Start your day with a fresh perspective
In Real Happiness Sharon tells us about one of her students who thought “the whole idea of lovingkindness meditation seemed hokey and rote to her, but she focused on the phrases nevertheless.” I’ve thought the same exact thing about lovingkindness meditation. It’s a group hug, mushy, mawkish. As much as I like the idea of […]
For almost two years, my closest friend has lived and worked as a community volunteer in Central America. Her experiences there have been more challenging than she had expected, and over time her idealism and positive attitude have slowly seeped away–giving way to a more cynical and unpleasant countenance. The toll that her negativity has […]
After sitting in the office today, I reflected on the past several days as a flurry of anticipations. Rarely do I realize how inundated my day-to-day life is with waiting. I am always in waiting—relentlessly—for the next thing—whatever it might be. These anticipations take all the colors of the rainbow—from desire for a new thing, […]
I was looking forward to sitting in the office today. But when the time came my thoughts kept circling back to the various sex scandals whose echoes are ricocheting around the Zen community. It is depressing to think that we can’t seem to keep sex out of the zendo. Articles like this from the New […]
I visited Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche in Boulder on Monday and before that spent some time reading his books. I particularly enjoyed reading about the folly of jealously in The Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening Our Natural Intelligence (I highly recommend it). I don’t normally think of myself as a jealous person, but reading […]
We’re now into the third week of our 28-day challenge. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve likely already overcome a couple of rough patches caused by what Sharon calls a core group of unhealthy human tendencies that are obstacles to happiness. They’re the states of mind that distract us in meditation practice, and trip […]
Today is Day 14 of of Sharon Salzberg’s 28-Day Meditation Challenge. This weekend, between attending a memorial service for a great Tibetologist whom I deeply admired and a few personal dramas, ended up being a very emotional few days. Last night, when I was finally back in the refuge of my apartment, recycling the weekend’s […]
I stayed home sick today. My feet are cold, my head is clogged, my nose is dripping, and my lips are cracked. This morning, I ambled slowly down the stairs for a cup of tea, not as a mindfulness practice, but because I feel tired and sore. My whole body aches. The second week […]
Today was all about the chattering mind: Do this, don’t forget that, what about this. We may have a lot to do, but we don’t need to let that tyrannize our minds. From Real Happiness: Our objective when we meditate is to know what we’re thinking as we’re thinking it, and to know what we’re […]