In this sharing, we explore one of the poems from the beautiful book, The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, by Matty Weingast. When used as practice for examining our own relationship with our mind, life and practice, these poems are powerful possibilities for insight. This sharing involves an inquiry practice with the … Continue reading Victor [7.10.14]
This meditation includes the poem Victor, from the beautiful book, The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, by Matty Weingast: Victor: When everyone else was meditating, I’d be outside circling in the hall. Finally I went to confess. I’m hopeless, I said. The elder nun smiled. Just keep … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Circling [7.10.24]
How mosquitos move through a raindrop is a powerful metaphor for the attunement of mindfulness. The Mosquito Among the Raindrops byTeddy Macker The mosquito among the raindrops… It’s equivalent to getting hit, says the scientist, by a falling school bus. And hit every 20 seconds. And the mosquito lives. In fact she doesn’t even try … Continue reading Mosquitos, Raindrops and Mindfulness Practice
“Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- An Act of Love
Noticing how the mind can confuse a stick for a copperhead can teach much about three basic truths of reality as named by Buddhist psychology.
Continue reading Copperheads, Sticks, and The Three Marks of Existence
This is a meditation in using noting practice, skillfully to acknowledge validate and return home again as needed.
Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Coming Home With The Breath
When we don’t pause long enough to really know what’s here, the mind will fill in the holes with its own information from its stores– and it often does this with the worst case scenario, or in a way that covers up what we might not want to see… So this is one more reason … Continue reading Dog Pee, Basil, And The Tricky Nature Of Our Minds
This practice explores how noting helps us get more clear as to what’s really here. What one takes in by contemplation, one pours out in love. –Meister Eckhart The Way It Is, Lynn Ungar One morning you might wake up to realize that the knot in your stomach had loosened itself and slipped away, … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Contemplation Taking Us to Love
Once there was a wise old sage, and people would travel a long ways to receive his teachings. He always taught one thing, a mantra to say to everything in life: Thank you, I am grateful for everything. One time a man received this teaching and said it with everything for a year. At the … Continue reading Thank You. I Am Grateful For Everything
How we meet the moment of waking back up, makes all the difference in our practice. This city meditation is an opportunity to deeply explore that moment of re-awakening.