I decided to not make any new year’s resolutions. Well, except maybe one. I resolve to just be myself. I always felt making a set of resolutions meant needing to improve myself, be better at something, or change my body somehow. The blogger Krista O’Reilly-Davi-Digui, a working, single mom who writes about minimalism and the
We open little by little into the warmth and tenderness of our own essential vulnerability. Despite all that’s wrong in the world, at times I surrender and trust that I can be of some benefit by staying awake for it all, but non entangled, yet connected by a caring heart. The line from a poem
I am often asked why I meditate, what am I trying to accomplish by sitting on a cushion? Depending on who asks, I answer something like – To clearly see why I suffer, and with that understanding to cultivate peace of mind and a kind heart. why I meditate I have personally found mindfulness practice
Even though it’s not the end of the year yet, Thanksgiving has always been a time of reflection for me. I look back with chagrin at all my failures and aspirations. And I think about our world. We don’t have to look too far to see how much pain we have been through
According to later Buddhist thought, human beings are fundamentally good. This is not just a theory; it’s an unmistakable meditation insight. One could say that meditation is the practice of directly experiencing our essential goodness, our fundamentally healthy and happy mind. If we are fundamentally good, healthy and happy, then why don’t we feel this
Understanding the central message of the Buddhist traditions can be a complex undertaking. I have met several people who have dedicated their entire adult lives to studying the sutras in the original languages. While their ability to synthesize complex topics into understandable English is impressive, I did not feel their hearts were liberated from what
When asked about the fruit of the spiritual life, the 13th century Japanese monk Dogen Zenji replied: “Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.” Mindfulness allows us to intimately see a flower, or watch a sunset, or eat a mango, with nothing in between us and the experience. connection with life as it is Breath by
I would like to address a couple of misconceptions I often hear regarding meditation and one’s emotional life. The first is we meditate to either to get rid of negative emotions, such as anger, or to manufacture positive ones, such as joy. The second is meditation erases our emotions altogether, leaving us emotional flat-liners. nothing
The meditation practice of metta, or loving-kindness, has had a profound effect on me over the years. I would like to touch on some of these as an offer of encouragement to discover the healing depth and profound re-orientation metta offers those who are drawn to mindfulness. greater self-acceptance Metta helps me accept myself as