I've got a few things up on itunes and available for download from class this week at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington: A guided meditation with the classic instructions on 'Contemplation of Breath' and a talk I've titled "The Five Hindrances and Who You Really Are."
You can get them through iTunes or stream them here.
Weekly classes are rolling again. This week I gave the first talk of the new season ("Stripping It Down to the Essence: The Four Noble Truths") at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington. It was great to gather again after a long and weird summer.
My talk is now online, either through my iTunes podcast or streaming directly online.
The audio quality is vastly improved thanks to my new microphone. Geek Alert: I have to say I'm quite impressed with the new Apogee MiC Microphone. It far outshines any other microphone I've used on my portable devices, and I've tried many. It's pricey, but I now have no regrets. I record on the iPhone or iPad using iTalk, then edit in GarageBand on my my mac. I don't need to do much post-processing at all now.
We've got 60 teachers-in-training at the Meditation Teacher Training Institute heading into their second year. I'm excited at the prospect of these talented, inspired teachers being unleashed. Some are drawn to prison work, some to work with adolescents and many to serve in the corporate arena. I've always inspired when I go into the workplace to offer strategies for transforming stress.
Here is great article on mindfulness at work and how it's truly taking off these days.
(Thanks, Tony.)
As a teacher and a teacher-trainer, I'm always reminded of something my father said when I told him I wanted to teach. "That's a tough job," he said. "I mean, how do you teach someone to take a hint?"
"Awareness training" means paying attention to how we pay attention. For many, that's how we can train the mind. Concentration leads to calming. Calming leads to tranquility, and that's the bi-product of meditative practices.
But another aspect of awareness training is paying attention to the realm of the heart and compassion. It's the other half of mindfulness.
How do we train ourselves to pay attention to the heart of another?
I often use the phrase, "I imagine you are feeling ..." As taught in Non-Violent Communication, it doesn't matter if you are wrong.
When I'm at the grocery store I'll sometimes try it there ... At the end of a day I might say, "I imagine you're tired and ready to go home for the evening." When I listen to another, I'll take a moment to say what I imagine my partner is feeling and say, "I imagine you're feeling ..." No one has ever been offended. On the contrary, there is a softening. Sometimes a flash of appreciation that I've taken a moment to imagine their world.
In the Meditation Teacher Training Institute we have about 60 meditation teachers all exploring how to cultivate awareness of mind and heart.
This video of a master teacher gives us an example of what it means to serve the awakening of awareness.
A Teacher in Tokyo from J Z on Vimeo.
(Thanks, Silvia.)
Silvia Garcia Pereira just made beautiful short on the Inward Bound Meditation Meditation Experience -ibMe. I've yet to meet anyone who didn't come away with a most positive experience. If you know of anyone who might benefit from a retreat, do check this out.
Inward Bound Mindfulness Education-iBme from Silvia Garcia Pereira on Vimeo.
Sayalay Susila, a student of the world-renowned Pau Auk Tawya Sayadaw of Burma, will be leading a five-day retreat in September. I have heard she is a wonderful teacher. If would like to know more about the particular form of practice for the retreat, you can learn more at the Washington Buddhist Sanga site.
Kripalu Center is in the heart of the Berkshires, situated on a lake and with property adjoining Tanglewood the summer home of the Boston Symphony.
One of the highlights of this last retreat was doing a silent hike down through Gould Meadows, along the Stockbridge Bowl and then up to Tanglewood during a James Taylor concert.
As we turned from the lake up the long hill to Tanglewood, James Taylor broke into "Sweet Baby James." At that point a few folks broke silence to sing along.
Late evening, sun setting, birds chasing bugs in the meadow, bunnies at play, a group of meditating hikers breaking into song.
One of Those Moments.
I'm up in New England, leading two back-to-back retreats. I missed all the wild storms in Virginia and some pretty extensive damage to our house. Here in the land of sunshine and flowing electricity, In between retreats I managed to catch a quick kayak adventure in the Stockbridge bowl.
Tonight in this five day retreat, The Still Small Voice Within, I will be leading a silent hike down through the meadow and the woods by the lake and cycling back by Tanglewood. James Taylor plays three nights over the 4th of July and last year they opened the gates halfway through the concert.
We'll see if they do the same tonight.
If not, it's a good thing we are practicing equanimity.
Last month I went back to my roots. I spent ten days with Larissa Carlson directing a ten-day training called "Exploring the Energy Body: Teaching Pranayama and Meditation."
This professional training program is designed for certified yoga teachers working toward their 500-hour professional degree. I felt right at home with these 55 dedicated and time-tested yogis and yoginis.
I've always felt that sincerity in practice is one of the highest attributes we can cultivate, and these folks brought not only authenticity, but deep dedication to their practice.
We weren't easy on them. Each day started early and ended late, with hours of pranayama, kriyas, bandhas, asanas and meditation of various forms.
As meditation has taken more of a front seat in my own practice, I'd moved away from formal asana and breathing practices and I felt renewed and reinspired to kick back into the willful breathing techniques.
We'll be offering this again next year and I look forward to the adventure. If you're working toward your 500-hour degree and want an immersion into practice as the core foundation of your teaching, this is a great event.
As more people engage into yoga and meditation, stories of transformation abound. I head up to Kripalu Center to co-lead a ten-day intensive training for yoga teachers on Exploring the Energy Body: Teaching Pranayama and Meditation. While I'm more of a meditation guy, I have experienced how yoga changed my life and am happy to get back into a yoga immersion scene.
Here's an amazing story of rehabilitation and transformation through yoga:
http://youtu.be/qX9FSZJu448
Seven days of sustained, intensive practice. A meditation retreat is a Transformation Zone.
Such depth and deep change over the course of days of continuous practice.
For me, the retreat is full: I lead two movement classes a day, each day is filled with interviews with practitioners and an evening talk to prepare and share keeps things lively and amazing.
There's nothing like a week of dedicated, sincere practice with like-minded people.
Do catch one if you can. The next one is in the fall.
I was recently interviewed for the "Finding True Refuge" series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NIVi57xpWM
This week's talk was on "The Power of Inquiry." (If you missed it, it's available on my podcast).
The questions we ask ourselves can dramatically reframe our experience. They can be used in the realm of self-improvement and problem-solving as well as inquiring into the nature of the self and accessing the non-dual.
All inquiry questions require a particular internal attitude:
- Drop all expectations of 'getting it right.'
- Inquire with a sincere desire to know the truth
- Be prepared for unexpected
- Look for a 'feeling tone' or an experience that is outside the linear mind
The Five-Problem Solving Questions have gotten me out of jams quite a few times. Credit to Tony Robbins, who turned me on to this. As promised, here they are. The following is my personal adaptation:
- What's great about this situation? What could be great about it?
- What's not perfect yet?
- What am I willing to do to resolve this situation?
- What am I no longer willing to do to resolve this situation?
- How can I resolve this situation and have a great time doing it?
While questions can help us in the relative, they can open up a sense of what lies beyond the mind itself.
Ramana Maharshi claimed that sincere inquiry into two questions could help reveal your true nature:
- Who am I?
- What do I really want?
Inquiry requires a curious blend of not just a high degree of sincerity and openness, but an intensity and desire to know what is true.
For more on inquiry meditation, check here.
We are honored to have the Monks from Gaden Jangste Twawa Khangsten, India on Monday Night at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington on the 9th. They will play traditional instruments and chant a Medicine Buddha puja. Stig Regli will lead the opening meditation and introduce the monks. If you would like to include your name or that of a loved one in the dedication, please send an email to Rebecca Freeman at spc@guyyasamaja.org.
This should be a sweet event. I'll be teaching on Capitol Hill that night, but will tune in from across the Potomac.
I'm looking forward to joining up with my colleague Larissa Carlson at Kripalu Center in a few months, teaching Exploring the Energy Body: Teaching Pranayama and Meditation, part of Kripalu's professional level 500-hour yoga teacher training.
The program is already full with a wait list, so we're looking forward to ten days with 60 yogis and yoginis breathing deep, paying really close attention to what happens in moment-to-moment awareness and learning how to guide others into non-ordinary states of consciousness that arise from these practices.
After many years of yoga practice I found myself more drawn to 'just sitting, ' particularly in the Theravaden Buddhist tradition. I've found, though, there are times when the pranayama techniques have been amazingly helpful in my practice and I'm rediscovering how powerful they are for cultivating concentration, working with pain and preparing the body and mind for intensive meditation practice.
Larissa just wrote a great article on "Reinvigorating a Pranayama Home Practice" you might enjoy. If you have the opportunity to study with Larissa, do it. She's incredibly knowledgable and compassionate.
I'm back from leading the Energy Intensive at Kripalu Center this weekend with my cohorts Shobhan and Danna Faulds. We've been leading this three-day 'blow out the tubes' weekend for twelve years.
Shobhan shared a prayer that many asked for and as promised, here it is:
May you be happy and healthy.May you prosper in all ways.May your studies be illuminating.May your practice being you deep realization.May you find joy in serving others.And may you awaken fully, in this very lifetime.
For the last year or so we've been revamping and revving the IMCW Mentoring Program.
Having some quality 1-1 time with an experienced meditator can not only keep you inspired, but can keep opening new doors as you deepen your practice.
We started with 8 and now we've got 68 folks who do their best to make themselves available to support you. Check out the site for more information.
My personal vision is to create a solid mentoring program we can share with other communities. In the meantime, we're trying different approaches to supporting both mentees and the mentors. It's a group process.
A senior teacher at Spirit Rock once told a story of when he went to Burma to study meditation. This was decades ago, before meditation hit the mainstream.
He made his way to a monestary and was assigned a little hut for his practice.
His teacher gave him this instruction: "Keep your awareness in your body. We'll check in in a week."
That was it.
Not "Watch the breath at the tip of your nostrils."
Not "And this is how you do walking meditation."
Not "Here's how you do mindful eating."
"Keep your awareness in the body." From there, we apply the practice in all the different ways we sense, feel and move.
This was the basic theme for our daylong retreat on Saturday, "A Meditative Journey: Movement, Meditation and Deep Relaxation."
Here were the two other instructions:
1. Relax 2 Pay attention.
That's pretty much what we did all day while doing conscious movement, body scans and various forms of seated meditation.
Consciously shifting your attention from the story to the experience of the 'here and now' is a radical act.
Inevitably you start to relax. When you relax you begin to feel more. You notice more. You start to recognize what's between you and feeling free.
I'm always amazed at what happens when I pause even if just for one breath, relax and notice what's happening.
One breath.
What's happening right now?
Our retreat this Saturday, "A Meditative Journey; Movement, Meditation and Deep Relaxation," has moved to St. George's church in Arlington. Here's a map.
This is a 'practice retreat' with rounds of movement, relaxation and vipassana meditation and less emphasis on dharma talks, though I'm sure I'll have something to say here and there.
Most of the day is in social silence, but we will have time for questions and discussion at the end of the day.
I believe we still have a few spaces available and you can register online here.
This is one of my most favorite retreats.
We just completed the 5th annual Men's Retreat this weekend. Almost 70 men rolled in to share the adventure.
Movement, breath, social silence and meditation drews us inward and inquiry and sharing in partners and small groups drew us into relationship with each other. Differences in wealth, professions, cultural backgrounds and sexual orientation seemed to melt as we explored common inquiries into what it means to be a man in these trying times.
Our final round of questions took me to the heart of what it means to be awake in heart and mind:
What am I most committed to in my life right now?
What do I need to be feel more whole?
Some find it easy to respond to the first question. The second question takes us into a deeper sense of vulnerability and into a more profound sense of relationship.
If you're interested in exploring more, a new group is starting up in DC called Men Meeting for Meditation, or M3. Here's a link for more information.
This is a recent start up and you are welcome to join in.