Blog | Mindfulness, Meditation, Journaling & Walking in Nature
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Writings and Readings Blog

Madhu Bazaz Wangu

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Posted on October 13, 2025
in Meditation, Online Mindful Writers Group, Spirituality
6 Comments

Except the photos of the Buddha images in-situ that I've been posting lately, the rest of the statues of the Buddhas are the one's Manoj and I collected through years during our travels in China, Japan, and India. There is time to write together and time to write alone. Having written alone, with a writing companion, and in a group I mostly write alone now, especially after moving into a retirement community. Some of the residents who are writers, prefer writing alone unless they are teaching writing. When I write I’m absorbed in my work. On my spiritual journey that includes morning meditation, journaling, and deep writing (and walking later in the day) I'm one with my Authentic Self within, the consciousness. This awareness watches me from moment to moment...

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Thursday, October 9, 2025

Posted on October 8, 2025
in #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
2 Comments

When I began my spiritual journey, I knew intellectually what I wanted but emotionally I had no clue. I did not know if I would arrive and where. Yet, I was willing to surrender and walk on the path to the great unknown. Midst running a happy household with two daughters and husband I was struggling, first as an artist and then as a writer. My quest was for something beyond being a mother, wife, artist. The thought, “Is this all there is?” loomed large at the back of my mind.  Somehow I ended up learning to meditate. While learning the practice, I learned that the reason you sit still in silence and solitude is because the novice practitioner is like a jar of river water, all shaken up. The requirement...

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Posted on October 6, 2025
in #Stillness and Quietude, #Stillness and Solitude, Awareness, Meditation, Spirituality
4 Comments

The Buddha Blessing, Tokyo, Japan Most of our fears are rooted in the truth that we are born alone and we die alone. Our aloneness is real. There are certain moments when we become aware that we are beings with ego that separates us from other ego beings. We are not certain where we come from and where we are going. How do we confront this fearful emotion? We face it by confronting it in silence so that we may rise above our separate ego self and get closer to our true self—the infinite collective consciousness of our being.   By now with the help of meditation and journaling, you may realize that perhaps as an individual person you may feel alone, but at the level of your essence you are one with...

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Thursday, October 2, 2025

Posted on October 1, 2025
in #Nature Lover, #Stillness and Quietude, #Stillness and Solitude, Awareness, Spirituality
5 Comments

What is it that you do in which you completely immerse yourself? Reading, baking, gardening, knitting, painting? When you are absorbed in an activity, does it feel like nothing else exists? When you are intensely focused on something you truly are by yourself.  Try this. When you are completely engrossed in doing something for an hour or two and you have the need to go to the bathroom, as you walk away from the place you were seated in, become aware of how focused you were a few moments ago, and how you continue to be so for a few more minutes. Sense the spaciousness around you and peace within. This is the feeling that you were not aware just a minute ago. You were immersed deep in your aware self,...

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Posted on September 29, 2025
in #Stillness and Quietude, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
4 Comments

When I began the practice of meditation, more than thirty years ago, it was the toughest discipline to follow. It required sitting still in silence, focusing on the breath and bringing attention back to breathing over and over again. But in time I found it one of the most rewarding practices.  I discovered that there was a subtle difference between meditation and sitting still in silence and solitude. In breathing practice the flotsams and jetsam of my mind settled down and by the time all the debris had quietened down my body was still.  When I was still and by myself I contemplated about the meaning of my life. And I contemplated about current situations. Without silence, solitude did not mean much. I could be alone but listening to music, surfing the...

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Thursday, September 25, 2025

Posted on September 24, 2025
in #Stillness and Solitude, Flourishing, Well Being
4 Comments

Someone new to this practice might confuse the whispers of the Authentic Self with a voice in the head. The voice in the head is loud, pessimistic that never stops talking. If you can’t separate yourself from the chain of thoughts, if you unconsciously identify with that voice in your head, become more attentive. Learn to differentiate between the whispers of your inner guide and the critic’s voice. That voice is unproductive and harsh. However, the gentle nudges of your Authentic Self or the inner knowing are true, wise and unexpected.  When you focus on the breath, experience the presence of Awareness behind or in-between the breath, you will know the difference. The whispers of your Authentic Self are from the one who is your inner witness, who knows all about...

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Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Posted on September 22, 2025
in #Stillness and Quietude, #Stillness and Solitude
3 Comments

Spending some time with myself makes the time I spend with others more pleasurable and playful. For me, like nourishment solitude is one of the basic necessities. When I’m alone, self-enquiry comes under focus. In silence, I mull over whatever is floating in my mind. More often than not, I realize whatever recent wrong happened had not much to do with her, him, or them, but with me. The negativity feel is ultimately a reflection of my own inner landscape. Slowly the thought settles and I’m back to my normal self. Only in silence can I mull over things and be fair to myself and others. When you sit still quietly, pondering what you have encountered, how it has affected you, and how you have affected others as the consequence of your...

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Thursday, September 18, 2025

Posted on September 17, 2025
in #Nature Lover, Awareness, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality, Well Being
6 Comments

In stillness and silence we practice living in the present moment. When we are Here and Now our awareness is one with us. With practice we learn to bring the inner quietude right into the present moment. When we bask in self-recognition of our aware self we feel love, joy, peace and contentment.  Present moment has two layers: the immediate one, the one we are familiar with. It is a bundle of contents of our experience—our thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, images, events and relationships. We are constantly entangled with this content. In stillness and silence, we learn to focus on the breath or mantra instead and go beyond these mental things. For some time or at some point we stop identifying with the things and go deeper.  What do we find when we go deeper within? We...

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Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Posted on September 15, 2025
in Awareness, Well Being
2 Comments

“It is hard to clear 5-10 minutes in my schedule for sitting in silence and solitude.” Read mindfully the above sentence to realize how silly it sounds. Do you chat on the telephone, surf the internet, watch television? How long do you spend on any one of these passive diversions? Then, why does 5-10 minutes of quiet sitting feel like a waste of time when you know it’s benefits? Sitting quietly provides time to settle the sediments of your mind (thoughts, feelings, sensations and images) and become aware that something in you is aware of all that and watching you being aware of them. Something behind all those sediments. Reflect on this for a few minutes. That reflection makes you realize that behind your experience (thoughts, feelings, sensations), behind the masks you wear something...

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Thursday, September 11, 2025

Posted on September 10, 2025
in Being in Nature, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
2 Comments

The practitioners who intentionally sits in silence and solitude elevate themselves by realizing what it means to live in the awareness of the present moment. When you are aware you are lifted beyond your pain and sorrow. You feel true peace and happiness. You intuitively feel that are not your ego self but your aware self that is one with all there is and is always at peace. Your mindful life is the authentic life that is awake to the here and now.  What is a life of contemplation? It is to realize that we come to the world alone and we leave alone, that our solitude is absolute. To be an authentic individual is to watch our feelings, thoughts, sensations, activities and relationships as finite; and to witness our true...

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