Category: Life

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Contemplation Life Reading

LISTEN LEARN SHARE by James R Martin

Listening mindfully is a different type of listening than what we may hear with our ears. In fact our human sense of hearing is subjective and filters out much of what might be heard if we pay attention to the sounds around us.

Mindfulness involves, being aware of what is happening now, in the moment in four areas. First we are aware of our body, movements, sensations and posture. We listen to our breathing and to our hearts. The next aspect of mindfulness is to listen to and be aware of what we feel is pleasant and unpleasant. Being aware of feelings is important because it shows what we may be clinging to, judging or condemning. The third thing we listen to is our consciousness. We are aware of all of our mental states like anger or fear and their impermanent nature. The fourth aspect of mindfulness is awareness of the cosmic order and/or the Dharma, life and the true nature of our existence.

To listen mindfully is to be aware of our environment, our bodies and minds in the present moment. Being mindful in any of these areas brings clarity and balance to the mind. Being mindful is listening and being aware in the present moment.

 

Available on Amazon

 

 

 

Categories
Contemplation Meditation News People Reading Relationships

LISTENING IS THE KEY TO LEARNING

 

 

Reviewers have written about Listen Learn Share

“What the book ‘The Secret’ is to intention, ‘Listen, Learn, Share’ is to positive thought process and awareness.”

“Liked James R. Martin new book “Listen, Learn, and Share”. An impressive collaboration of eastern and western thinking, there is much to learn from it about the world as a whole.”

“The stated purpose of this book is to share some simple truths to help people along their life paths. The book delivers on this purpose in a clear, gentle, and compelling way, providing many helpful insights into how to think about and consider our thoughts and feelings...”

 

It’s very easy to lose or shut down your learning ability. You can’t grow or make changes to your life if you’re not listening. Without listening and learning you keep creating similar outcomes, which are not always what you desire.

It’s like the sound of a recording, a word or note, stuck on the same glitch in the track, repeating itself endlessly, unable to get passed the glitch.

You can’t reset the recording if you don’t hear the glitch. You can’t move ahead if your tires are spinning.

You need to stop looking in the rear-view mirror, while you try to drive forward.

Listen, Learn, Share is a book that will help you get unstuck. It explores this phenomenon, exposing the causes of not moving forward, as it reveals how to move your mind into the present.

 

LISTEN LEARN SHARE IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND APPLE iBOOK

Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways

 

 

ALSO BY James R Martin Available on Amazon

Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines … (Documentary and Nonfiction Storytelling)

 

Categories
Contemplation Life Meditation Observations Reading

Article on Vipassana Meditation

What Exactly is Vipassana Meditation?

Vipassana or insight meditation is a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens.

By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

The distinction between Vipassana meditation and other styles of meditation is crucial and needs to be fully understood. Buddhism addresses two major types of meditation. They are different mental skills, modes of functioning or qualities of consciousness. In Pali, the original language of Theravada literature, they are called Vipassana and Samatha.

Vipassana can be translated as “Insight,” a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. Samatha can be translated as “concentration” or “tranquility.” It is a state in which the mind is brought to rest, focused only on one item and not allowed to wander. When this is done, a deep calm pervades body and mind, a state of tranquility which must be experienced to be understood.

More of article

 

What Exactly Is Vipassana Meditation?

LISTEN LEARN SHARE

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Contemplation News Reading

LISTEN LEARN SHARE

Have you ever asked yourself questions like: “Why does this always happen to me?” I’m successful but why am I not happy? Why is life so stressful? Why do certain things make me so angry? What causes rage? This book will help you to answer these questions and others, as it takes you on a step-by-step journey exploring ideas about how the human mind works and how listening, learning and sharing can resolve these issues.

Listen Learn Share is a story inspired by a question. “If you had to choose just one of the things you do, would you choose teaching, making films and documentaries, or writing?” My answer to the question surprised me. I realized they were all the same experience so there was no need to choose. My life was listening, learning and sharing. It did not matter what form it took, it was all the same practice. How did this happen? Was listening the key to learning? What role did sharing play? I found that listening is a state of mind rather than a tool by itself. I discovered that listening is more than what is heard via sound waves entering the ears.

“It seems that there should be one word that exemplifies the concept of listening, learning and sharing. This word should describe a state of mind with a sense that embodies the combined spirit of all three words. I believe the word is “mindfulness.”

“Twenty-six centuries after Buddha taught his philosophy science has begun to recognize that much of what he taught supports their research. Psychologists are now confirming the concept of “No Self” and the fact that “I” and “Me” are just constructs of the mind.”

This story draws from the authors forty-six years of teaching, making documentaries, fiction work, and writing. The book explains how the practice of listening, learning and sharing works and how it is tied in with meditation and mindfulness.

Print version of Listen Learn Share available January 17th.   

 

 

 

Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways

 

Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines by … and Nonfiction Storytelling Book 1)

 

Categories
Contemplation Life News

Three Paths

Tibetan Master Patrul Rinpoche Outlines Three Unique Paths to Enlightenment

“One day he said to a small group of his students: “The purpose of life is to help all sentient beings to be free from suffering. In order to do this, you need to cultivate unconditional, unlimited, and pure compassion toward all, without any exception.”

Patrul Rinpoche always encouraged discussion, debate, and dialogue, so after making this all-encompassing statement, he asked, “Do you understand?”

One of the students had some questions. “Are there not three ways to seek enlightenment? Should I first attain enlightenment for myself and then help others to enlightenment? Or should I work on my own enlightenment at the same time as helping others to enlightenment? Or should I assist others first and then work on my own enlightenment? Which is the best way? Please, Lama, would you explain it to us in a way we can’t possibly misunderstand?”

More…

Tibetan Master Patrul Rinpoche Outlines Three Unique Paths to Enlightenment

Categories
Arts Contemplation Photography

Meditation On A Mountain

MountmeIMG_0622jrm

 

 

 

 

 

©J R Martin

See below or double-click for larger image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MountmeIMG_0622jrm

©J R Martin 2016

Categories
Film Life Observations Relationships

Meet The Patels Review

MeetPatelscovThe best documentaries both inform and entertain. The viewer learns something new and enjoys the experience. Meet The Patels, winner of the audience award at the 2014 Los Angles Film Festival, achieves these goals as it explores the pressure on Indian American families to maintain their culture and traditions like marriage, when dealing with their American assimilated, second generation children.

This documentary is about Indian Americans, but it is also representative of what happens with other ethnic groups that have resettled in North and South America over the years. All ethnic groups coming to the United States have experienced the pressures of assimilation.

To view the entire review by Jim Martin go to Meet The Patels at J R Martin Media

Categories
Contemplation Film Spirituality

Women And Spirituality — The Goddess Trilogy

WOMEN AND SPIRITUALITY THE GODDESS TRILOGY is a three-hour, three-part series made between 1987 and 1992 sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada.  Part 1 – GODDESS REMEMBERED looks at prehistory and evidence,  beginning with stone age culture, where carved Goddess sculpture and cave paintings  are found in France. The Mother Earth creation story, along with the nurturing role of women in peaceful hunter gather groups is established.

To read the entire review go to  J R Martin Media Documentary Reviews.

 

Categories
Contemplation Life Observations

The Stranger In The Room

The Path

After some dinner nearby, my son and I headed into the Dr. Phillips, Disney Theater in Orlando to see a live performance with Steve Martin and Martin Short. There in the busy lobby I felt consciously present, in the moment aware of the environment, absorbed by the people and ambiance of this place and time. Anticipating the two-hour performance I headed into the restroom, which appeared to be a long room with facilities on either side. As I walked along looking for an open place, I noticed an older man walking toward me, almost like he knew me, he smiled, as he grew closer I noticed that he had a baseball cap on just like mine, and I started to say, “we have the same cap,” but as I reached up, pointing to my hat, my arm came into contact with the wall-to-wall, floor to ceiling mirror at the end of the room. I realized that the stranger coming toward me was my reflection in this mirror.

I’ve seen my photograph and reflections in the mirror a million times, but this was always from my subjective perspective. It seemed this time, for a moment, perhaps for the first time; I saw this body that I call me, as a stranger, in what could only be a mindful, “not self,” reflection.

One of the tenants of Buddhist philosophy is the “No Self” concept.   Whoever was there a moment ago is no longer you. The notion of “I” or “Me” or “I Am” does not exist. There is no “mini me” in the body’s mind, head or heart, making decisions. There may be memories of the past but those are thoughts stored in the archives of the mind’s modules that render a subjective point-of-view to what is experienced. The feeling of joy or pain is also not you; it’s an impermanent, passing thought or state.

Insight Meditation and the resulting Mindfulness facilitate mind and body living in the present moment, bare attention, non judgmental awareness of what is being experienced now, not thinking about past or future events and conversations.

Written by James R (Jim) Martin

Categories
Arts Contemplation Observations Photography Poetry

Three Photographs and Haiku Poems

IMG_1041cloudsA photograph can be a Haiku without words.

 

Afternoon gray clouds crowding

patches  April blue sky

Trees wave green greetings

 

 

 

 

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Crow on a roof peak

Squawks presence loudly

Indifferent Blue Jay waits

 

 

 

 

maymagnolia1

May Magnolia trumpet

Summer approaching

another moment passing

 

 

 

Photographs and words by James (Jim) Martin ©2016