Your well-being is actually independent of conditions. As your practice matures over time, the feeling of well-being arises more frequently and in all kinds of situations. We have all we need to lead a fulfilling life now. If you can breathe, you can be mindful. We may feel a little chagrined finding ourselves in those…
It’s been a year now since Trump was elected president. No matter what your party affiliation, or non-affiliation, this year-old administration has caused many to feel trepidation and uncertainty about the future. In his farewell address to the nation last year, Barack Obama said “at our core we will be OK.” Driving home from work…
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 creator of a popular Mindfulness app was on Jimmy Fallon Live last Friday night talking about how boredom happens because we have lost the skill of paying attention, and that we are all distraction junkies. Andy Puddicombe guides Jimmy and the Tonight Show audience through a brief meditation that can be done anywhere.” Holy…
The work of meditation is finding a home in the present moment and letting go of anything that tries to pull you away. The lychees didn’t fruit much this year. In fact, barely at all. I thought maybe it was something I said? Some freaky karma thing? Two years ago, our family was excited to…
why we meditate We meditate for lots of reasons: stress relief, maybe lower our blood pressure, feel less anxious, or just to feel better, physically and maybe existentially. But I think under all these is a deeper one, which the Buddha made the central message of his teaching: to be free from suffering in all…
As a leader and host of a mindfulness meditation group meeting weekly now for 19 years, I can tell you what you already know – people are wigging out. Writing recently about the inauguration on the Lion’s Roar site, Susan Piver says we suffer because we are continuously “biting the hook” of our habitual reactions,…
I read online somewhere that before they enter kindergarten kids are exposed to thousands of commercials. I remember when our son was just four he told me most emphatically “Daddy we need to buy that toothpaste — next time, tell Mommy.” Popular and social media mesmerize many with 24/7 slogans, sound bites and odd notions…
I was recently reading a very inspiring book by Mary O’Malley, the title of which I love: What is in the Way is the Way. In the bio blurp on inside back cover Mary writes that she “barely survived childhood.” The compact bio continues: “Throughout her youth, she experienced an ever-deepening descent into darkness, culminating…