Meditation Archives - Page 3 of 29 - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Meditation

Tuesday, May 4, 2026

Posted on May 4, 2026
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Attention and Awareness, Awareness, Meditation, Spirituality
3 Comments

Nancy Bishop, AP Resident, Watercolor This month we’ll focus on Mindfulness and Neuroscientific research done on meditation. Mindfulness is part of an ancient tradition with countless benefits. It teaches how to calm down and pause instead of reacting with anger or irritability, how to act without getting stressed or anxious. But originally the practice was not intended for such purposes. These are simply its side-effects.  Easy and brief meditation practices are spin offs that has been recently adopted in western countries. The original aim of meditation, still embraced in some cultures and circles, focusses on deep exploration of the mind to get insights into human consciousness.  Using fMRI and EEG (explained below) and a battery of cutting-edge data analysis for the last thirty years or so neuroscientists have been studying minds of Tibetan monks...

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Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Posted on April 20, 2026
in #Reading Poetry, #Story Telling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading, Reading Books, Sharper Brain after Retirement
2 Comments

Loneliness, Oil on canvas, 1977 Whether reading for pleasure or personal growth, what you enjoy depends on your interests and experiences. What you choose to read is as unique as what you enjoy eating or wearing. When you select a book to read, what are you seeking? Pleasure, growth, transformation? It is not what you choose to read but what happens to you when you are absorbed in reading – that pleasurable feeling of forgetting who and where you are, temporarily experiencing life through someone else’s perspective! I read to be entertained, to learn, to adventure into unknown worlds where my heart is slashed, where my guts are punched, or a brick falls on my head. With each book I read, my emotional and intellectual sensibilities emerge and deepen. In 2003, a group...

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Thursday, April 16, 2026

Posted on April 15, 2026
in Awareness, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading, Reading Books, Sharper Brain after Retirement, Well Being
6 Comments

Lady in a Sari, 1980, Oil on Canvas After reading the nightmarish poem, “A Dream” by Hermann Hesse in his book, The Glass Bead Game, I shuddered. A feeling of restlessness creeped in. The only way I could eliminate that feeling was to journal about it. I wrote what ended up being a short short story.  Here is a summary: I walk to the monastery on the hill and enter the building. Its walls are lined with books from ceiling to floor. The spines of the gilded lettered books glitter in the morning light. I pull out the one closest to me. The spine reads, Meaning of My Life. The leather cover tooled in gold promises a story still untold. What wisdom will the book reveal? I read the front folio aglow with words, “Learn to...

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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Posted on April 13, 2026
in #Reading Poetry, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading Books, Spirituality
4 Comments

Inventor, Manoj Wangu, Colored Pencils, 2019 When, for no particular reason, someone in real life or even on television makes you cringe or stirs negative emotions in you become conscious of yourself, examine your thoughts at that moment and ask yourself, why am I reacting negatively against this person? Am I biased or prejudiced? Am I stereotyping him or her? And bear witness to your own answers. Now let’s move on to reading for pleasure, the topic for this month. Does reading make you happy, make you forget who you are or where you are? Reading is my passion—anything that has something to do with language—fiction and nonfiction books, stories, essays. In addition, to reading I’m devoted to writing. I write more than I read.  Dorothea Brande (Becoming a Writer, 1934) and Julia Cameron (The Artist’s...

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Thursday, April 9, 2026

Posted on April 8, 2026
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
2 Comments

Turmoil and Tranquility, Acrylic on Canvas, 1979 Some of you might be struggling with silent meditation practice. Here are a few suggestions for you to use. Hope this helps!  Establish a formal meditation time when and where you have minimal of distraction. It is crucial to sit regularly. Mornings are great, evenings are good too. Sit in the same place each time. You will associate that space with tranquility and therefore look forward to sitting.  The very act of sitting still in silence and solitude will settle your mental clutter and recharge your battery. Let the practice grow gradually and gently. Fifteen to twenty minutes of silent meditation daily is very beneficial.  The purpose of Mindfulness Meditation is to transform your living experience. You now know  the difference between sensation, conscious thought, and feeling. You...

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Thursday, April 2, 2026

Posted on April 1, 2026
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, #Stillness and Solitude, #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Being in Nature, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Travel
4 Comments

Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada In one Buddhist teaching the progress of the mind of a meditator, from being a novice to a skilled meditator, is equated with three bodies of water: waterfall, river and lake.WATERFALLThe mind of a beginner is like a waterfall. When you sit to meditate, your mind thunders with torrents of thoughts and feelings. You are oblivious to physical sensations. Even when torrents of thought tighten your muscles, you are clueless. You don’t know you are tense. Focus on your breath and try to get in touch with your physical sensations. Sit with your eyes closed for 15 minutes and then move on to journaling. Your awareness of what you are doing and who you are is a powerful grounding tool at this stage. Following the meditation,...

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Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Posted on March 30, 2026
in Attention and Awareness, Flourishing, Imagination, Journaling, Meditation, Originality, Spirituality
1 Comment

Daffodil Field, Ashby Ponds A gift! These words rarely come to mind when we wake up to a brand-new day. Instead, our mind is already occupied with memories and anticipations. The blank page of the day stands waiting to be filled with feelings of comfort, joy, and moments that are uniquely ours. But we are not present for it. What if you open your eyes in the morning and feel grateful for another new day. Wash your face, brush your teeth, drink a glass of water, and sit at your Sacred Power Spot. You meditate. Your journal. Then comes several minutes of deep reading – a poem or a short chapter from an anthology meaningful to you. By this time, your mind is bound to feel enriched with benevolence and peace. With positive energy, the...

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Thursday, March 26, 2026

Posted on March 25, 2026
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Sharper Brain after Retirement, Well Being
4 Comments

Magnolias, Ashby Ponds, March 2026 A half-century of neuroscientific research has concluded that meditation is as important to your mental well-being as exercise is to the physical health. If you exercise regularly, you build stronger muscles, denser bones, and increased stamina. If you meditate daily, your attention span, memory, and patience increase. You learn to manage negative emotions and situations more efficiently and strengthen sense of calm, resilience, and relationships.  The moment we are born, the breath is with us and the moment it leaves, we die. Wherever we go, our breath goes with us. It is our anchor. It is perfect the way it is. We need not speed it up, force it, push it away or control it. Simply pay attention to its natural rhythm, letting it continue its work without...

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Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Posted on March 23, 2026
in #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Well Being
4 Comments

Early Spring at Ashby, March 2026 Relationship Between Body and MindWithout mind body is blind and without body mind is disable. Like a log, body can do nothing by itself except grow, decay and die. The mind can do nothing without the support of the body. But both together, as we know, they have power to connect us with our Authentic Self and teach us to be 100% ourselves.   In our day-to-day life, we face unpredictable obstacles or advantages. Without mindfulness, instead of acting we react to negative emotions. We believe we have been treated unjustly. But when we learn to apply mindfulness, it teaches us to pause and investigate our own mind. In doing so we discover truths about the situations and unpleasant truths about ourselves. We realize that the root of...

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Thursday, 18 March, 2026

Posted on March 19, 2026
in #Nature Lover, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality, Well Being
2 Comments

Early Spring, Daffodils at Ashby Ponds So sorry friends! Though I'm a day late, hope you enjoy today's post. By now you’ve discovered that meditation is simple but not easy. It is difficult to do. You ask yourself; then why do I practice it?  We practice it because a spirit of adventure dwells within us—a wondering and wandering spirit. But this spirit, the Authentic Self (our true self, awareness or consciousness) when it stimulates, it communicates with us with an inner voice that is as gentle as air and as strong as a swan’s feather. Yet it does not easily reveal itself. We use meditation and journaling to dig deeper, excavate and connect with this fragile spiritual lifeline. On rare occasions you feel an unease coursing through your body. You think, I’m capable of so much...

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