"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".