We are acquainted with complication. We know the feeling of being tangled, knee-deep in old resentments or lost in anxiety, listening to the compelling arguments of our reactive mind. In these moments, we are, in a way, disconnected from ourselves. Being tangled up obscures the inner peace mindfulness is meant to reveal. In the words…
What makes it so hard to stick with a simple meditation we do every day? What gets in our way, and how can we make meditation a regular part of our lives? The instructions are so simple: relax and just be aware of what is happening in the present moment. And yet we find this…
I recently completed an intensive, 30 day silent meditation retreat in California following a very strict Burmese Buddhist lineage, with formal sessions totaling sixteen and a half hours per day. Each day began at 4am with the gentle sound of a bell signaling the start of another day of meditation. Each day was another opportunity…
This simple practice helps release unhelpful preoccupations that creep into your mind space as you sit quietly and observe your thoughts. As we release these unhelpful preoccupations, we find less craving for distraction hits like the news. What would it be like to spend more time absorbed in mystery and awe rather than in your…
The other day I read this haiku by the Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa. It stopped my distracted mind in its tracks. What a strange thing!To be alivebeneath cherry blossoms. What a marvel, what a special thing it is to be conscious, to be aware, and to know that we’re aware. We’re not here for that…
If we get uptight about feeling uncomfortable in meditation, just remember this simple instruction- give careful and kind attention to whatever arises. Do you ever find yourself feeling uncomfortable in meditation after just settling in? If your mind could text you, what would it say? Lately, mine would text: Oh, no- not my aching knee…
One of my first meditation teachers, Sharon Salzberg, often talks about her early days learning how to meditate in India under her teacher, Munindra. One of his first counsels to her was: Try to be with each breath as though it was your first, and as though it was your last. Being with each breath…
Someone once asked Suzuki Roshi, the pioneering Zen teacher from Japan who founded the Zen Center of San Francisco in 1969: “Roshi, what’s the most important thing?” and he answered: To find out what’s the most important thing. Byron Katie, who teaches a practice called self-inquiry, said that the world’s number one problem is confusion.…
I remember this cartoon I saw perhaps 20 years ago while waiting at a doctor’s office. A woman and a man are sitting together at a coffee shop in some urban setting. The man looks over and says: I’m sorry. I was so busy listening to myself talk I forgot what I was saying. That…
When asked the value of contemplative life, the 13th century Japanese monk Dogen said it allowed him to feel “an intimacy with all things.” Mindfulness allows us to see a flower, or watch a sunset, or eat a mango, with nothing in between us and the experience. When you are this intimate, you have gotten…