Last week was not so much fun, let me put it that way. In case you’re just tuning in now, I was struggling a great deal trying to figure out whether or not to take my Buddhist refuge vow this past weekend. Since the vow was taking place right...
In this post, "Maladjusted Buddhism," on Patheos.com, blogger Nathan Thompson argues that Westerners who have converted to Buddhism are too tied to psychology and its focus on bringing everything toward a norm. Psychology, he says, works with...
I used to be one of those Brooklynites who enjoyed a boozy Sunday brunch with friends. Now the tables have turned and I'm the one slingin' eggs and mimosas. And it is one of the best opportunities for practice out there.
1. Japanese teacher says: At first light, rise. Don’t hover between sleep and waking, this makes you heavy, puts a stone inside your heart. The minute you drift back to shore, anchor. Breathe. Remember your deepest name. 2. Sometimes objects stun...
I’ve been practicing meditation since 2004. I’m aware of the major benefits that my practice and study have had on my life, and I feel good about taking refuge in the Three Jewels — the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. For the past few months, I’...
Welcome to the next Contemplation Station: Barre, Massachusetts. I am being a bit selfish in bringing you here. I am going to an Insight Meditation Society retreat at the end of this week (my first!) and I would like to get to know the lay of the...
Something that has become interesting to me in my experience with meditation is not just the ways in which meditation has made me appreciate myself and my life more, but also the effect it has had on my relationships with others.
This post is a reminder that Daily Sit invites you to practice meditation with a live online community tomorrow morning. Inspired by "Sitting Project," a daily meditation piece, Kim Brown and I thought it would be supportive to the community to...
In my life as an educator, one lesson has served me and my students more than any other: in order to provide a good education to students of all backgrounds, a teacher must have high standards and have
One of my favorite ways to make meditation deeper is to observe the interplay of skandhas. From the early Buddhist point of view, these factors are what make up the world and a conventional self.
Am I everything or am I nothing?Rumor has it that a bunch of students asked Buddha whether there is a self or there is no self. Wisely, he refused to answer.
Most of us consider listening a great virtue. We love having others listen to us with interest and care, and we hope to be good listeners ourselves. But for most of us, listening is hard. To listen well, we must become aware of the mental...
He entered the subway car at 86th street, holding a clipboard with some papers. He announced to the car that he had come from California to be a Minister of Music in New York City and began singing a refrain of improvised Hallelujahs, eyes...
Ahoy! Welcome to the second Contemplation Station on our journey: Damascus, Syria! Though its status as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world is widely debated, the wealth of history that is present here is astounding.
A new study found that adolescents who participated in a mindfulness program at school reported reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress up to six months later. Furthermore, these teen students were less likely to develop more severe...
Gender is a dimension of ego, Lopon Rita Gross says, and the one we cling to most persistently. It's also one that we're least like to examine. It's not included in traditional Buddhist meditations designed to deconstruct identities and lead to...
This post is a reminder that Daily Sit invites you to practice meditation with a live online community tomorrow morning. Inspired by "Sitting Project," a daily meditation piece, Kim Brown and I thought it would be supportive to the community to...
A Manhattan taxi cab is one of the last places you'd expect to find ease or to try shamata -- calm-abiding -- meditation. But if you take a cab this week, you may find yourself listening to guided meditations (in addition to honking horns and...
I believe it was Dr. Seuss who said:
All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you’ll be quite a lot.
-from Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
I was lost. Somehow I had ended up on the other side of lower Manhattan, staring across the water at New Jersey. Which I immediately knew wasn't right.
Imagine the stress faced by students at the nation's top universities, particularly one as competitive and proud as Harvard. Now imagine the pressure on the people who have to deal with them -- faculty, administrators, other Harvard employees.
Metta is a wonderful practice and a wonderful mind-state. The act of blessing or making an aspiration for someone is powerful. But I'd like to make a point that I haven't yet written about: metta is not a practice about making things nice.
