Thich Nhat Hanh – No Mud, no Lotus.
Most spiritual teachers, if you listen long enough, will start to talk about the mind as having ‘seeds’. All the ‘seeds’ in the mind have a different vibration to them. There might be seeds of fear, seeds of self-criticism, seeds of boredom, and seeds of compassion. In our mind, we have the power to be in hell or in heaven.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s second principle for transforming suffering is to water the seeds of positivity. He says that if we focus on what is positive in us, it will grow without much effort.
When we are constantly focused on the things we are worrying about, the worry only increases as often we don’t have solutions for these problems, they are just problems. He suggests finding the positive parts of self and focusing on those.
Of course, this is not an overnight solution for all mental health issues, but it does offer a research-based practice to engage in if you chose to.
Check out Kristin Neff’s work on Self-Compassion and research on mindfulness for more info.
If you would like a guided compassion practice – check out the “Compassionate Observer Guided Meditation”. Let me know how you find it.
Reference: Thich Nhat Hanh. (2014). No Mud, No Lotus. Parallax Press: Berkeley, California. p. 62.
