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Welcome!
After a few full days of intense focus in a program room at Kripalu Center, I headed to the lake with my paddleboard for an afternoon adventure.
Under clear skies I paddled for about 45 minutes straight into a lively wind toward the center of Lake Mahkeenac. Within what seemed like minutes, I was enveloped in a massive set of dark clouds.
Could I make it to shore before I got hit with rain and wind? The race was on.
I lost.
When I realized was destined to get soaked, I remembered that it’s summer, it was 80 degrees and all was truly well. The drenching felt refreshing, actually, and pretty quickly the atmospheric drama ended and the skies cleared again.
No matter what weather systems are passing through in your world, I hope you enjoy your adventures.
Intention and Karma
What are your plans for tonight? Answering that question may determine your destiny. I’ve developed a template for my dharma talks over the years. My outline begins with three questions: "Why is this topic important?" "If this was my last talk, what do I most want to say?" "How do I want people to feel at the end of this talk?" These questions help me tap into my passion and emotion. They also help me focus on the most important points and how to most effectively share them. They set the course for my talk. The clarity of your intention has direct impact on the outcome of your life. Your intention informs your habits and actions, which shape your destiny. I have found it to be be immensely helpful to reflect not just to reflect on my long-term intentions, but also on my short-term aspirations. To listen to a recent talk entitled "How you Inherit and Create Your Karma" click here.
Upcoming Events
July 6:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
July 13:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
July 20:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
July 27:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
August 3:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
August 8:
Conscious Relationships (with Tara Brach) Learn More
Fresh Photos
A gang of cormorants on the move.
Stillness above the Great Falls.
Clouds and sky merge.
Heron skimming the tree tops.
Taking meditation and asana out into the world. Graduates of “Guiding Meditation for Transformational Yoga Teaching” at Kripalu Center.
Video Clip
Here’s another "Five Breaths / Five Scenes" video for you, this time featuring Waterbugs.
The Still, Small Voice Within: Meditation, Focusing and Intuition Training
August 16–21, 2015 Sunday–Friday 5 nights Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health Have you had a 'sense' that something wasn't going to work out but you did it anyway?
I often ask people who've gone through a break up in a relationship when they 'knew' it wasn't going to work out. Oftentimes people say, "I knew in the beginning." On the other hand, have there been times when you followed your gut, took a leap and found yourself in unexpected, wonderful adventures?
How do you discern the difference between 'the still, small voice' of your intuition versus the 60,000 thoughts that pass through your consciousness each day?
This is our exclusive focus in this five-day residential retreat at Kripalu Center.
Intuition arises through the visual, auditory and kinesthetic channels. (Sometimes - rarely - you might experience what is called "direct cognition," a sense of just, somehow, "knowing".)
You can develop each of these pathways, but the most reliable and perhaps most challenging faculty to develop is the kinesthetic - the gut feel or the "felt sense."
Meditation training develops your capacity to see clearly. Your sense of the interconnectedness of mind and body become more refined.
Meditation and 'felt sense' inquiry draw on the questions you ask yourself and paying intimate attention to what arises in the body and mind.
The process can be nothing short of amazing when it comes to problem solving, making important decisions in your life, healing whatever is between you and feeling free and investigating your deepest life questions.
I've had a long-time fascination with the nexus between meditation and intuition and love sharing these techniques, especially at Kripalu Center over five days, where you can immerse yourself in such a supportive and nurturing environment.
You'll learn skills that will enhance your meditation practice as well as support you in navigating through life's inevitable challenges.
To learn more, please visit: https://kripalu.org/presenter/V0000107/
This course draws on my 6.6 hour audio course through Sounds True, called Body-Centered Inquiry: Meditation Training to Awaken Your Inner Guidance, Vitally and a Loving Heart.
Latest from the Blog
Five Breaths, Five Scenes: Waterbugs
Against the Storm
Work Life: Jonathan in conversation with Michael Potts
How You Inherit and Create Your Karma
Happiness and Work: Finding Right Livelihood
Meditation, Resistance and the Practice of Compassion
Weather Systems
June Greetings from Jonathan Foust: Effortless Awareness, Fresh Photos and More
Apps that Support Mindfulness
In this post, I list a few of my favorite apps that support mindfulness, http://jonathanfoust.com/a-few-apps-that-support-mindfulness
I am what you would call an "early adapter."
Pretty soon after it came out, I was writing copy on a Tandy TRS 80 (with the huge floppy disks). I was among the first with a PalmPilot, a laptop and an iPhone. I made the switch over to a micro four thirds camera system (the Panasonic GH4) and have been known to download the beta version of new software. I’m healing my geek impulses, but I’ve been a junky with Cool Tools and Kickstarter.
(If you are interested, here’s my Cool Tools write up on the Kawasaki KLR650.)
So I am pretty fast on the draw when it comes to trying a new app for the iPhone or iPad that might streamline my flow or aid in meditation.
Here’s to better living with technology!
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