( Translated from french : Hilary Mac Rae)

LIFE IN PINK

Let’s be honest, ‘Life in pink’ was just a heading to grab readers.

So now you are here, poring over these few lines, what are they about? What’s the subject? Nothing short of explaining – in fewer than 800 words (leftovers from editing) – the secret of happiness.

In the face of such a challenge, some might think twice. And yet, today, Ladies and Gentlemen, before your very eyes, oriental spirituality and the most recent scientific discoveries will join forces and lead you in exploring your brain and its incredible abilities! Are you ready to change your life? Ok, let’s go!

“ Daaaaahling, what are you thinking about?” Some important information about consciousness and the content of thoughts. Whether sitting comfortably in front of the goggle box , fixing a blind or reflecting on the future of the planet, Daaaaahling will certainly have the following types of thoughts:

• Images ( Ronaldo’s goal while doing a reverse triple jump with no hands)

• Sounds ( a little voice in the head “ this bloody blind is getting on my nerves”)

• Or physical and emotional feelings ( a tightening in the solar plexus, thinking about fracking in the USA .)

In Buddhism we call these “ mental objects.” Modern disciplines like NLP allow us to know an individual’s types of thought ( not the content, you will be reassured to know, we aren’t in “Big Brother”) by observing the direction of the gaze- the movements of the eyes.

At the beginning of the first millennium, spiritual seekers noted all the movements or types of thought possible in one of the first texts on human psychology : the Abhidharma.

A little spiritual experiment – a short meditation.

Dear reader , to resume, your thoughts may be images, sounds, feelings, which may follow upon each other at amazing speed. The whole art of meditation is to become aware of these incessant movements, with the curiosity of a child. We now invite you to a live experiment, with you as the human guinea pig.

Length – 2 minutes maximum ( specially adapted for hyperactive types)

Place – anywhere.

Position – sitting, back upright , eyes partly closed, like Bob Marley.

Dress code – casual home wear.

The exercise

In this calm but dynamic position, become aware of everything that comes into your mind. What are you thinking right now? It’s usually pretty trivial ( no offence) and passes quite quickly.

A little piece of advice to guide your experiment : most people function a lot in terms of images, or the “ little voice in the head” ( theirs or some else’s) How about you?

Be quiet … just for two short minutes…and in this time, the stars are dancing…

The kindness of neutrality.

Once you have made the first contact, a way to explore the path ahead opens up: what persistent thoughts do you have? What do you come back to? What are your frequent feelings? Etc. With practice, we find that investigating our thoughts becomes easier and easier. And enriching. It allows us to really understand the famous Greek saying “ Know yourself and you will know the whole universe.”

But that’s not all! Buddhist spirituality invites us above all to keep a neutral attitude towards the movements of the mind. A sort of kind neutrality towards ourself. This is THE essential point. Thoughts come and go, and that’s quite normal. So what we need to do , is to observe at a distance, without judging or commentating, just letting them be free. Without inserting something like “ This is so useless, I’m getting nowhere.” Or,” The number of thoughts I have is crazy, can’t you just shut up in there?”

Life in pink, or grey or blue….

In this place of kind neutrality, you can observe all kinds of thoughts, from very dark to very wonderful. From pink to blue, grey to black. From “ God, this is so stupid” to “ I promise from now on to meditate every day.” The way to freedom becomes the way of peaceful acceptance. And thoughts which are accepted can melt away, without leaving any trace, in a healing dissolution.

On this same theme, you can :

explore my video ( with English subtitles) : eyes wide open in the present moment. With a live exercise for you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0eq0u57FNM

Try very good places in UK to learn meditation : http://www.izauk.org/

Have a nice time !