Everyday Buddhism 9 - Right Action is not REaction

08/05/18 • 53 min

Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday Better

When you consciously try to build mindfulness into your day, what you notice is that sometimes NOT speaking and NOT acting is the best possible action ... the RIGHT Action.

Our culture, we are hard-wired to respond to everything that happens to us, or around us, with either activity or speech. It is nearly impossible to deprogram ourselves from that. Even in situations where there is absolutely nothing we can do, we still impulsively try to do or say something. But sometimes non-action is the smartest action. Certainly mindfulness is.

As my social media promotion for this podcast expressed for Lao Tzu: "Do you have the patience to wait...till your mud settles and the water is clear?"

We don’t have to act immediately, just because we have an internal reaction. We can pause, not act, breathe. We can watch this urge to act irrationally arise, then let it go away. Sometimes that takes a few seconds, other times it means we should remove ourselves politely from the situation and let ourselves cool down before we respond.

When you consciously try to build mindfulness into your day, what you notice is that sometimes NOT speaking and NOT acting is the best possible action ... the RIGHT Action.

As my social media promotion for this podcast expressed for Lao Tzu: "Do you have the patience to wait...till your mud settles and the water is clear?"

Previous Episode

Everyday Buddhism 8 - Mindfulness Discussion with Meg Salter

Mindfulness has become mainstream, but it is still confusing or unreachable for some who try to begin a mindfulness practice. What is it? Meg Salter takes the "woo-woo" out of it.

Mindfulness is not some magic light bulb that goes off and you're magically transformed, as Meg explains. You're still the same old person...only a slightly better version.

And guess what? It's not all about sitting cross-legged on a $200 cushion. Listen to Meg describe the "real benefit" of mindfulness: when you take it off the cushion. Learn about mindfulness in the style of Everyday Buddhism!

Next Episode

Everyday Buddhism 10 - Right Livelihood is What You Think About What You Do

In this podcast, we'll look at how we can move from thinking about work as what we are ... or as something we're 'stuck with' ... or as something we are 'becoming' on our progression up the ladder ... to how and who we are being with our work. Are we authentic? Are we mindful?

Work is THE golden opportunity to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We spend most of our waking hours at work. This is where we are presented with all the tough choices about right view, right intention, right speech, and right action.

Practicing "Right Livelihood" means practicing Right Mindfulness. The way you answer the phone ... the way you talk to a co-worker or client ... the way you file a file ... the way you act in a meeting. Do we honestly try to take care of our co-workers and customers? Or are we just doing our job?