Questions and Explorations
For an introvert, I've racked up a lot of hours talking, with over 50 talks and guided meditations on iTunes, Dharmaseed and elsewhere.
This week we went with questions about practice. We explored three short meditations that focus on ways to pay attention. I've found these to be very helpful.
One is pure concentration, to narrow your attention down to one specific focal point, in this case the sense of the pads of the index fingers on the top of your thighs. The second is foreground / background. With attention on one spot, you notice everything in the background. A third strategy is 'open awareness,' the effortless perception of the space in which all things arise and pass away.
We explored other questions as well, ranging from how to work with sluggishness to how we can bear the suffering of the world and cultivate compassion in the midst of it all.
The blurb:
An impromptu evening with questions and short guided experiencees.1) How to work with sluggishness and sleepiness,2) mindfulness strategies for paying attention, from narrow to open focus, 3) the art of really letting go, 4) three basic fears, 5) bearing the suffering of the world.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here and stitcher here.
Transforming Your Relationship To Pain (Part 2)
Special AUDIO:
You'll learn how to investigate the arising of sensation and how you are relating to it.
Whatever your experience may be in any moment, when you remember that "Other people feel this too," a sense of "I" and "Mine" can fall away and open up space inside.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here and stitcher here.
Grasping and Impermanence
When I was a kid, I noticed how 'old' folks would reminisce about the generations of dogs they'd had. I had never gone through the death of a pet until later, when our first dog passed on.
Now I'm one of those geezers who has had numerous pets arrive and pass away. Our current pup is a lively, expressive critter who startles at the slightest noise. Recently, though, when I look at her I've been able to imagine her old and infirm, her inevitable destiny.
The realization doesn't make me sad. I think I have enough wisdom to remember that she's bound to get old, sick and die.
Rather, the realization somehow opens my heart. I more deeply appreciate her liveliness and kookie nature.
This is part of the theme of this week's talk, exploring the dance of grasping and impermanence.
The blurb:
The nature of the mind is to want. When you grasp how impermanence is a characteristic of reality, you can transform your relationship to the clinging mind.
You can then entertain the possibility of what life would be like in the unfolding moment in the absence of attraction and it's opposite - aversion. This talk includes numerous short meditation.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here, and stitcher here.
Transforming Your Relationship To Pain (Part 1)
Special AUDIO:
This talk explores how pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.
You'll learn the fundamentals of how pain works. After a few minutes of energizing movement led by guest yoga teacher Jovinna Chan, you'll explore two pragmatic meditations for shifting your relationship to unpleasant sensations.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here and stitcher here
Aspiration and Wise Action
At 50,000 feet you can grasp the enormity of things.
On the runway, you see the details.
This week's talk explores three elements that align the 50,000 foot view with the details on the ground.
Imagine your thoughts, speech and actions aligned not only with your intention, but with the laws of nature. Imagine knowing your life is aligned in a way that cultivates a greater sense of ease and well-being.
This is the dance of "Wise View," "Wise Intention" and "Wise Effort," components of the road map laid out in Buddhist philosophy in the Eightfold Path.
This week's blurb:
Paying attention to three fundamental elements can make a huge difference in your life.
Wise View aligns you with reality.
Wise Intention aligns your attention with what is deeply and unalterably true and important in your life.
Wise Action aligns your thought, speech and efforts.
So often we forget what is most important and fall into to a life of reactivity, anxiety and fear. Pausing deeply and exploring how these three elements interact can not only support you in feeling more balanced, but can lead you to greater and greater happiness and inner peace, no matter how turbulent your life may be at times.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here, stitcher app here.
Meditation as a Hitchcock Movie
Each morning when I'm down by the river at sunrise this time of year, clouds of blackbirds or grackles make their way across the river as the sun comes up. This morning I skipped the morning walk and sit down by the river and the flock came to me.
It was pretty mind altering to be sitting quietly in silence and hear this cacophony right out the back door.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu_jgcKtHxM
This Thursday Night in McLean, VA: Mindfulness Strategies for Transforming Your Relationship with Pain & Depression
I'll be giving a talk at the Dolley Madison Library this Thursday night in conjunction with a series sponsored by my friends at Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine. Most of us have heard about the medical research that demonstrates how mindfulness meditation can help reduce anxiety and improve health, but what is "mindfulness" anyway? And how does it work?
Think of mindfulness as "non-judging awareness." Learning how to access mindfulness when we're experiencing stress, pain, depression and other difficult states can be challenging.
Through a short talk and brief guided meditation experiences we'll explore some practical strategies, not just for increasing our toleration of unpleasant states, but for actually transforming our relationship with them when they do arise.
DATE: Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013
TIME: 7:00 to 8:00 PM
PLACE: Dolley Madison Library, 1244 Oak Ridge Avenue, McLean
For directions, click here. Light refreshments will be served.
Following the talk I'll be around to respond to questions. There is no charge for this event, but seating is limited, so we encourage you to pre-register.
Why Practice and What to Expect
Have you ever met anyone who finds their practice, whether it be yoga, meditation, prayer, etc, to be effortless to sustain?
If so, please send them my way. I'd like to learn their secret.
Any practice that embraces transformation is a challenge to keep going. And most people, as one of my teachers said, stop practicing precisely because it's working.
Mindfulness is designed to bring into your awareness what is between you and feeling free. Doing it alone is challenging, and that's why there have been through the ages, monasteries, support groups, retreats for intensive practice.
This week's talk explores the power of remembering why you practice and what to expect if you can sustain an intentional effort on non-judging awareness.
The blurb:
Mindfulness practice can get dry and rote. When you remember why you are practicing you'll reconnect with your passion and deepest intention. When you can sustain your practice, you may notice a number of benefits.
Beyond the physiological and emotional boosts you'll feel, ultimately you'll notice the arising of two distinct faculties.
Wisdom is your capacity to recognize what is true. Compassion is your capacity to allow and open to truth.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here, stitcher app here.
Congratulations to the Graduates
57 fire-breathing teachers ready to take it out into the world. We just completed the nine-day module called ”Exploring the Energy Body: Teaching Pranayama and Meditation."
What a group of dedicated practitioners and teachers. I'm deeply inspired.
Berkshire Sunrise
An early walk in the Berkshires before diving into morning practices in our teacher training. 23 degrees and dropping.
Five Impediments to Presence
What happens when things don't go your way?
It's actually quite predictable.
Learn to recognize your own reactive patterns and you start to have choices where none existed before.
This week's talk is a high speed romp through what are often called the Five Obstacles or the Five Hindrances. It's a short talk as we took extra time at the end to form "Spiritual Friends" groups.
The blurb:
What's between you and feeling free? Chances are excellent whatever it is, it has it's roots in one of five particuarl states.
When you learn to identify them, you immediately begin to shift your relationship to what is happening.
This is a short talk and is a pretty high speed romp and more general overview.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here, Stitcher here.
Working with Greed, Hatred and Delusion
It was great to be back in Arlington after the week-long retreat. I'll be doing a series on "What's Between You and Feeling Free" over the next two weeks.
The forces of Greed, Ill Will and Delusion make it impossible to access a sense of non-judging presence. When you learn to recognize them, you open the possibility of dramatically shifting your relationship to the moment.
I'm often asked, "How can I tell I'm making any progress in my practice?" I think using the yardstick of these three forces can be helpful.
Do you feel less caught in craving, wanting, fantasizing?
Are you less swept up in hatred, ill will, judgment and aversion?
Do you feel you have more access to wisdom - to a sense of what is real and true?
The blurb:
Three major forces color your life experience in any moment. Learning how to recognize how they pervade thoughts, feelings, beliefs and actions can lead to a greater sense of freedom. A short talk and a few questions which have been edited for easier listening.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here and stitcher here.
Meditation (re) Treat
Moon over Pearlstone Retreat Center
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I just figured out I've supported at least 25 of our residential retreats since I've moved down to DC. It's the best game in town.
It's never less than awe-inspiring to take this deep dive into self-inquiry with so many dedicated and sincere practitioners.
This practice is not for the feint of heart. No reading, writing and no speaking except for two short interviews during the week.
Hours and hours and hours of sitting and walking meditation with some optional chi gong in the morning and yoga in the afternoon. The food was great, the weather supportive and the grounds are beautiful for walking and meditating outdoors.
If you're on for a transformative journey, do consider joining one. The next is the New Year's Retreat. More at IMCW.
Slow Movement: Everything, Nothing, Harvey Keitel
We start the Fall Retreat at the end of the week and we'll have over 100 people in silence watching the breath and watching the movent of the mind for days and days and days. This link takes you to an awesome narrative of a meditator's experience on retreat sitting near Harvey Keitel. This is from BBC radio. Amazing production.
Thirty minutes of inner monologue interspersed with meditation guidance from Sharon Salzberg.
Berkshire Fog
Just completing a three-day Intensive called The Transformative Journey at Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, MA. Not to be too cliché, but I hope we burned off some of the psychic fog through the last three days of yoga, meditation, breathwork and inquiry. It's been ten years since I was president here and I'm delighted to see the place thriving.
On Taking Yourself Lightly
Many years ago, Jared and I did a month-long silent meditation retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California.
I distinctly remember watching Jared haul a boatload of stuff up the long hill to the meditation center and him marveling at my 'lack' of stuff. I'd managed to pack everything I needed for the month in one carryon bag.
Liiving in a 9x11 room in an ashram for a decade or so got me trained in to living light. Three years in an RV trained me in even more. I didn't have much, but I really enjoyed each shirt, pair of pants, pair of shoes. Everything I owned was a 'favorite.'
I got into one-bag packing when I started noticing that when I'd unpack from trips on the road, much of what I'd brought along never got worn. That got me thinking as to how spare and mindful I could comfortably go.
Thanks to sites like OneBag.com I've come to appreciate I'm not alone in my fetish for traveling light. I continue to refine my systems and will share more if prodded even slightly.
Here's Jared's blog post on National Geographic.
And if you'd like, before I left on that retreat, you can read my original post.
Dharma Talk: Self Care, Earth Care
Earlier this year, senior dharma teachers received a petition requesting some teachings on how to be with climate change and the environmental challenges we face right now.
The response was Earth Care Week, when teachers from around the country speak on the topic.
I found this subject particularly challenging. I realized I have my own reactions ranging from a sense of helplessness, anger, frustration and not a little self-judgment as I've recognized how much I've personally managed to ignore the topic.
I found some relief in looking at the topic through the lens of the four essential insights of Buddhist psychology and that's the structure of this week's talk. Given the fact that climate change is real, that there is a cause for it, there is also some possibility that we can turn it around if we wake up and take action.
This week's blurb:
This is "Earth Care Week" and Vipassana teachers around the country are speaking on the topic of mindfulness of climate change.
Given the enormity of challenges, it's easy to get overwhelmed, angry and filled with helplessness.
I've found it most helpful to view our relationship to our environment through the lens of the Four Noble Truths. In facing the reality of our global condition, there may be some hope for a deep awakening of consciousness.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here and stitcher here.
A Formula for Transformation
Most people would think of me as reasonably kind and thoughtful.
That changes when I get behind the wheel of a car and head out into the battlefield of DC Metro traffic.
On my way to class in Arlington, a black SUV cut me off and I went right into "Revenge Mode" before I realized what was happening.
Fortunately, I was teaching that night about a formula that helps you shift your relationship to what's happening by asking four fundamental questions and I was able to move through the waves of anger pretty quickly.
That's what week's talk is all about.
Here's the blurb:
Meditation will most probably help you feel more present and alive, emotionally available and with a more refined sense of intuition.
It's also a very handy tool when you encounter physical pain, emotional turbulence or mental anquish.
Four essential questions can help you shift from feeling caught to having access to more creativity and resilience when you feel stuck.
You can sign for my iTunes podcast here, listen online here or sign on through Stitcher.
The Meditation Teacher Training Institute Runway
Two years ago we launched the Meditation Teacher Training Institute with 60+ participants. This weekend we completed our final last big gathering with a graduation ceremony coming up in a few weeks. The DC / VA / MD area doesn't know what's going to hit it with these folks unleashed.
This was an intensive program that was quite rigorous and challenging. I'm honored to be part of it and share guiding the experience with fellow teachers Tara Brach, Pat Coffey and Hugh Byrne.
