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 [...]
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. [...]
So Easy, Yet So Hard You need no special skills to face a quiet corner—no special talents, no special brainpower. Each one of us has the raw material necessary. Desire is a requirement, but if you’re reading this, you already have that. Simply set some time aside, choose a spot, get comfortable, breathe, and voilà—a [...]
As the days pass, you will have begun to practice your breathing and homed in on a quiet corner or two. You can now begin to extend your breathing practice. Once you settle into your corner, sit down in a comfortable, relaxed position. You can sit on cushions on the floor or sit upright in [...]
Although we may find ourselves sitting down through much of the day, how many of us ever make a conscious decision just to sit? Usually, when we’re sitting, we are also driving or eating or working or watching a movie or relaxing. Sitting is usually about something other than just sitting. And if we’ve ever [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself - Zen Saying In the pursuit of knowledge, something is added every day. In the pursuit of enlightenment, something is dropped every day. - Lao Tzu To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
Or, we can’t know until we know! How do we get to the calm place in the center of chaos? Waiting for news of anything—from sources we have no control over, which is just about everyone and everything that is meaningful—can be excruciating. Will we get the perfect gift or the job? Do we need [...]
