Doing any trainstopping?

Having spent a bit of time training (facilitating leadership workshops) and training (using public transport) and living near Stazione San Pietro, I was thinking how to link them all, but it led me down a track I had been before, along the lines of 'life is a journey'.

This is like many of one’s thought patterns.

We can find ourselves being carried away on the train of thought, very easily.  More often than not we are speeding or rattling along the same well oiled familiar line.  If we are flung off in new directions, we can also end up in places that aren’t so helpful.  

In mindfulness, there is a saying, “when the train of thought is coming through the station, there is no need to get on board”.

 

With mindfulness we can learn to remain calm on the platform and become more aware of the trains pulling up and pulling away. With patience and practise we become more skilful in deciding which trains are useful to board and those that are not.  Which ones that will take us on the pathway of anger, fear and decline or those that can take us on the track of peace, happiness and prosperity. 

We will inevitably jump on board – either consciously or unconsciously - particularly if we like thinking.  It is knowing that whilst on board we still have a choice which provides us freedom.  We can give our attention to what is happening.  Regardless of the line we are on, we may decide the best thing to do for our transformation is to pull the stop chord and disembark.

To stop.  Just stop.  To be without thought.  To be still.   

Even if we stop once, it gives us the space to see more clearly and to offer a way out of our patterns.  

In ‘Stop That Train', Peter Tosh may have been on another track of thought, but he may also be illustrating thought patterns.  We don’t need to judge whether we are right or wrong.  We can choose to just stop.  Leave the train. 

Just stop.

Synchronicity being what it is,  I wasn’t surprised that another train metaphor message popped up in my inbox the other day...

“If a train doesn’t stop at your station, it’s simply because it’s not your train. Don’t try to flag down the conductor and convince them to stop there - their own map says that they should just keep going. You may not realize it, but there’s another train trying to come toward you, unable to get into your station because a train that doesn’t even belong there is being delayed there by your intensity.”

But that is another train of thought...;)

Notes:

Peter Tosh Stop That Train http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soK4WXR0zck

Image:  Agra, India from Steve McCurry as posted by Vivid Greeting Cards on Facebook 24 Feb 2013.    Vivid Greeting Cards – celebrating the world's wonders with gems found in cyberspace and Gallery Windows of VGC art - http://www.vividgreetingcards.co.uk/. Sign up to Vivid Greeting Cards Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vivid-Greeting-Cards/187838957957375

Post inspired by some ‘stopping themes’ that all arrived at once:

Tara Brach: Peace Work 9/11/2013 http://www.tarabrach.com/audioarchives2013.html#begin  @tarabrach

Gangaji on Addiction and Suffering http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlLcI5oDKu4&feature=youtu.be  @Gangaji   

“Even to stop once, you see what is already stopped, it is the truth of what you are. This cannot be forgotten” tweet byLeela Community @EliJaxonBear 

And you dear Cathy, for the other train message, which was a timely pass to me from Jacqueline Sita

Previous posting:  http://quintessenza-consulting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/and-you-when-will-you-begin-that-long.html
Other previous related postings:

http://quintessenza-consulting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/go-headless.html

http://quintessenza-consulting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/whats-in-that-space-between-there-and.html

This my 100th posting - a fine opportunity to stop at the station of gratitude for all who have supported me in their readership and provision of inspiration. Grazie mille!