Last week we looked at Bhikkhu Analayo’s understanding of sati or mindfulness as a good friend always available to us. This week, we come back to this with a personal reflection or contemplation practice for examining– what do I do when seeking to be “mindful?” Right away from the moment of waking up in the … Continue reading Our Good Friend Sati
This sharing draws from teachings of Andrew Olendzki’s lovely short article, What’s In A Word, Sati, from Tricycle and Bhikku Analayo’s book, Satipatthana Meditation, both of which make clear that our usual understanding of the word mindfulness is inadequate for opening the true radical transformative potential inherent in the opening of a “mindful” mind. (Please … Continue reading Deepening Our Understanding of Mindfulness
Classical Zen Story shared by Tara Brach in Radical Acceptance: An old woman had supported a monk for twenty years, letting him live in a hut on her land. After all this time she figured the monk, now a man in the prime of life, must have attained some degree of enlightenment. So she decided … Continue reading On Not Being a Rock in Winter
Medical Sociologist Aaron Antonosvsky studied the relationship between stress, health and well-being focusing on people who had survived extreme stress with an intact sense of coherence. His work provides another beautiful lens into the resiliency building skillful of offering generosity and service in the world.
Learning how to skillfully work with fear, anxiety, worry or any other difficult emotion is fundamental for resilience in challenging times. One way to do this is by exploring compassionate action, or what Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander call “Being a Contribution.“
This is a sharing of how mindfulness became an unexpected core part of my own spiritual journey and path into and out of practice as a physician.
Continue reading Mindfulness and a Spiritual Journey [2.12.25]
The softness of bamboo and water offer interesting teachings on strength and resilience. In this sharing we explore how bamboo houses and water can inform even the intensity of something like anger.
Gravity is a mysterious connecting force that is always available as an anchor. In this meditation, we open to a contemplation on the relation between time/space/gravity and this moment now. Please note: there is no accompanying talk for this meditation.
Continue reading Sitting Meditation: Contemplation on Time/Space/Gravity and Now [12.3.24]
Gratitude is confidence in life itself. In it, we feel how the same force that pushes grass through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life. -Jack Kornfield In this sharing we explore both the openings and challenges of gratitude practice ending with an Inquiry Practice.
Continue reading Growing Grass in Sidewalk Cracks [11.27.24]
here are different ways of relating to the “tigers” we encounter in this life. In this sharing we explore two possibilities. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ― Viktor E. Frankl