Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds Archives - Page 6 of 11 - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Posted on November 6, 2025
in #Nature Lover, Awareness, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality, Travel
4 Comments

Awe, Wonder and Delight are sacred emotions that kindle spiritual delight, tenderness, and kindness. Ancient Hindu texts teach that within us there is an innate force of joyful wonder, but we must create outer circumstances for it to sprout and surface. This may happen when we face an adversity or when we are midst beauty of nature such as the rays of setting sun filtering through spring foliage making the shadows dance. Wonder is a heightened state of awareness that is triggered when something unexpected happens that disorients us yet delights. It is present in us all the time but remains dormant under something enters our consciousness to part the mental clouds. We have the power to turn each moment into a wondrous moment. There is no reason to wait for a...

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Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Posted on November 3, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Old Age and Death, Spirituality
4 Comments

Death is inevitable then why am I here? For what purpose? What awaits me after death? Throughout our lives, behind all the business of growing old there is a mild restlessness. Yet, all are not fortunate to watch themselves grow old and enjoy the final decade or two of the final phases of our lives.  We slow down. We learn to spend time in silence and solitude. We meditate and journal to turn our deep desires inwards. And we discover that the source of meaning and fulfillment is right within us. We discover that we all have the same essence, the same awareness, the same Authentic Self deep in our consciousness.  One of the most important questions we ask is, what is my legacy? What would I leave behind? How may I contribute? A...

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Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Posted on October 27, 2025
in Daily Reflections 2025, Death and Dying, Last Quarter of Our Lives, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Old Age and Death, Spirituality
4 Comments

The text of today's post is addressed to the folks 65+ who live at Ashby Ponds. I've the feeling that most of you who read this blog may not be even 65 yet, but see no harm in your reading and remembering the thoughts I write about. So here it goes: Witnessing sickness, old age and death for the first time can be deeply unsettling—especially for someone who has never encountered these human conditions before. That’s exactly what happened to the prince Siddharatha Gautama, now known to the world as the Buddha.  From the time he was born, Siddhartha was sheltered from all human suffering. In the palace where he lived, physically and mentally disabled, sick and old people were not allowed to enter. He had never seen a dead person. One...

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Thursday, October 23, 2025

Posted on October 22, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Nonverbal Activities, Writing
4 Comments

We all have had experiences of writing alone at home behind closed door, writing with a fellow writer, writing with a group of writers on weekly basis and writing at retreats. These are different experiences. For some writing alone the first thing in the morning or last thing at night in the silence of their study is the most productive way to write. For some others a gentle beginning with a short meditation and/or journaling session inspires them to write for hours.  What helps my flow start and continue for hours is to practice meditation, deep reading, and journaling in the morning. Then, working on my “formal” writing flows like a waterfall. (For decades, I journaled daily. But at some point I had nothing to pour out on the pages of...

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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, 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 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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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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Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Posted on September 8, 2025
in #Nature Lover, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
4 Comments

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal noted, “All the unhappiness of (people) arises from one simple fact: that they can’t sit quietly in their chamber.” The practice of sitting quietly by yourself trains your mind the way exercise trains your body. It leads you deep into yourself where you become one with your Authentic Self, wiser and kinder. When you are walking outdoors, sit for 5 minutes and feel entertained listening to birds or crickets or rushing water. Nature’s sounds add depth to any time of the day or night. Last month you discovered how much pleasure and insight travel brings. Yet, sitting at home in the silence of our Spiritual Power Spot settles the mind and opens the heart. At such moments, we genuinely feel that going nowhere is as fulfilling as...

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Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Posted on September 1, 2025
in Mindfulness and Travealing, Nonverbal Activities, Travel
2 Comments

This is my last post about Lewis and Clarke’s expedition toward the western coast. Following them to some of the towns and sites that the captains had discovered made me feel grounded in my adopted country, made the land real for me. To continue, on September 23, 1806, the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis. An excerpt from Lewis’s letter to President Jefferson reads: “Sir, it is with pleasure that I announce to you the safe arrival of myself and party with our papers and baggage. No accident has deprived us of a single member of our party since I last wrote you from the Mandan in April 1804.” In his reply the President wrote: “I received, my dear Sir, with unspeakable joy your letter of September 23 announcing the return...

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