I was initially turned off by Buddhist metta meditation. I felt it was silly sentimentality, like putting on a Pollyanna-ish fake smile. But slowly, things changed. Now I hold this practice most dearly. It turns out loving-kindness meditation is not sentimentality, and it is not really affection. It’s more about living with the Buddha called
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. Anagarika Munindra Being with
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.
We already have what we need – “your brain and your heart are your temples, and your philosophy, kindness.” It seems many of us get hooked by trying to get somewhere in our mindfulness meditation practice. We evaluate where we are now and feel there is some ultra-cool place, where meditation, if done correctly, will