Acceptance is a mind/heart quality that is so easily misunderstood… What is the difference between a reactive (i.e. fight/flight/freeze) misunderstanding this quality and an empowering opening to life? How might engaging with “acceptance” actually release some old story that holds us back and thereby free us for a transformative new understanding of life and how … Continue reading What is Skillful, Empowering Acceptance?
Contemplating our “elemental” nature is a powerful way of breaking apart a sense of a separate self and understanding how fundamentally we are part of a flow of all things.
Night time worries, sleeplessness and morning “dread” are all prevalent as we deal anxiety in our changing world. In this sharing, we will explore a neuroscience based understanding of why this is so common and how mindfulness practice offers a clear antidote. Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open … Continue reading When We Wake Up “Empty and Frightened”
This sharing invites a grounded reflection on the 2 basic fears of impermanence: that we can’t hold on to what we want and that what we don’t want will last forever. Through a meditative inquiry, we explore how insight into the naturalness and ever moving flow of change offers a path of release for working … Continue reading Flowing With Change
Wise understanding of the true nature of impermanence is akin to learning to swim in the ocean’s ever changing waves. *Please note: technical difficulties throughout this podcast. We are working on it.*
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.“