My Favorite Day of the Year
Sending blessings and good wishes to all for a safe, peaceful and delicious Thanksgiving.
Becoming Aware 1:2 – Busy Mind
Situating Yourself: Busy Mind ...continued from Becoming Aware 1:1 - What is Our Purpose? Throughout this process we will be studying our mind. We will see how it controls us and learn to what extent we have control over it. Being human, most of us have very active minds. Generally, we just accept this as [...]
The Art of Listening
How many of us know how to really listen? Do we know how to listen to our own mind as it careens out of control and races off on some tangent or other, into the past or the future? Or to others—our coworkers, loved ones, or strangers—as they attempt to communicate something to us? To [...]
Beautiful Terror
At the recent day of mindfulness on September 28, I gave a dharma talk about opening our hearts to another, to ourselves, to love... and how terrifying that can be. I thought about it for days before. Then I spent Friday and Saturday preparing for the day, searching through notes, books, and my heart to [...]
Mindful Quotes for October
With the changing weather, leaves beginning to fall, and the holidays and winter ahead of us, even in New York City I feel surrounded by nature. The message of impermanence abounds. "Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that [...]
Breathing
This is where it all begins—and ends. The foundation of any quiet corner is breathing. If you breathe into your quiet corner and allow your breathing to direct you in your search, it will create space and quiet for your corner. As I concentrate on breathing slowly, my focus shifts and I welcome the ensuing [...]
The Practice of Being Still
We can be moving at a furious pace even when we’re not in motion. This activity is usually our mind working overtime, which can cause stress, distress, anxiety, and health problems. The solution then is simple: Slow down the movement of our mind. But when our mind continues to move, even after our body is [...]
Mindful Quotes for September
September always feels like a new beginning, a slightly larger and grander new beginning than the one I experience each time I sit on my meditation cushion. But that’s just my history. I now take each day, no matter the season, as a new beginning. Just back from a month in the Vermont countryside, I [...]
Mindful Quotes for August
On Sunday I will leave for the woods of Vermont for one whole month: To rest, to read, to restore. The approaching school year always brings to mind, change, new beginnings and exciting possibilities. It is engraved in my bones, my muscle memory and my heart. I look forward to it, but first the fallow [...]
Mindful Quotes for June
“All of man’s woes derive from the fact that he cannot sit quietly in a room alone.” Blaise Pascal “As long as you are conscious of yourself, you can never concentrate on anything.” Buddha (by way of Walpola Rahula) “Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.” Lao-tzu “Real strength is not [...]