Meditation

Mindfulness and Parenting

Have you been practicing mindfulness meditation for at least seven years? . Are you a parent?

. Are you interested in contributing to a research study on mindfulness?

. The voices of long-term mindfulness meditators have thus far been largely unheard in the current mindfulness research dialogue. This research study seeks to incorporate the experiences and perceptions of advanced mindfulness meditators to contribute to our understanding of how mindfulness affects interpersonal relationships. Specifically, this study seeks to understand the influence of mindfulness on the parenting of long-term mindfulness meditators.

. If you would like to participate in this study, you will be asked to fill out a brief questionnaire and be interviewed about your experiences and perceptions about mindfulness and parenting. Interviews can be conducted in person or over the phone and will take about an hour and a half. All the information you provide will be kept confidential.

. To learn more about this research and set up an interview time, please contact Eve at 203.434.4092.Please feel free to pass this information along to others who may be interested in contributing to advancing our knowledge about mindfulness meditation.

Buddhism and Neuroscience

Jean Houston used to talk about 'ancient future technologies,' which I sensed as the rediscovery of ancient practices that suddenly appear as cutting edge.  Science is proving the incredible effectiveness of meditation on the brain.  

MANY OF BUDDHISM’S CORE TENETS SIGNIFICANTLY OVERLAP WITH FINDINGS FROM MODERN NEUROLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE. SO HOW DID BUDDHISM COME CLOSE TO GETTING THE BRAIN RIGHT?

More here.  Very interesting read.

Floating

The body only lives in the here and now.  Anytime we return to the embodied moment, we start to turn the awareness inside and our relationship to time changes. It's so hard to describe this.  Christine does a beautiful job.  She describes an experience from my "Energy Awareness Meditations" CD that explores a 'prana flow' meditation.

In this form of meditation you use the sensation of the hands flowing through space as the anchor of  your attention.

Wonderful things open up when we achieve that paradoxical experience of deep relaxation and deep concentration.

Read the post here.

Thank you, Christine.  Blessings in your practice.

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Meditating in the Middle of War

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Rats!  I still can't upload images! I first met Steve at an Intensive I co-lead at Kripalu Center.  He wanted a deep retreat before redeploying to Afghanistan.  I was touched by his dedication and sincerity and wondered how he was going to manage keeping a practice alive in a war zone, especially given the responsibilities he had.

We've stayed in loose touch over the years.  I ran across this blog post the other day which filled in some details of what is like to be in a war zone as an American soldier practicing meditation.

This is entitled An American Buddhist Practicing in Afghanistan.

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Soothing Pain

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This week I offered a talk on "Working with Fear" and next week a talk on "Working with Pain." Fear and Pain obviously are linked and the basic approach to working with them is to cultivate loving presence.  We locate the unpleasant and explore what it is like to hold our experience in nonjudgemental awareness.

I wrote a 'dharma rap' song a number of years ago that kind of sums it up:

When we live in fear

We live in reaction

We don't live full

We live just a fraction

Of what is potential

Of what could be.

When you release your fear

Then the energy's free.

A little corny, but there you go.

When we're in fear, the amygdala lights up.  This little strip in the brain gets activated and we move into the classic response of fight, flight or freeze.

What calms the amygdala?

Awareness.

Just turning your attention to the fear begins to calms the whole system.  This, of course, is counter-intuitive.  The last thing we want to do is to pause, feel and investigate discomfort.

This is what the Buddha talked about when he said engaging into these practices is like 'swimming upstream.'  When we turn in to the discomfort we can start to calm the system and begin to cultivate a state conducive to insight and new possibilities.

I'll have the talk online soon.

In the meantime, in something barely related, here's a cool video called "I Can Soothe Your Pain."  While the suggestion is the singer can do this for his love interest, ultimately we can do it for ourselves.

I think the video could qualify as a "Happy for No Reason" video because he obviously loses himself in a creative flow.  Being that absorbed, it's hard to imagine him not feeling happy while he's cranking out this amazing tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F6EoMdn95E

Living This Life Fully

Yoga and Buddhism have made their way around the planet, taking on the qualities and traits of each culture where they have landed.  Mirka Knaster has done an beautiful job of bringing the teachings of one of the most important guides in the west through her book, Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra. Munindra greatly influenced the foremost Buddhist teachers in the west.

Living This Life Fully is organized into sixteen chapters, each one focusing on a quality essential for awakening. It is based on interviews with Munindra before his death in 2003, some of his early dharma talks, interviews with almost 200 people around the world who shared poignant and humorous remembrances, and other materials.

You can read excerpts here and read more about Mirka's work here.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to establish a scholarship fund at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in memory of Munindra.

What Are You?

This last Saturday about 85 hardy souls gathered to inquire into the question, “What Am I?” This practice is not for the feint of heart.

It’s maddening.

But in a good way.

Inquiry is a technique for turning the mind to that which can only be experienced.

Ramana Maharshi, the great sage of inquiry, claimed constant inquiry into two questions can reveal one’s true nature.

Who am ?

What do I really want?

These are cathartic questions.  The mind grasps for linear, logical answers.  If you can stay in the process it can feel like you are unpeeling an onion.

The challenge is to keep going.  That’s where the brilliance of the dyad process comes in.  Your partner gives you the following instructions:

“Please tell me what you are.”

You then, with all sincerity, bring your attention to the question, sense what arises and try to get across to your partner as best as you can what you feel and notice.

Oftentimes your words can sound like utter nonsense, filled with circular, vague meanderings.  The point of focus is not getting the answer right, but in directing your attention to the point of inquiry with true sincerity.

Your partner is a mirror. They are not smiling or nodding or encouraging or frowning or looking away, but listening as best as they can with open, non-judgmental attention.

The mutual listening is what can deepen the inquiry and help to stay present through the inevitable confusion and frustration. Their effort and words can oftentimes contribute to your own exploration.  It helps you keep going.

There’s a phrase in yoga that says, “Where the attention goes, the energy flows.”

By focusing again and again on this question, we are training the mind to open it’s frame of reference.

Some have asked, “Why do we use ‘what’ am I rather than ‘who’ am I?”

Any question can be used, but I’ve found the inquiry “Who am ?” to imply there’s some personality in there I am trying to uncover.

“What am I?” has a way of more thoroughly deconstructing the false sense of self.

There is a story about the Buddha on this topic.  He was reportedly stopped on the road and someone demanded an answer.

“Is there or is there not a self?,” this person demanded.

The Buddha allegedly responded, “I will not say there is a self.  I will not say there is not a self.  I will say that I can’t find one.”

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Some comments from MrLovingKindness you might enjoy.

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Suggested Reading

There is a lot being published these days in the realm of mindfulness: Wired Magaine, on the brain and consciousness.

A DC Crime study and the reduction of violent crime in relationship to Transcendental Meditation.

The Wall Street Journal.  Thank you. No Thank You. Grateful people are happier ...

A very cool interactive graphic on where you are in the universe.

New York Times.  Avatars and Healing

(Thanks, everyone!)