Author Archives: John Barter
MORE IN OUR NATURE
Dear Friends
We now find ourselves Mid -Winter as we work our way through this year.
Throughout the world the weather and climate continues to be both surprising and challenging, reminding us to be attentive to both Nature and the Natural Environment.
Recently I spent a weekend in Nature at Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery at Tullera near Lismore.
During this weekend I was involved in a Well-Being in Nature Day, for Health and Helping Professionals. Both Venerable Pannyavaro and myself spoke to...
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Welcome to Winter 2022
Dear Friends
Welcome to Winter 2022.
Another Season arrives into our Life, which also means that another ‘Season of our Lives’ has gone.
Here in the Southern Hemisphere, Winter is the middle Season of the year, beginning according the calendar on June 1st.
We actually experience five Seasons in our year!
The year begins in Summer, then into Autumn, then Winter, then Spring and then back into Summer to end the year.
The mid-point of the year can become a good time to pause and...
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Welcome to Autumn 2022
Dear Friends,
Whilst Autumn appeared to arrive early this year; my e-Newsletter is a month late!
This is the result of last months huge Weather Event – causing significant flooding along the East Coast of Australia – with major devastation to towns, homes and businesses.
I was without Power for several Days, no running water, and no Phone / Internet line for a couple of weeks. Many people, families, homes and businesses will take months to recover from what nature has offered...
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NEW YEAR NEWSLETTER 2022
Dear Friends
Welcome to our New Year 2022 and the middle of Summer. Summer is the season for us that transcends and connects the old year with the New Year. My last Newsletter to you with my verse for Summer notes this interesting point.
In December last year a number of us spent a wonderful day in Nature at Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery. The occasion was a Wellbeing In Nature Day with Reflections offered by Venerable Pannyavaro and also myself on...
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AN ATTITUDE OF GREAT GRATITUDE
Dear Friends
Welcome to our New Year 2022.
What makes a year New, Fresh and Alive, may be more about our Approach or Attitude to it than what actually happens within it.
We may face and engage many things this year that we have done countless times in previous years; yet if we see, view and approach them with a helpful attitude they can feel and be a new experience for us.
The Buddhist Path Factor of ‘Right View’; the first of the...
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HIGHLIGHT THE ALL
Dear Friends
What do we tend to give attention to, focus on, make important or ‘Highlight’?
Are these things that we ‘Highlight’, important, significant and special ? Will they aid and support in bringing what is actually important for us?
We do so easily get caught into and caught up in things that are more of an attraction and distraction from what is important and meaningful for us in the long-term and is the ‘bigger picture’ of our Life.
As we end this...
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Summer Newsletter 2021
SUMMER ARRIVES
Dear Friends
Welcome to Summer!
The Season of Summer is special around the world. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer brings a Mid-Year welcome relief from the grey clouded sky and stark cold that is Autumn and Winter.
Here in the Southern Hemisphere, Summer is the Season that connects the Old Year to the New Year. It is the reward of having got through the year and then venturing forth into the New Year with warmth and light.
The ending of...
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UNBINDING AND UNWINDING
Dear Friends
As we move towards the end of the year, we often feel that we are getting busier and busier, rushing to fit so much in before the year ends. Whilst the year is winding up – we feel that we are winding up and getting wound up!
The end of the year ideally is a winding down and slowing down into a time of relaxation and holiday from the year of work.
Much of the stress we experience is self-created...
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LET MINDFULNESS BECOME YOU
Dear Friends
So often our mind becomes identified with and then identified as – our limitations, stress and suffering.
The ‘Mental Self-Talk’ so easily gets caught in a neural loop of the ‘Negativity Bias’. Through not understanding the mental activity of the ‘Identification Process’; the mind identifies some Mental, Emotional or Physical State; then becomes Identified with this; then becomes Identified As This!
I am Angry, I am Anxious, I am Distressed, I am Depressed, I am a Less-Than, I am a...
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LET MINDFULNESS REMIND US
Dear Friends
It can be helpful to remind ourselves that there is never not a moment that Mindfulness cannot be helpful for us. There is never not an experience that cannot be enhanced by being Mindful. There is never not something to do, as we can always be practicing and developing our Mindfulness with whatever is happening.
Mindfulness collects Mind Energy and connects us with our ongoing experience with Clarity and Care.
In times of challenge and change it is imperative to...
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