For Buddhists, the Buddha is a model who provides inspiration. He walked the same path we walk and overcame many obstacles to attain enlightenment and free himself from the confusion that is samsara.
The historical Buddha left the gourmet food...
This is an excerpt from my interview of Kyabgon Phakchok Rinpoche.
Question:
Where does a person draw the line between things like devotion, faith, and doing practices and ritual, and using Buddhism as another way of sort of solidifying their...
This is a community space where you can list whatever you're grateful for.
"When we feel true gratitude, whether toward particular people or toward life, loving-kindness will flow from us naturally. When we connect with another person through...
Daily Sit invites you to practice meditation with a live online community. Inspired by "Sitting Project," a daily meditation piece, Kim Brown and I thought it would be supportive to the community to offer an online interactive presence for...
As someone who turns out several blogs each month, I am deeply grateful for the invention of the diner. It is at the diner--a true laboratory for human behavior--that I gather much of my material. This morning, eavesdropping again...
If you follow news on science and meditation on the Internet, you might believe that meditation is the new penicillin, a wonder drug that can create most of what ails you. Research studies show it has benefits for those who suffer from anxiety,...
Advice to William Carlos Williams from his dad, in response to a letter:
You’re quite wrong. What you have written is not “lousy” but extremely effective. Write, when you feel like it, and write freely, carelessly (if you know what I mean)...
This time of year can be extremely challenging for many of us. There's all kinds of pressure and expectations in the air. Strained family relationships often come to a head, and memories of past holidays have a way of creeping their way back into...
When we get too busy our awareness is compromised. When relatives come to visit, or I'm trying to catch an airplane, or I just have a million things to do, my mind doesn't feel like an ally. Suddenly keys disappear, sunglasses hide on top of my head...
I was planning to write a post today about holiday gift-giving and how we're all under so much pressure to buy presents that we forget what it's like to be generous. Except on Saturday I started to feel pain around my right eye. I...
In developing mindfulness through meditation, we're advised to drop the storyline and simply be aware of what's happening in the moment.
For instance, in this moment, I'm sitting in the largely empty newsroom of a daily newspaper. It's bit chilly...
Daily Sit invites you to practice meditation with a live online community. Inspired by "Sitting Project," a daily meditation piece, Kim Brown and I thought it would be supportive to the community to offer an online interactive presence for...
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, the popular Tibetan teacher who abruptly became a wandering yogi in August 2011 to the surprise of his teachers, family and community and had not been heard from since, has indicated in a letter this week that he "is in very...
AttentionOne
You direct it where you want itLike you want to cross the street so you look both waysLike you overhear a conversation about love, so you tune into it and out of jabber jabber and cars passing by
AttentionBee
It is pulled by phenomena...
I have been thinking about the six Paramitas. The Paramitas, or the six transcendent actions, are a way of getting over ourselves. They are generosity, virtue, patience, energy, concentration, and wisdom. Paramita means to cross over. It is said...
As one of the American pioneers credited for bringing Eastern spirituality to the West, Ram Dass had more than four decades of spiritual training to help guide him when he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in 1997. Nonetheless, in the...
Aging and rock n' roll don't go well together. When I listen to the music I love, especially old punk songs that nobody around me cares about anymore, I feel hopelessly doomed to a world where I keep getting older and the punk kids stay the same age...
Journaling as a Mindfulness Practice
When I meditate, I sometimes notice myself thinking, Ok, Emily, concentrate, concentrate, hold on to the breath and have a good session this time, not like last time when you were all over the place.
Descartes had it wrong when he said “I think, therefore I am.”
Our thoughts are not what define us and make us who we are. They come and go like the wind and over time through practice we learn how they operate and how...
