Working out with mind training

Buddhism, Culture, Diet, Health, Sport

This year I had the big idea to lose some weight. I have been very busy with the mind training however. Now I think I am where I should be, so it’s time to start. I want to lose 25 kilos and I want to see if that is actually possible to do that with the Jenny Craig vegetarian food at my age of just 50 years.

We all need to exercise and train the mind to keep fit and healthy. Buddhist believe the only real state of health is Buddhahood. Once you have fully purified the body, speech and mind and attained the perfection of these qualities: generosity, morality, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, concentration and wisdom. Buddhas are fully transcendent, fully purified, fully all knowing, fully perfected, Awakened Ones.

I plan to be at the gym by about 8:30am and work out for a couple of hours a day doing a walk and about 20 laps of swimming each morning. How fast will the weight come off or be lost? I will blog about the experience and see how things progress. I don’t think I will suffer.

Copyright © Vanessa Anne Walsh 2019

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Mastering the art of prostrations.

art, Buddhism, Philosophy, Sport, Tibetan Buddhism

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Mantra Count to date (first three days): 282.

Daily Total so far Wednesday 15 November 2017: 103.

This is all just an experiment really to see how or what is the balance for a 48 year old. How much is too much or too little. At any rate, I need to improve strength and fitness. It’s a practice in relaxation. Meditation and prostration. It’s subduing to the heart realising the impact of ageing and sickness. 400 prostrations a day was just a target, but I’m not sure how realistic that is for someone like me.

Personally I enjoy mahamudra meditation. Prostrations should combine well with that. There’s not a lot to say when you look at Lama Tsong Khapa who managed apparently to achieve a count of 3.5 million prostrations over the course of his life. The culture these days isn’t terribly supportive of spiritual practice. Tibetan culture is deep and of course very meaningful when you study the opportunity of a precious human rebirth to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It’s a challenge facing the hatred in humans in general when you endeavour to put into practice the advice and commitments for training the mind in virtue and of course bodhicitta.