osteopathy, mindfulness, compassionate non-judgemental awareness, presence and healing

Those who know me as an osteopath, many also by now begin to understand my love of poetry.
Carl Roger's  (the father of Humanistic psychology and 'client-centered' therapy) considered that the most important thing in the therapeutic relationship was simply to be 'fully present' with the client, and to listen fully, compassionately and non-judgementally.

Mindfulness seems to be mainstream, and everyone seems to have heard about it.  Once all the 'qi and blood' and biological energy we invest in our 'narrative mode' of anxieties and restless thinking is spared -  how much more of the body's resources might be available for tissue healing?  Something to reflect on perhaps.

http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/painManagement/painManagement.html
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/selfcare/mindfulnessForHealth.html

Ryokan   (from  Sky Above:  Great Wind  The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan):

Past has passed away

Future has not arrived

Present does not remain

Nothing is reliable; everything must change.

You hold on to letters and names in vain

forcing yourself to believe in them.

Stop chasing new knowledge

leave old views behind.

Study the essential

and then see through it.

When there is nothing left to see through,

then you will know your mistaken views.

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And, seemingly on a very similar theme from Buddha:

One Who Has Had a Single Excellent Night

Let not a person revive the past

or on the future build his hopes;

For the past has been left behind

And the future has not been reached.

Instead with insight let him see

each presently arisen state.

Let him know that and be sure of it

invincibly, unshakeably.

Today the effort must be made.

Tomorrow death may come, who knows?

No bargain with mortality

can keep him and his hordes away.

But one who dwells thus ardently

relentlessly, by day, by night  -

It is he, the peaceful sage has said

who has had a single excellent night.

Bhaddekaratta Sutta 1211 - 1214  (Pali Cannon)

  

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and one more poem from Ryokan:

Delusion and enlightenment
two sides of a coin
Universal and particular
just parts of one whole

All day I read the wordless scriptures
All night I practice no-practice meditation
On the riverbank, a bush warbler
sings in the weeping willow
In the sleeping village, a dog bays at the moon
Nothing troubles the free flow of my feelings
But how can this mind be passed on?