Today is March 1. Those of us who took part in Sharon Salzberg’s 28-Day Meditation Challenge are probably wondering how our practice will continue now that the month of February is over. Commitment leads to evaluation. What did we see, and where do...
Right speech, sometimes called Wise or Skillful Speech, is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path to liberation from suffering. ... The importance of speech in ethical conduct is clear, Bikkhu Bodhi says in his guide to...
"When we become lost in desire, we are put firmly into the framework of linear time. We become focused on getting what we do not yet have, or on keeping what we do have. We become oriented toward the future. To be caught in this concept of linear...
In English-language dharma teachings, we often encounter the key term “renunciation.” We sometimes hear that renunciation is the indispensable foundation of our path of awakening, the quality without which no genuine progress can be made. It’s often...
IDP's Fall 2012 class series, "In Search of the Self," explored the many ways we construct ideas about who we are and reviewed several Buddhist theories on how we create a sense of self and why we cling to it. It's a fascinating subject, of course...
In mindfulness meditation we train in shamatha—peaceful abiding. This is basically the ability to hang out with and be curious about our experience, whatever our experience is. Through shamatha, we learn that our experience is valid and worthy.
I am really looking forward to tonight's class at the ID Project: Why Guilt is Useless. I am hoping that it will be available as a podcast, either on the IDP podcast or on my own website in the near future.
The basic problem, it seems to me, is that one can be well-intentioned and yet play an objectionable role in an economic system that has become unjust and unsustainable – in fact, a challenge to the well-being of all life on this planet. David Loy
This week, those of us following Sharon Salzberg’s program in the 28-Day Meditation Challenge were tasked with working with mindfulness of thoughts and emotions.
My last two blog contributions were morning ruminations. This one is a bit earlier…or later I suppose. As I am writing this, it is Wednesday evening and all is quiet. The pup and wife are in bed, and I am up ruminating. Ruminating about meaning and...
I saw a great movie a few days ago called The Sessions, which is based on the true life story of a poet and journalist named Mark O'Brien, who died in 1999 at the age of 49. Polio left him paralyzed since he was a very young boy, so...
I work part time in the college admissions world, which means I encounter a lot of people who want to know what they can do in order to be happy in the future (or ensure their children’s future happiness). While doing some research for work this...
“Asian new year” is the commonly used nomenclature for the lunar new year celebrated in Asia - the world’s biggest and most populated continent in the world.
This woman is really annoying. That's the gist of what went through my mind as I sat in a noisy Chinese restaurant, at a big round table. It was Chinese New Year, and I was invited to eat and celebrate with a bunch of people. I knew some...
On Valentine's Day, Facebook asked me if I wanted to send my spouse "a real Facebook gift." What does that mean? I asked myself (and then my Facebook friends -- who are almost real world friends). Does a "real" Facebook gift exist offline, ie IRL?...
So, this week, as part of the 28-Day Meditation Challenge, I stuck with the close technique (from Shambhala), and then mixed in whatever Salzberg recommended. Mindfulness of the body or whatever. Body scans, focusing on sensation, walking...
It's been a strange morning. A searching through Rumi quotes to send to loved ones in observance of Valentines. And a heartbreaking encounter made more so by the stories I've piled upon it. Simply stated, Lani's spent the bulk of this morning...
Greetings, IDP readers! I’m so delighted to have an opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts and reflections on the dharma at this uplifted location. A big thank-you to everyone at the Interdependence Project for the opportunity to join...
One evening after my Wednesday night meditation class, Amy, a member of our D.C. meditation community, asked if we might talk for a few minutes about her mother, a woman she often referred to as “a manipulative, narcissistic human.” Amy’s mother had...
We fully acknowledge now, without any reservation, and with the heaviest of hearts, that because of our failure to address our teacher’s sexual misconduct, women and also men have been hurt, women and men who trusted us with their Zen practices, and...
So I think we are starting Week 2, but, Wait! Wait! I am still working on concentration. Wait! Wait! I have been doing this since 2008 and I am still on Week 1. Jeez, Meredith, hurry up and get it together. Get with the program! OR REAL HAPPINESS...
In order to find a solution we first have to recognise that there is a problem. Then we can get to work on how the problem can be solved. ... Both men and women need to publicize and condemn any abusive behavior of which they are aware and to...
