In this talk, we explore what’s referred as one of the three “mark of existence,” the concept of non-self. We look at it through the lens of a translation that I prefer, “nothing exists in and of itself, without dependencies,” and in particular not only on the widened ethics that arise naturally through this understanding, … Continue reading A Joy of Inter-Dependence
In this meditation, using the breath, we explore the quote “nothing exists in and of itself, without dependencies.”
Continue reading Sitting Meditation with Inter-being of Breath
Today we start with a short vignette on dandelions from Anthony de Mello’s book “The Song of the Bird, followed by a sharing by Michael J Fox and how he works with having Parkinson’s. I don’t look at life as a battle or as a fight. I don’t think I’m scrappy. I’m accepting. I say … Continue reading Dandelions and Michael J Fox
Today we explore the old story of Two Monks and the Lady as a way of deepening our understanding painful ruminating thought and how to cut through that habit.
It is very helpful to begin to see how the unconscious mind categorizes all moments in some version of pleasant, unpleasant or neither pleasant or unpleasant, also called feeling tones. If we are not aware of this process, then the feeling tone can set off a cascade of reactivity. Learning to catch the feeling tone … Continue reading Sitting Meditation with Feeling Tone
In this sharing, I draw from Shinzen Young’s teachings on equanimity as non-self-interference and a radical permission to feel. We look at this in very practical ways of what does this mean for a moment of tangled reactivity and how to work in real life with these concepts with some skillfulness. When feelings are experienced … Continue reading Equanimity, A Radical Permission to Feel
In this practice, we open to letting thoughts be thoughts, feelings be feelings, body sensations be body sensations without adding to a story about any of them. This practice is very useful for learning a skillfulness with untangling our reactivity in life.
Continue reading Sitting Meditation with Choiceless Awareness
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters is a much beloved poem from Portia Nelson. In my years of working with this poem, my understanding of it has radically changed, and that has been so helpful with orientating myself in a useful way with the world as it is: I I walk down the street. There is … Continue reading Revisiting an Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
In this meditation, we practice with opening the sense doors– sight, sound, touch, smell, taste and mind– for grounding practice.
This meditation draws from a poem by Mary Oliver, I Have Decided: I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence. It’s said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Being Exactly Where We Are