A young mother with 2 small children and a wife of a popular Kabuki Actor passed away recently from cancer. Initially she said she blamed herself as a failure that she could not take care of her family as she used to do. As her illness progressed, once she was forced to let go of her clinging to be the ideal mother, she began to see her life with different angle. Rather than hiding behind her pain, she began to live her life by sharing her thoughts through a blog. In this BBC article, she stated If I died now, what would people think? – Poor thing, she was only…

In Japanese language, we believe in KOTO-DAMA which means each word has its own soul. Powers dwell in words, thus try to use right words with care. In other words, if you use right and kind words, you will receive benefit from such approach as if the word itself has own soul and power. I understand this as subconscious level of underlying waves which exists deep within our minds. Through which we are all connected, so that it would influence our feelings and actions. During Mindfulness Retreat, you will be introduced to Mindful Eating. Natural food are prepared for you, normally simple Italian dish made from organic vegetables grown by…

Live your life in the present moment, we know it would be wonderful. But how could we achieve this? Does anyone get the answer from a book? Brain scientists offer some evidence that sitting meditation is a useful method to gain inner peace. I agree as I fell this deep sense of peacefulness during and after sitting meditation. I also know this form of meditation alone will take quite a long time to reach stillness within you. It could well be harmful for some, as it could induce further rumination. Meditation with movement, however, will bring deep and true relaxation after practice. In addition, as you bring your awareness to…

I am not a Buddhist, but I am often in awe of the Buddha’s extraordinary wisdom. Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe consciousness; his model iceberg is floating in the ocean as an individual, completely separated entity. Jung’s “Collective Unconscious” has similarity to the Buddha’s 8th sense “Alaya-Shiki” (Alaya-vijJAna). According to Jung the human mind has innate characteristics imprinted on it that are never made conscious, as a result of evolution. The Buddha, as a scientist and psychologist, he already understood human mind in depth more than any modern scientist 2600 years ago. I am in awe of his sharp analytic ability and his deep love wishing…

Recently, I met a lovely lady who told me about her experience through truly difficult times. She also told me that her illness was a trigger to embrace life as it is. She walked away from her successful but stressful career to live in nature with her family. Very often, we struggle and experience suffering in life when it falls short of our expectations. We demand it should be different. Aruga-mama is derived from the psychological principles of Japanese Zen. The reality exists in front of you as it is, so why do you struggle with the reality? Instead of struggling with our reality, we can accept it as it…