Dear Friends, In Guided Meditation – Mudita, DaRa offers some opening comments, then sparks some generosity and gratitude through a story and reflection, and leads an appreciative joy practice that radiates joy to beings in all directions. She says we’re up to something radical here by intentionally cultivating joy, gladdening the heart. There are many joyful moments in… Read More »
Dear Friends, In insight meditation, we often practice cultivating four specific qualities of the heart: kindness (a.k.a. metta, loving kindness, goodwill, friendliness), compassion, joy (particularly joy in the joy of others, a.k.a. mudita), and equanimity (having a balanced perspective). In some circles, my fellow practitioners and I have discussed that this list could include a fifth quality: gratitude.… Read More »
Dear Friends, There are many ways to practice meditation. Over the course of this month, we have started very with a narrow focus (breath) and have widened the scope of possibilities to invite the inclusion of body sensations, hearing, the flavor (pleasant thru unpleasant), thoughts and emotions. We have also invited some more heartful practices of kindness, compassion,… Read More »
Dear Friends, A friend of mine welcomed a new granddaughter into the world on Saturday. And at the same time, her 95 year-old mother-in-law is in palliative care. This reminds me of a verse in Sarah Slean’s song “Cosmic Ballet“ Sick woman in a sick bed waitingLight fast fading in her eyesSomewhere else, another light is fallingTurning into… Read More »
Dear Friends, I have noticed a particularly sticky thought pattern. It’s the one that says to me, “You’re not good enough. You should be doing more. You always lose your keys – how can you be that disorganized. You’ll never be able to do that thing, so why even try.” And on and on. Mark Coleman wrote a… Read More »
Dear Friends, “The eyes see; the ears hear; the mind thinks.” I have heard many meditation teachers give a statement similar to the above. In the same way we don’t expect hearing to stop just because we are meditating, we also should not expect thinking to stop. That said, we can learn to relate to the thoughts in… Read More »
Dear Friends, Diana Winston wrote: Your body is the doorway to mindfulness. As you may have noticed by now, your mind can be anywhere at any time…. Your body, by contrast, is always in the present moment, so brining attention to it brings you automatically into the present. The task is to turn your attention to this reality,… Read More »
Dear Friends, Like many of you, I wake up in the morning and read the email that was sent out… I have a little friend who reads it with me, and it tells me lots of things… “That email sucked. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re a terrible writer. You forgot to add this in. You… Read More »
Dear Friends, I was quite moved by Bhante Gunaratana’s description of how mindfulness of breathing can connect us to all beings: But all living beings breath. Breathing does not differentiate among Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, and Zoroastraians. Nor does it distinguish between rich and poor, capitalists and socialists, or conservatives and liberals for that matter. When… Read More »
