When I woke up this morning, I found my that my breath “anchor” came to mind within just a minute or two, with no conscious impulse to do so. This progress feels like a carryover of last night’s sitting meditation, right before I went to bed, which itself, seemed to be quite a lot of […]
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What Am I Doing Right Now? And Why Does it Matter?
2011/12/09 
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In this essay Thanissaro Bhikkhu analyzes the profound importance of understanding the nature of our intentions and the actions that arise out of those intentions. In many ways, as he points out, this issue is at the very heart of the Buddha’s teaching—looking deeply into intention, into cause and effect, and seeing how to “unbind” […]
Continue reading How Facing Pain Helps to End Suffering
2011/11/09 5 Comments
The Joy Hidden in Sorrow Reflections by Ajahn Medhanandi “When Marpa, the great Tibetan meditation master and teacher of Milarepa, lost his son he wept bitterly. One of his pupils came up to him and asked: ‘Master, why are you weeping? You teach us that death is an illusion.’And Marpa said: ‘Death is an illusion. […]
Continue reading Holy as the Day is Spent-Thich Nhat Hanh on the Holiness of Mindfulness
2011/09/27 2 Comments
This excerpt below is from “The Blooming of the Lotus: the Nature of No-birth and No-death.” It’s a dharma talk given by my heart teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh on May 3, 1998 in Plum Village, France. It is followed by the beautiful and profound song, “Holy as the Day is Spent” by Carrie Newcomer from […]
Continue reading Thich Nhat Hanh – A Simple Teaching on Bringing Mindfulness to What Arises
2011/09/03 11 Comments
“There are some practitioners who want to bend and twist their breathing the way they think it ought to be. The Buddha said that is not the correct way. You only be aware of your breath and do not try to intervene. You don’t need to do anything, just know. You just observe, you do […]
Continue reading Meditation as Medicine-Learning to Be Your Own Breath Doctor
2011/08/11 1 Comment
Meditation as Medicine Thanissaro Bhikkhu You all know the old image of the Buddha as a doctor and the Dhamma as medicine. When you come to practice the Dhamma, it’s as if you’re learning to be your own doctor, looking after the illnesses of your own mind. Everyone comes up here wounded in one way […]
Continue reading Working with The Six Properties in Meditation-Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Space, and Consciousness
2011/05/10 0 Comments
For the past few months I’ve really been focusing on “body work” in my dharma practice. I’ve been working with full-body awareness and vipassana, as well as using deep loving-kindness meditation to embrace mental and physical pains. This essay by Thanissaro Bhikkhu has been especially helpful in getting in touch with the actual feelings of my […]
Continue reading The Importance of Alertness and Attention in Developing Concentration
2011/05/05 3 Comments
As I have grown in my meditation practice, I have been able to develop deeper and deeper levels of concentration and corresponding insight. And yet, when I’ve read about some of the various deeper levels of jhana (deep concentration, or samatha) I’ve sometimes wondered about my progress and whether I’m going “deep” enough. This great […]
Continue reading Why Buddhist Practice is Deeply Rooted in Mindfulness of the Body
2011/04/11 4 Comments
One of the very first teachers I discovered in my dharma practice was Gil Fronsdal. I was always touched by Gil’s gentle, loving approach to the practice, and his wisdom in guiding students to more and more skillful means. Gil has practiced Zen and Vipassana since 1975 and has a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from […]
Continue reading How to Use Body Meditation and Mindfulness of the Breath to Dissolve Fears
2011/01/30 6 Comments
Morning “Check In” — What is present and what is arising? When I awake in the morning, the first thing I do is “check in” to myself to see what’s going on. I consciously breathe in and out, center myself, and just listen and watch to see what arises. I try not to get snagged […]
Continue reading Meditation is About Our Whole Life, not Just the Inner Workings of the Mind
2010/12/15 1 Comment
In this essay, I want to look into how we can broaden and deepen our understanding of meditation, so that it encompasses more of our life and isn’t just something we do “on the cushion.” I’ve found the meditation instruction of J. Krishnamurti especially helpful in gaining this broader view, and so I share some […]
Continue reading Why it’s Important to Know What Mindfulness Is and Is Not
2010/11/19 3 Comments
Mindfulness Defined by Thanissaro Bhikkhu What does it mean to be mindful of the breath? Something very simple: to keep the breath in mind. Keep remembering the breath each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out. The British scholar who coined the term “mindfulness” to translate the Pali word sati was probably influenced […]
Continue reading Quiet in Every Way – Breaking the Mind’s Chatter
2010/10/10 6 Comments
I just finished a 14-day intensive meditation/metta retreat at home, which is why I haven’t posted for a while. Looking back at the 2 weeks work, I couldn’t help but think of this article by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. One of the things that became so evident to me, day after day “on the cushion” or in […]
Continue reading Ways to work with fear rather than avoiding it
2010/09/24 2 Comments
One of the great dharma resources in the Boston area is the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center: The CIMC Guiding Teachers and Teachers are (left to right) Larry Rosenberg, Narayan Liebenson Grady, and Michael Liebenson Grady: Below are some excerpts from a summary of a 1997 talk by Michael Liebenson Grady on how to deal skillfully […]
Continue reading Kabir-“I Said To The Wanting-Creature Inside Me”-Poem and Music
2010/09/15 1 Comment
Here is another beautiful poem from the Indian mystic and poet Kabir. It’s called “I Said To The Wanting-Creature Inside Me.” May this poem, and the music that follows it, inspire you to empty your life of whatever would keep you from the happiness of being truly present in what you are! I Said To […]
Continue reading Breaking habits of perception-a skill that changes everything
2010/09/04 7 Comments
Here is another great teaching from Thanissaro Bhikkhu. While looking for some buddhadharma about dealing with guilt about the past, I came across this paragraph, from the end of his article, “Habits of Perception.” It was so helpful, I stopped my search to read the whole article, which I share below. May it be an […]
Continue reading Using Meditation to Get Acquainted with Pain-Are You Serious?
2010/08/09 6 Comments
Everybody has to deal with pain. It’s one of the biggest problems we face as human beings. If we are dealing with chronic or acute disease, pain can literally fill our world. Over time, chronic pain can feeling like we are being ground down by a mountain. And one of the worst aspects of chronic […]
Continue reading Moral Self-Protection Grounded in Meditation
2010/07/09 1 Comment
Once the Buddha told his monks the following story: There was once a pair of jugglers who performed their acrobatic feats on a bamboo pole. One day the master said to his apprentice: “Now get on my shoulders and climb up the bamboo pole.” When the apprentice had done so, the master said: “Now protect […]
Continue reading Dealing with Suffering *is* Spiritual Practice
2010/06/10 1 Comment
This is the second in a three-part series of articles sharing the insights of some spiritual thinkers on the subject of suffering and the First Noble Truth. In the first article, I shared insights from Ken Wilber’s No Boundary. You can read the post here: Dissatisfaction with Life-the Start of Discovery This excerpt in this […]
Continue reading The Power of the Smile in Our Meditation and Lives
2010/05/27 15 Comments
At my first retreat with my heart teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, I was struck by how many times Thây talked about smiling and its importance to the practice he was teaching. Of course, it was so wonderful to be in the presence of this living Bodhisattva, and his loving, compassionate monks, it was hard not […]
Continue readingMay All Beings Be Happy
- Looking at the Ninth Zen Precept-I Do Not Indulge In Anger
- True God, True Buddha
- The Difference Between Compassion and “Idiot Compassion”
- Ajahn Brahmavamso teaches Loving-kindness Meditation
- Now-and-Zen-Are you still carrying her?
- A Buddhist Mantra based on the Prayer of St. Francis
- Mindfulness of Breathing-The Anapanasati Sutta
- Buddhist Forgiveness-When We Have Hurt Another-Part 3
- Healing the Body with Mindfulness of Breathing
- Practicing the Middle Way-not too much, not too little
- Look at the Three Characteristics in Terms of Actions
- Thich Nhat Hanh – Healing Through Resting in the Breath
- How Metta Can Help You When Meditation is Hindered by Overwhelming Feelings
- The Importance of Taking the “Should” out of Spiritual Practice
- Can We “Choose” to Be Happy? No—and Yes!
- Ken Mcleod on how to use Thich Nhat Hanh’s Five-Step Method of Emotional Releasing
- Non-resistance and the Art of Resisting without Resisting!
- Don’t be fooled! There is a Way and We Can Walk It!
- The Importance of Compassion in Assessing Our Dharma Progress
- Jesus and the Buddha on Good Friday
Metta Refuge 