Contraction and Expansion

The felt sense of our experience. That social gaff you just made; that embarassing moment when you tripped and others saw you; the raw engagement of another living being when your gazes meet.  What is the essence of each experience?  What do you feel in your belly, in your chest, in the soft tissues of [...]

Fresh Start

Often, there are interruptions to our practice, or at least our formal practice.
Interruption, does not mean we have to throw away the whole practice, or castigate ourselves. It is an unhelpful habit to think that ‘I am a failure’, and to somehow feel negatively towards ourselves because our formal practice has fallen away. Of course [...]

Self-Compassion

How can we come to know ourselves, accept ourselves, and ultimately show non-conditional love towards ourselves? These are elements of self-compassion or to use the term from Tibetan Buddhism ‘Maitri’ or unconditional friendliness towards ourselves (and others.) When learning to love, forgive, and cultivate compassion it is only possible to do this if we start [...]

Doing Time

Sometimes mindfulness meditation feels pleasurable, we enter into deep states of stillness or we encounter body sensations of peace and a sense of groundedness. Other times it feels very difficult, encountering anxiety, restlessness, sadness, frustration, anger/rage, or any other type of intense sensory experience that can be accompanied by compelling and painful thoughts. At [...]

What is this?

A useful question in day to day life. One of my meditation teachers often had us ask this question to ourselves once or twice a day, perhaps setting an alarm at random on our watch and engaging in this contemplative inquiry at that time the alarm rang.
When we ask ourselves ‘What is this?’ we are [...]

An Open Letter from Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Sharon Salzberg

I’ve posted a letter from Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Sharon Salzberg asking for financial assistance for Stephen and Ondrea Levine. Both have serious medical concerns and find themselves in need of help. They have dedicated their lives as both Meditation teachers and educators around mindful relationship, and have done seminal work around [...]

Experience the Present with your body

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the phrase from people that I feel like I am a bad person.  Let’s correct that languaging error.  “I feel like I am a bad person” is a thought, not a feeling.  To be accurrate we would say “I think that I am a bad person” and [...]

Calm Abiding

Shamatha or Samatha (Pali) translates to calm abiding. In the Buddhist meditation traditions this is a form of meditation that involves concentration narrowed to one object.  Most frequently this is the breath.  Mindfulness of breath is another name for this.  The instructions are simple.

Find an upright and relaxed posture, either sitting on the floor or [...]

Letting Go

One of the lessons of Mindfulness practice is a kind of letting go or surrender.  As we relate to our body-mind experience there will initially be some effort to build concentration, attention, and equanimity.  Once we are ‘over the hump’ so to speak we may find ourselves falling into experience.  Becoming completely immersed in the [...]

What is Mindfulness? (Part III)

We have talked about the essential components of Mindfulness:
Presence, Attention and Concentration combined with an attitude of gentleness, patience and nurturance towards the self. Coming back again and again from the past, the future, wherever we drift to the present moment. What is cultivated by our intention to bring Mindfulness to our lives?
Shinzen Young, [...]