What is our story in this moment?

Will the lady with the dog with pointed ears come up the steps to No.1 and ring the bell!!

I found this sign on this quiet footpath that runs behind some houses near where I live.  Please pause reading now and ask yourself, "What would I think if I was the lady with the dog?"

I walked past the sign and noticed the train of thought that ran.  Did they meet and have a conversation that the writer wants to continue.  Did the lady drop something, or to put it delicately, did the dog?

We'll never know. But it made me reflect again on the way we are constantly creating our world. That this created world depends on our mental states .  Maybe if I was feeling positive I would be more likely to fantasize briefly about the beginnings of a relationship.  If I was feeling grumpy I'd might guess that the writer wanted to complain about the dog's behaviour.... 

If I then dwell on this created scenario my mental states are likely to develop along the same trajectory; more positive or more negative and my world changes again.

This is a simple example of Co-conditioned production. ( Pratītyasamutpāda). It's not about simple cause and effect but a mutual co-conditioning that is happening all the time.  It also highlights the importance of staying to these processes.  The Buddha exhorts us to practice right effort. Which can be expressed as 

Develop positive mental states and maintain them.

Eradicate negative mental states and prevent them arising.

This kind of thinking is sometimes called mental proliferation (papanca) There's an interesting discussion by Leigh Brasington here and a rather technical exploration by Jayarava here.  

From the perspective of mindfulness as therapy, we can also talk about this as the secondary suffering which not only subjectively makes the first layer of suffering worse, it can also have effect on the objective content of the pain. See Breathworks mindfulness for more on this.

Now the Blessed One advised the bhikkhus - Well now, bhikkhus, my counsel is: experience is disappointing, [it is] through vigilance [that] you succeed. These were the last words for the Tathāgata.[The Buddha] 

Jayarava's Translation

How to get ready for your meditation seat - Incense

Here perpetual incense burns;
The heart to meditation turns...

Meditation needs setting up for. As with everything else it is dependent on a set of conditions; The Buddha's essential insight into the nature of Reality.  We should not expect to be able to move into meditation just by sitting on our meditation seat.  So what can we do to set up the best conditions for us to be able to meditate?

One way of  looking at the conditions for any human activity is to look for three components to be present:

Opportunity / Chance to

Means / How to

Motive / Want to

We are fortunate that we do have the opportunity to practice.  We have been taught or are learning 'how to'. We might have an idea that meditation is a good thing to do but why do we seemingly forget to practise it sometimes.  Perhaps we need to engage our emotions, our aspiration, our heart and this can be a subtle thing.  In this blog I want to touch on the role of  incense and our sense of smell and the effect it can have on our mood.

As we can see from the first lines of Sangharakshita's poem there's something about smell that evokes memory.  I've just come back from a walk in the Spring and the scent of Balsam poplar lifts my mood. I went for the walk because I felt a bit stale. This might be because it's a pleasant sweet smell or maybe it's affecting my nervous system.  In an article in Science Daily the authors report research that Incense ( Frankincense) may act as an antidepressant.
Burning Incense Is Psychoactive: New Class Of Antidepressants Might Be Right Under Our Noses

In a useful article  "A burning topic: how to best use incense " Anne-Marie Cook quotes Dr Thom E Lobe, a licensed practitioner in both Western and Eastern medicine. “These organs of smell are the closest link the brain has to the outside and are located very close to that part of our brain that regulates emotions and other important bodily functions. When you inhale incense there is a direct effect on the brain that is measurable and nearly immediate.”

There is some research that cautions burning incense indoors so maybe we could use essential oils in a burner that gently heats a drop or so in water.

What are the kind of things you use or do to prepare yourself for meditation?

An Improved Website for the Ultimate Meditation Seat

Is there a connection between sitting in meditation and re-crafting a website?

You need to have a clear idea or vision of what you are doing.  The Buddhist term for this is sampajanna - sometimes translated as 'clear comprehension of purpose'.  My vision for the new website is that it helps people who meditate to understand what the Kindseat is and how it could help them sit better.  Now that the first website has been up for 6 months I believe I have a better understanding of what's needed to communicate this. I'm bringing awareness to what's there and what I can do to change.

Here's a screen shot of the present home page.

Well, there's lots going on. Apparently people take about six seconds to decide to stay or move on and I think this page is asking quite a lot!  There are so many good things to say!




The new home page is intended to be easier for people to take in an impression of what is most important about how this meditation bench can help.  Just two points which are expanded on later. Here's a preview of the work so far.

So, I have bought some awareness  and tried to practice what needs to be maintained, eradicated, cultivated and prevented ; the Four Right Efforts.

It is sometimes hard to see this, whether away from the meditation seat or on it, but others can help us see our blind spots: If you have anything you'd like to see on the revised site why not add a comment here.

The revised site will be launched on the 27th April 2013 so be sure to have a look. Follow Kindseat on Google+, Twitter or Facebook to keep up to date with developments.