The following is from my recent talk at the Unitarian Universalist Church on River Road in Bethesda.
http://youtu.be/PUhZVZNDqHo
Waking from the Dream of Thoughts
When I slow down and pay attention to thoughts I'm always struck my how shameless my mind is. There is no rat hole it won't go down.
To my great relief I have found with practice I simply don't quite believe what I'm thinking quite as much.
This week's talk explores some strategies for snapping out of unrelenting identification with the thinking process. The sound is a bit off as we had a big group but no audio amplification, so I had to project my voice more than usual.
Here's the blurb:
How do you wake out of the trance of thinking? This talk explores three strategies: 1) Consciously shift your attention to your immediate sensory experience, 2) actively investigate the veracity of what story you might be believing and 3) turn your awareness to thoughts of kindness and compassion. The good news? As soon as you realize you are lost in thought, new possibilities arise.
iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.
The Dharma of Relationships
A new talk this week and a guided meditation coming soon. I covered Tara's Wednesday night class in Bethesda as she was on the road speaking at a conference.
"Relational dharma" is a powerful practice ... using relationships as a way to wake up.
Here's the blurb:
Unless you live in a cave and have concierge service, you most probably interact with people each day. Wisdom teachings tell us to 'see self in other and other in self.' But how? This talk explores some practical strategies for cultivating empathy, compassion and skill in how you relate to others and use your relationships to wake up.
Transforming Your Relationship with Fear
This week's topic is a favorite. Anxiety and fear are old friends of mine. For much of the most recent month-long meditation retreat I attended I felt like I was simmering in a stew of constantly churning old and new worries. Over time, the anxiety dissipated and about six months later Tara said, "You know, you seem generally less anxious than you used to be."
A lot of people notice that pleasant bi-product of meditation. You learn to discern between anxiety that's helpful and anxiety that is pure hallucination.
Here's the blurb from this week's talk in Arlington:
Anxiety and fear, if unexamined, leave you unsteady and dissatisfied. When you can name a fear and investigate it with kindness, new possibilities emerge. This talk explores what happens in your brain and nervous system when you feel fear as well as some practical, pragmatic strategies that can lead to radical transformation.
iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.
A Year of Living Mindfully
Seven years ago I left my scene in the Berkshire Mountains to move to DC. I had lived in our around intentional community for a few decades. I had never lived in a city and had some trepidation about moving to a place where I knew no one and no one knew me.
I noticed that DC is not a 'casual city.' Everyone seemed to on their way somewhere, and in a hurry.
I wondered if there might be any interest in developing a sense of community dedicated to deepening practice and created something I called "A Year of Living Mindfully." I was inspired by Stephen Levine's work, "A Year to Live," where he imagined that he would be dead in a year, and described his inner process.
To my delight, there were folks interested and I'll be starting my sixth "Year of Living Mindfully" in April. I have been amazingly blessed by the richness of this experience. As I often say, to be surrounded by sincere, authentic, kind practitioners who share an intention to wake up is as close to heaven as it gets.
You can read more about the program here. Applications are due March 1. There are some prerequisites, but feel free to check with me if you have any questions.
The Dance of Concentration and Mindfulness
It was great to be back in Arlington after so long on the road. Our exploration this week explored the classic teachings on Concentration and Mindfulness.
Concentration is developed through willful practice and effort. Mindfulness, or non-judging awareness, blossoms through relaxation and patience.
Though they work intimately together, certain practices result cultivate one or the other.
Finding the practice that works for you is part of what my friend Pat Coffey calls developing yourself 'as a contemplative artist.'
These posts include the guided meditation as well as the talk. iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.
Intentions and Actions
It's another year and we naturally tend to revisit what we want in the year ahead.
This week's talk on Capitol Hill is entitled "Intentions and Actions." It was a wonderful turnout down in St. Mark's 'whine cellar' to start the new year. The blurb:
The most important thing," Shunryo Suzuki famously said, "is to know what is the most important thing."
Short term intentions can be enormously helpful when you are going through a challenging time. Long-term intentions also serve to provide clarity around actions - not just the actions which will support your goals, but clarity regarding actions from which you might exercise restraint.
Scenes from the Retreat
110 meditators for five days. Good medicine. A few images ...
.
Pat Coffey, Hugh Byrne, Tara Brach, Ruth King, Jonathan Foust:
.
Each participant takes part in two small group sessions. They can be quite powerful, almost ethereal, which inspired me to edit this image of my room:
.
After five days of silence (other than the small groups which meet for about an hour) it can be a challenge to enter back into speaking. Small groups making the transition to mindful speech:
Dharma Rap Song
Back in the ashram, once a year, we had "Fun Day," a day dedicated to, well, fun. We slept in late, ate ice cream, did a lot of group adventures during the day and had an evening of skits and songs.
Back when rap was just coming out, it was violent and rough. I decided to try my hand at a dharmic rap song and with my friend and colleague, Mark Kelso aka Hansaraj on synthesizer, we did it for about 350 residents, complete with a dance interlude.
I did it one more time in public, at Mark's wedding with Todd Norian on keyboards and Time Brenner on drums. With professional back up, it was almost passable.
Almost.
At the retreat, I had no backup, so I slapped together a little rhythm loop on my iPad. Pretty rough, but pretty funny.
Imagine, during the chorus, Tara Brach, Hugh Byrne, Pat Coffey and Ruth King leaping out of their meditation seats to chant and pose.
Aligning Your Life with Your Heart
Here's the talk from the New Year's Retreat. I had the honor of batting cleanup with the final talk of the retreat on New Year's Eve.
The blurb:
The closing talk to the New Year's Retreat, 2012. Spiritual practice is a blend of willful effort and conscious surrender. When the sense of "I" and "mine" drops away, compassion arises effortlessly. Sometimes your capacity to live with an open heart is effortless. Sometimes it requires a clear intention.
I Be Me
When I was 15 I learned Transcendental Meditation and it profoundly changed my life. Almost immediately I felt more empowered and creative. iBme is dedicated to bringing meditation to the next generation and they are doing amazing things.
iBme Mindfulness Programs Transform an Oakland Public High School from Inward Bound on Vimeo.
Click here for an article on some meditation classes I led at Whitman High School (in the Washington Post).
Transforming Your Relationship to Pain, Part 1
Last year I did a few six-week series called "Transforming Your Relationship to Pain" with Dr. Gary Kaplan of the Kaplan Clinic in Mclean, VA. They were powerful and juicy.
Since then we've wanted to do them again, but we are both so busy it's been hard to schedule. In this three week series on "Buddha and the Body" I thought I'd offer two talks on the subject.
Here's the blurb on the podcast:
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Is this true? This talk explores the fundamentals of how pain works and after a few minutes of energizing movement led by Jovinna Chan, you'll explore two pragmatic meditations for shifting your relationship to unpleasant sensations.
To Be or Do?
Two podcast episodes this week. #1 is a guided meditation exploring three forms of breathing, from willful breathing to contemplation of natural breath.
This week's talk is part of a series on "Buddha and the Body. When it comes to cultivating embodied presence, how should you pay attention?
This talk explores two practices that rest on the far edges of instruction. The 'sitting of strong determination' requires strict attention while 'surrender meditation' is all about letting go. There are a few guided experiences with questions and comments with suggestions as to how you can find your 'sweet spot.'
Streaming here and podcast here.
On Diversity
We had a powerful two days with Ruth King on Diversity. She's a fireball. If you'd like to learn more about her work, this is her link. She'll be at the New Year's Retreat doing private interviews.
Our capacity for interpersonal transformation truly comes from our capacity to sense what another's experience is like for them. It was in sixth grade when I first heard the expression, "Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins." It struck me then and remains true.
Or as I think Sri Nisargadatta put it, "To see self in other and other in self" ....
Two new talks online
I've got two new talks online from recent weeks. The first is called "Cultivating Equanimity."
The flower of mindfulness practice is equanimity, the capacity to allow your experience to be exactly what it is - no matter what it is.
The second talk (from this week) is "On Gratitude and Giving." This talk explores what gets in the way of gratitude and how you can actively cultivate this state. Post-Thanksgiving, it's interesting to reflect on your experience of the ratio of two opposites: Gratitude and Complaining. When I pay attention I notice it's actually a little meter that moves from moment to moment.
With a little practice we find that these somewhat rare states of equanimity and gratitude can be cultivated. iTunes podcast here and direct streaming here.
Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training in DC
I've had a number of people from retreats and classes ask about the style of movement I lead. I spent almost 25 years immersed into the world of Kripalu Yoga as a practitioner and trainer and find the style is still a great match for me. Kripalu Yoga is about balance. How do you cultivate that delicate balance where you are here and now, grounded in your body as well as with a clear and open heart and mind?
That's what the practice is all about and as I say, "Kripalu Yoga is not about what you look like from the outside. It's all about what's happening inside.' This is a very intuitive form of movement and a powerful adjunct to meditation.
My friend and colleague Jovinna Chan will be leading a 200-hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training at Dream Yoga Studio in McLean, VA.
I'll be supporting the training from the perspective of teaching meditation and look forward to teaching again with Jovinna.
She'll be leading a daylong retreat on both December 8th and 9th and will have session for those interested in Kripalu Yoga and the training.
For more on the retreat and training For more on Jovinna
The 'Power' of Retreat
Before the lights went out.
You would think 75 people hanging out in basically one room with no showers for four days and with their bedrooms essentially the same temperature as the outdoors would create some disharmony. In our weeklong fall retreat, we rode out the hurricane in shared silence and mutual support.
If anything, the sense of camaraderie and interconnectedness helped each of us draw deeply inside and keep our hearts open. Serving a retreat is quite engaging, leading the movement sessions, giving talks and doing about ten interviews a day. This vantage point not only helps me sense the trajectory of individual transformations, but the evolution of the group as a whole.
I wanted to pass along a reading, as promised. This was part of my talk on "Embodied Presence," how we receive signals all the time from our bodies wanting attention and promising a deeper, more intimate connection with life.
This, I believe, was written by a Chinese doctor:
Felt Sense Prayer
I am the pain in your head, the knot in your stomach, the unspoken grief in your smile. I am your high blood sugar, your elevated blood pressure, your fear of challenge, your lack of trust. I am your hot flashes, your cold hands and feet, your agitation and your fatigue. I am your shortness of breath, your fragile low back, the cramp in you r neck, the despair in your sigh. I am the pressure on your heart, the pain down your arm, your bloated abdomen, your constant hunger. I am where you hurt, the fear that persists, your sadness of dreams unfulfilled. I am your symptoms, the causes of your concern, the signs of imbalance, your condition of dis-ease.
You tend to disown me, suppress me, ignore me, inflate me, coddle me, condemn me. I am not coming forth for myself as I am not separate from all that is you. I come to garner your attention, to enjoin your embrace so I can reveal my secrets. I have only your best interests at heart as I seek health and wholeness by simply announcing myself.
You usually want me to go away immediately, to disappear, to sleek back into obscurity. You mostly are irritated or frightened and many times shocked by my arrival. From this stance you medicate in order to eradicate me. Ignoring me, not exploring me, is your preferred response. More times than not I am only the most recent notes of a long symphony, the most evident branches of roots that have been challenged for seasons.Hread
So I implore you, I am a messenger with good news, as disturbing as I can be at times. I am wanting to guide you back to those tender places in yourself, the place where you can hold yourself with compassion and honesty. If you look beyond my appearance you may find that I am a voice from your soul. Calling to you from places deep within that seek your conscious alignment.
I may ask you to alter your diet, get more sleep, exercise regularly, breathe more consciously. I might encourage you to see a vaster reality and worry less about the day to day fluctuations of life. I may ask you to explore the bonds and the wounds of your relationships. I may remind you to be more generous and expansive or to attend to protecting your heart from insult. I might have you laugh more, spend more time in nature, eat when you are hungry and less when pained or bored, spend time every day, if only for a few minutes, being still.
Wherever I lead you, my hope is that you will realize that success will not be measured by my eradication, but by the shift in the internal landscape from which I emerge.
I am your friend, not your enemy. I have no desire to bring pain and suffering into your life. I am simply tugging at your sleeve, too long immune to gentle nudges. I desire for you to allow me to speak to you in a way that enlivens your higher instincts for self care. My charge is to energize you to listen to me with the sensitive ear and heart of a mother attending to her precious baby.
You are a being so vast, so complex, with amazing capacities for self-regulation and healing. Let me be one of the harbingers that lead you to the mysterious core of your being where insight and wisdom are naturally available when called upon with a sincere heart.
Concentration, Mindfulness and the Arising of Insight
Concentration is power.
A concentrated mind can plow through obstacles to get a project done. In the same way, concentration helps you move through challenging mental and emotional states and remain deeply and fully present.
Mindfulness is non-judging awareness.
Mindfulness reveals how you are holding your experience and ultimately, how you can let it go.
In a sense these are two opposing energies. One is a willful practice while the other calls on patience and a quality of surrender. This week's guided meditation and talk explores the dance of these two elements and the end result: seeing into the nature of reality and the arising of insight.
Podcast here and online streaming here.
This week's talk is called "Mindfulness of Thoughts: With Your Thoughts You Create Your World." One of the best things about the practice of meditation is that we don't quite believe our thoughts as much as before. We begin to see the difference between being caught in the narrative - the ongoing story - and the direct experience of the Here and Now.
Simple and ridiculously profound. iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.
Meditation and a Talk on Working with the Hindrances
This week's topic was "Working with the Hindrances," which I hope is a pragmatic approach to navigating the challenging weather systems of the mind.
The talk, given on Capitol Hill, is proceeded by a meditation on the senses, exploring how you can be intimately present to sensation while observing what is changing and how you are holding your experience.
Available (for free!) on my podcast or streaming online.