The smell of cotton candy brings to mind amusement parks and the thrill of being a child. The smell of wet, fallen leaves brings the sad memory of summer’s end and the happy one for some of us of school’s beginning. For most of us, our sense of smell is rather strong and peculiar to [...]
The dictionary offers a simple definition of meditation, but our minds tend to embellish the definition and make it into something mysterious and esoteric. There are many different types of meditation, and the external form of any one of them may be the image we carry in our minds of what meditation is. This [...]
Those of us who are lucky enough to be able to walk, do so at least a little bit every day. Yet, when the word meditation is tacked onto it and we are invited by a teacher to do some walking meditation, many of us become clumsy and off balance. We may even begin [...]
Letting Go 3:3 …continued from Learn to Listen, Listen to Learn Letting go is probably the most difficult concept to grasp and the most challenging action to perform on the Quiet Corner path. Yet without this in our repertoire, all else is for naught. I continue to learn valuable lessons about myself and my world [...]
The holidays, the election, and the uncertainty ahead have many of us worried and out of sorts: I know no better way to return to the center and maintain serenity than meditation. In my case it takes the form of Zazen – “sitting meditation” – and below is a beautiful paean for this practice [...]
…continued from Money & Spiritual Practice – Part 1 It is not money or winning the lottery but the desperate desire for them that creates our unhappiness. And the idea that money is the root of all evil doesn’t mean that when we have money like Evelyn’s or when we win the lottery we [...]
...continued from Work Can Be a Drug Money. Can’t live with it. Can’t live without it. Surely we all know what the can’t-live-without-it part means. We need money to survive, to house, feed and clothe ourselves and our families. We also need it to supplement the basics and add more comfort and pleasure to [...]
Since moving to the country a year and a half ago, I’ve been engaged and busy with so many exciting new things that I put teaching my meditation classes and workshops on the shelf as I adjusted to my new lifestyle. On Monday this week I led my first meditation workshop up here in Hudson. [...]
Letting Go 3:2 …continued from Becoming Willing to Let Go! Take the Cotton Out of Your Ears and Put it in Your Mouth If we want to hone our listening skills so we can hear our inner voice, we must also learn to listen to the outer world. If we are not good listeners, we [...]
Letting Go 3:1 …continued from Relax Your Toes to Relax Your Mind Do you always need to be right? Do you need to have the last word in any verbal exchange, especially if it’s an argument? Do you ever think: "If only people would behave the way I want them to, everything would be fine. [...]
