapped in the past or living in the present?" (pp. 183 to 208). The week-by-week programme summary (p. 60) comments "Week six develops this process (turning towards difficulties) even further, exploring how negative ways of thinking gradually dissipate when you actively cultivate loving-kindness and compassion through a 'Befriending Meditation' and acts of generosity in daily life. Cultivating friendship towards yourself, including for what you see as your 'failures' and 'inadequacies', is the cornerstone of finding peace in a frantic world."
Last week I wrote about "Using Williams & Penman's book ... as a self-help resource (3rd post) - first week's practice". It's time now to move on to the second week's practice described in chapter six - "Keeping the body in mind".
Time to roll up our sleeves and start turning Williams & Penman's book's "meditation recipes" into genuinely nourishing meals. I have already written a first blog post on why we have good reason to be optimistic about the benefits we can achieve with this kind of self-help venture. The second post encouraged us to get ready for the mindfulness practice. We are now at chapter five in the book - "Mindfulness week one: waking up to the autopilot".
This is the first in a series of intended posts about using Mark Williams & Danny Penman's excellent recent book "Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world" as a self-help training in mindfulness practice. My hope is that these blog posts will provide some back-up resources to the many good things already present in the book, accompanying CD & linked website.