by
admin2 28 Jan |
4 Comments(originally on The Huffington Post 1/28/10)
In Buddhism there is a lot of discussion about cultivating mindfulness and awareness. In a nutshell, mindfulness is the ability to pay attention to something, to hold your attention to a particular object or activity. The key is to stabilize our focus so we are able to compensate for the habit of our mind just jumping around like a frog from topic to topic. It is a very basic but potent capacity that we can develop. We can apply that mindfulness to any topic — compassion, impermanence, practical matters, the body, and to the mind itself to gain greater insight into what our mind is and how it works[...]
by
admin2 19 Jan |
3 Comments(originally on the Huffington Post 1/20/10)
According to the Buddhist teachings, we spend most of our time in this world in a kind of daydream. Within our “daydream” we are relating to what is going in our world but our sense of reality is heavily filtered by memories, habitual patterns of our mind, projections about the future etc. etc. etc. During the night, when we are “asleep,” our story lines continue in the form of night dreams[...]
by
admin2 13 Jan |
3 Comments(originally on the Huffington Post 1/13/10)
Having recently seen my son Ethan represent the Buddhist community on CNN, it occurred to me that many folks here in the West may not really know much about the Buddhist tradition and what it has to say about redemption, salvation, or anything else for that matter[...]
by
admin2 04 Jan |
1 Comment(originally on The Huffington Post 1/4/10)
Shamatha or mindfulness meditation is a very organic practice, a foundational practice. It’s based on noticing the moment when our awareness connects with our present situation, and actually deliberately cultivating that kind of simple awareness. The benefit is that we become more synchronized in body and mind and begin to relate to our world in a less distracted and more wakeful way[...]
by
admin2 29 Dec |
2 Comments(originally on The Huffington Post 12/29/09)
The way I was taught about meditation is that you study the “manual” under the guidance of your teacher, figure out what’s going on a little bit, then you practice, you study, practice, study, practice. Without a clear view of the whole process, it’s possible to just roam and fumble around for decades or lifetimes for that matter. Developing clarity in the “view” means understanding why we should meditate and how do to go about it. So having a clear view is the first step and then actually doing the practice is the second step[...]
by
admin2 24 Dec |
3 Comments(originally on The Huffington Post 12/24/09)
I think it’s fair to ask ourselves early on, why are we afraid of just sitting still? Why are we terrified of that? Or irritated by it? Actually it’s for you to find out. But I would like to suggest the possibility that we are afraid of ourselves. We are quite literally afraid of ourselves[...]
