Episodes

In this sharing, a continuation of the 4th Noble Truth, we begin to explore the meditation factors of the 8 Fold Path, particular how these factors weave together in a very practical usefulness in our lives. Drawing from a panic attack on a high ropes course, it becomes clear that if we practice enough with these factors, they begin to show up spontaneously in skillful ways that are in service of our life.

In this meditation, we explore the interweaving of wise effort (not too tight, not too loose), mindfulness and qualities of the heart. These together are a way of coming into a skillful attunement to the present moment in a way that allows a natural opening.

From Sharon Salzberg’s, “The Kindness Handbook, A Practical Companion”: Spirituality is the movement from our prison of self blame and self preoccupation to an inclusive and open engagement with all of life. In many ways a spiritual path is essentially about connection — a deep connection to our own inherent capacity for wisdom and love no matter what, a connection to a bigger picture of life no matter what. We can easily go from morning until night disconnected, not only from genuine connect ...

In this sharing, a continuation of the 4th Noble Truth, we explore the 3 basic aspects of Wise Intention of goodwill, compassion and renunciation or letting go. In particular, we look at how these 3 aspects are interrelated and support each other in offering an energy to work with the immediacy of any moment in our life.

In this meditation, we begin with grounding in the body through the physical elements and then explore the skillful or wise intentions of goodwill, compassion and letting go.

Today we start with the “wisdom” factors of the 8 Fold Path (Fourth Noble Truth), wise view and wise intention. We focus on wise view this week with the understanding that kindness and compassion are an intrinsic part of the wise factors. I draw from a beautiful talk by Jill Shepard which is on Dharmaseed if you want to hear more: Jill Shepard Dharmaseed

Please join me for a short contemplation and practice with a poem from John Welwood: Forget About Enlightenment Sit down wherever you are And listen to the wind singing in your veins. Feel the love, the longing, the fear in your bones. Open your heart to who you are, right now, Not who you would like to be, Not the saint you are striving to become, But the being right here before you, inside you, around you. All of you is holy. You are already more and less Than whatever you can know. ...

The 4th Noble Truth is all about a path that leads out of suffering. At its essence, it is about developing skillful habits, named in the Eightfold Way, that support us in living a life that brings greater well-being, and ultimately has the potential to lead to the end of suffering. Today is an overview perspective, and next week we begin to look into the details.

In this practice, we start with allowing a settling to the system with use of a primary anchor and then move to practicing with a changing moment by moment choiceless awareness.

Today we use the anchor of the breath to explore an expanding stability and continuity of awareness that supports our life.

Today we look at a very practical application of the first 3 Noble Truths. This is through the lens of Judson Brewer’s model of shifting gears for understanding our stress inducing habits.

Join me for a short sharing and meditation from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, True Love: We have to learn the art of transforming compost and flowers. Look at the flower: it is beautiful, it is fragrant, it is pure; but if you look deeply you can already see the compost in the flower. With meditation, you can see that already. If you do not meditate, you will have to wait 10 days to be able to see that. You look deeply at the garbage heap with the eye of a meditator, you can see lettuce, tomatoes, flo...

Please join me for this shorter sharing and meditation recorded from the Monday Mid-day Meditation. Today I draw from Philip Simmon’s book, Learning to Fall: We have all heard poems, songs, and prayers that exhort us to see God in a blade of grass, a drop of dew, a child’s eyes, or the petals of a flower. Now when I hear such things I say that’s too easy. Our greater challenge is to see God not only in the eyes of the suffering child but in the suffering itself. To thank God for the sunset pin...

I recently finished a retreat in which every meditation started with the instruction to “get comfortable.” In this practice today, we experientially explore the wisdom and compassion of this teaching in all moments of practice.

In continuing our exploration of the 4 Noble Truths, we move on today to the 3rd Noble Truth– there is a path out of our suffering. Teacher Ajahn Sumedho says this about studying the 3rd Noble Truth: Do not feel as though you have to embrace any particular teacher’s interpretation of [the 3rd Noble Truth]. Instead, let it be an open question, a mystery, and live the question: what is possible in the way of freedom for me, right now, in this moment, just as I am.

We finish our exploration of the 2nd Noble Truth today, a foundational teaching of Buddhist psychology (which is how I relate to these teachings– a beautiful study of the mind that is infinitely practical for learning how we can let go of suffering). In today’s session, I draw again from Phillip Moffit’s book, Dancing with Life.

The Second Noble Truth states that the most proximal cause of our suffering is clinging, craving or greed. In this talk, we look at the importance of orienting ourselves with curiosity and interest in growth as opposed to self-judgment for being “greedy.” Understanding what is underneath the reactivity of greed can allow the natural responsiveness of heart to support the need for growth and change.

In this meditation, we move through the senses and body to ground our awareness in heart and Earth. At one point, I name what is on the exact opposite side of the Earth from where I sit in Charlotte NC, USA. If you are somewhere else and want to know for your location, here is a place you can find out: Antipodes Map

We continue our exploration of the 4 Noble Truths, a foundational teaching of Buddhism. These teachings are a powerful study of the mind– what causes suffering and what relieves suffering. An old story called the Monk and the Samurai makes a great introduction to the 2nd Noble Truth.

The 2nd Noble Truth is that the most proximal cause of suffering is clinging. Sitting meditation is a powerful place to explore ways in which this might be true for you and how to work with the clinging mind.

This week I share a talk I gave for a program from Temple Beth El. The invitation was to talk about healing the mind from religious, spiritual and mindfulness perspectives.

This week we we continue our exploration of the First Noble Truth through a story from Rachel Naomi Remen’s My Grandfather’s Blessing. In this story she draws on 3 useful questions which she suggests short daily contemplation: What surprised me today? What moved me or touched me today? What inspired me today?

From guest leader Colleen Faltus: In this week’s meditation we explore the wisdom of the body. As Valerie Kaur says, “One of the most vigilant spiritual practices is finding the seconds of solitude to get quiet enough to hear the wise person inside us.” Quieting our inner and outer worlds provides the much needed peace and calm to hear the wise words of our bodies. In this session, we explore how to tap into our inner wisdom and listen carefully to what our bodies are telling us.

Today we had a guest speaker, Colleen Faltus, who shared beautiful resources for using our breath, body or movement for tapping into the wisdom of the body.