Dear Friends, After we initially establish mindfulness and start to recognize what is happening, we can open up to observing what is happening, without interference. Observation is the third aspect of sati that Gil discusses.https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11122 When we observe what is happening, we are not interfering with judgments, stories, attitudes, etc., that can cloud our perception. Gil notes, “It’s… Read More »
Dear Friends, In Afternoon Instructions – Mindfulness of Mind, Jill looks at different mental processes and leads a reflective practice for the participants. Jill speaks again about the “wheel” model of how body and breath are related to getting lost in proliferation. It might look something like this: Here’s how Jill explains this: To continue exploring the model… Read More »
Dear Friends, There have been times, when I’ve mentioned to friends or co-workers that I practice meditation and mindfulness, that I get the reply, “Oh, I could never do that – I can never stop thinking.” Jill addresses some of misconceptions we might have about thinking and meditation in the talk Mindfulness of the Mind. Many meditation instructions,… Read More »
Dear Friends, So now that we’ve zipped through four weeks of material, and we’re nearing the end of January, I thought we could take a step back and have a big picture of what we’ve been cultivating this month. 1 – What’s your why – setting an intention can help us stay oriented in our practice and life… 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, Based on some of the comments and emails, I’m pretty sure a number of us have noticed a planning, worrying mind is a deeply rooted pattern. …Worry thought in writing this post: “Wait… Is worry a thought or an emotion? I want to continue with the exploration of thoughts… so can I write about worry today?”… Read More »
Dear Friends, Thinking Don’t you wish they would stop, all the thoughtsswirling around in your head, bees in a hive, dancerstapping their way across the stage? I should rake the leavesin the carport, buy Christmas lights. Was there really life on Mars?What will I cook for dinner? I walk up the driveway,put out the garbage bins. I should… 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, Continuing with Sally Armstrong’s talk, “Facets of Equanimity,” continuing this exploration of equanimity as an expression of wisdom, and in particular into the notion of karma (kamma). Both Sally and Kamala have mentioned this teaching from the Buddha: Whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become an inclination of the mind. ~ Two Kinds… Read More »
Dear Friends, Joseph Goldstein has said, “For the purpose of meditation, nothing is particularly worth thinking about.” This means thoughts can come and go as they wish, but we don’t need to become involved with them. (Joseph also says, “it’s simple, but it’s not easy.”) Bhante Gunaratana lists five ways to work with mental states, based on the… Read More »
Dear Friends, The guided meditation I’m sharing today is from Guy Armstrong. https://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/79/talk/18343/ (~30 minutes. Guided meditation starts ~5:30. No ending bell.) The recording starts with just over 5 minutes of discussion on mindfulness of thinking. Guy says we may have “experienced thinking as something of an enemy because it is the one thing that carries us away… Read More »
Dear Friends, On Sunday evening, I was driving to the airport to pick someone up. I figured I had timed things reasonably well to arrive at the airport about the time the flight would arrive. But of course, there was “that driver” on the road. You know the one – drives slow in the fast lane, takes up… Read More »
Dear Friends, Google “how many thoughts per day”, and you’ll find quite a few articles claiming it’s somewhere between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts! If that’s accurate, that means there’s about a thought per second. I remember one of the first times I tried meditation. I had this idea that, “I’ll just sit here and be quiet and calm.”… Read More »
