Dear Friends, Continuing with Sally Armstrong’s talk, “Facets of Equanimity,” looking at some of the ways equanimity might be experienced in our meditation practice. She states, “Any moment of true or clear mindfulness has equanimity in it.” You can hear this balance of equanimity in the definitions of mindfulness Sally shares. Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with Sally Armstrong’s talk, “The roles of mindfulness, metta and equanimity in our practice“, and her discussion on mindfulness… Sally shares various definitions of mindfulness, but I really resonate with the definition that Jeanne Corrigal offers: Mindfulness is paying attention, with open, curious interest, to what is happening within and around us, with the intention… Read More »
Dear Friends, This is the fifth year I have offered this daily email in January, and I’m honoured that you have chosen to join me in this iteration. When it comes to choosing a theme, I often find that something speaks to me in several ways through the year. The idea of balance has been something I’ve been… Read More »
Dear Friends, The closing paragraph of Christina Feldman’s Boundless Heart gives us the big picture of where/why/how these practices from this month matter: The noble abidings of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity becomes immeasurable and unshakeable when rooted in profound understanding. Step by step and moment by moment, a home is established in the qualities that ennoble our lives… Read More »
Dear Friends, This weekend, I sat a retreat led by Jeanne Corrigal. The topic was “Coming Home: to dharma, to love, to ourselves, and each other”. It was a beautiful retreat that brought together teachings from Buddhist and Indigenous traditions. One of my key takeaways was in reconnecting to the wisdom that comes from an embodied knowing –… Read More »
Dear Friends, Galway Kinnell’s poem St Francis and the Sow starts: The budstands for all things,even for those things that don’t flower,for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessaryto reteach a thing its loveliness,to put a hand on its browof the flowerand retell it in words and in touchit is lovelyuntil it flowers again from within, of self-blessing… Read More »
Dear Friends, Yesterday, I shared Christina Feldman’s idea that with mindfulness, we “turn towards” experience, and then with kindness, we can “stand beside” it. (Some of us may remember Jeanne sharing teachings on this approach too.) With this attitude, aversion doesn’t have to go away – wow! Christina says, “we learn to bring an attitude of kindness to… Read More »
Dear Friends, We are about to start another month-long exploration of ways to support a daily meditation practice. I’m so honored to have you as part of this community. The theme we will be exploring this month is infusing mindfulness with kindness as we go about daily life, with inspiration from the book Boundless Heart: The Buddha’s Path… Read More »
Dear Friends, As another January draws to a close, I want to thank you for your words of encouragement, your comments and emails, and your dedication to your practice. It’s so much easier to sit on the cushion each day, knowing that many of you are joining me in that practice. A practice of gratitude is a support… Read More »
Dear Friends, Welcome to 2018 and the first email of our month together! You have reasons why you signed up for this series. Perhaps you are seeking steadiness in a turbulent life, forming deeper connection with others, creating conditions that will lead to peace, or many other reasons. Try to articulate this reason, as this intention will help… Read More »
Dear Friends, We are about to start another month-long exploration of ways to support a daily meditation practice. I’m so honored to have you as part of this community. The theme we will be exploring this month is the four ways of establishing mindfulness – mindfulness of the body, of feelings, of the mind, and of phenomena themselves.… Read More »
Dear Friends, It’s been a pleasure to be a visitor to your inbox this past month. This is a special project for me, now in my second year. I appreciate having the opportunity to dig deep into teachings and readings, reflecting on what it means to me, and hearing from so many what it means to you. So… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the spirit of Andrea Fella’s seventh talk from the Daily Life Practice Retreat, I’m going to keep this simple. Her advice to the participants was to simplify things as part of their retreat week. The question she suggested they consider was: “is this necessary?” In our daily lives, we have to think. But sometimes we do stuff that’s… Read More »
Dear Friends, Yesterday, we reviewed a common occurrence when trying to bring mindfulness to daily activities – we start off with good effort and results, but then the novelty wears off, and we stop being so mindful. I related this to two short-lived types of joy that Chade-Meng Tan discusses in Joy on Demand: the joy of novelty and the joy of… Read More »
Dear Friends, At the SIMC practice yesterday evening, Bob led us through a body scan practice. Like mindful breathing, body scan has formal practices you can do – I’ve linked in some resources below – and it can be done informally, discreetly, anywhere or any time. One of my favorite places to do a quick body scan is in the… Read More »
