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, In times when I find my mind is agitated – from world events or inner turmoil – I find it useful to give myself more room and a more physical way for the agitation to move through the body. Then I may be able to settle into a sitting meditation. Talk about Walking Where am I… Read More »
Dear Friends, Kamala Masters starts her talk, “Equanimity-Seeing the World with Quiet Eyes“, with a quote from Howard Thurman: How may we work in the world courageously and intelligently, on behalf of a decent world, without despair and complete fatigue? What are the resources available for … rehabilitation and renewal? That [we might] be able to look out… Read More »
Dear Friends, In The Now Effect, Elisha Goldstein writes: Stepping int the now doesn’t happen only when we stop and pause our bodies; we can enter into a space simply by acknowledging what we’re doing. … why not allow the movements of our lives to be the entry points into the now? One of the most frequent movements that… Read More »
Dear Friends, Today is the last day of the 5 day retreat with Adrianne Ross, so I’ll be back to the land of technology later this afternoon. I thank you for your patience! Meanwhile, here’s a reflection for today! I look forward to catching up with your responses. It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of January!… Read More »
Dear Friends, We’ve covered a lot of ground these past few days, so let’s take a moment to recap. We started by talking about intention – setting an intention for the year, the day, a meditation practice, a chore – and we also looked at closing the day, practice, etc. with a dedication. We reviewed a few different… Read More »
Dear Friends, Walking meditation. There are plenty of instructions on how to do the formal practice. An older article in Tricycle collected thoughts on walking from a number of respected teachers: Walking: Meditation on the Move Achaan Chah, Sylvia Boorstein, Yasutani Roshi, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joan Halifax, Bruce Chatwin, Henry David Thoreau, and Matsuo Basho on walking meditation… Read More »
