Category — meditation

At the end of meditation or yoga practice, it is common for the teacher to bow. Maybe you bow back, maybe you don’t, but it’s worth taking a look at the gesture in any case.

Bowing has actually become a semi-normal part of pop culture. I’ve seen politicians bow after making a speech, actors on sitcoms bowing to indicate some kind of affinity with yogadom, and pals who bow as a way of saying “hello”, “goodbye”, “good point”, or “awesome”.

While some might think of bowing as indicating an affinity for the worlds of eastern thought, others of us may find it a bit questionable, like, “why should I bow to you?” Isn’t bowing some kind of subservient gesture? [Read more →]

When it comes to meditation, it is great to practice at home alone but it is also valuable to practice with others. It seems to provide buoyancy for our practice. It is a joy. In fact, it is more than a joy—practicing within community is considered vital to the spiritual path, so much so that it is one of the “three jewels”—the three things that, according to Buddhist thought, can be relied upon to provide actual refuge in this crazy, beautiful world. The three jewels are the three things we can have complete trust in.

The first jewel is the Buddha (not the Buddha as a god, but the idea that a regular person like you and me could attain enlightenment). The second jewel is the dharma (the fact of wisdom in general). The third jewel is the sangha or “community.” [Read more →]

I am with my parents right now and in being here with them, I am reminded of how much they were my very first dharma teachers. There is a tradition in Tibetan Buddhism of using slogan practice to refine your mind and dissolve negative mental habits by contemplating such statements as “Regard all dharmas as dreams,” “Drive all blames into one,” and “Always maintain only a joyful mind.” Mom and dad had their own slogans and together they could be said to describe the path of mindfulness- awareness.

As you see from your meditation practice, through continual placement of attention on breath, we cultivate the precious quality of mindfulness: of focus, concentration and one-pointedness. In our incredibly speedy world, one who can place his attention where he would like and then hold it there–stay–is a very powerful person indeed. [Read more →]

We all have difficulty with committing to the meditation cushion. I totally understand. When you sit on the cushion, you’re agreeing to sit down with the unknown. Sometimes this feels terrifying, sometimes exciting but, mostly, it’s just kind of ordinary–and it’s this ordinariness that might make us think “nothing is happening” or “I must be doing this wrong.” And then we give up. However, it’s actually considered a good sign when the practice becomes a bit boring–you’ve stopped trying to entertain yourself. So hang in there with all the ups and downs and lack of ups and downs.

Buddhists have written a lot on overcoming the obstacles to a meditation practice, because people have been encountering these obstacles for like 2500 years. [Read more →]

Every now and then, I see ads for meditation that describe things like short cuts and fast tracks, which are often numbered and qualified, as in: “Meditation: 5 Steps to Easy-Peasy Peace” or “Meditation: Bliss in Just 3 Minutes a Day” and such.

I’ve been meditating for about 15 years. I’ve spent countless hours on the cushion and a significant percentage of that time was definitely spent looking for short-cuts and, hey, I’m not stupid. If there was one to be found, I think I would have stumbled upon it. No luck. (At least, not yet.)

Maybe it’s my objective in meditation that is the problem. As I’ve been taught, the aim is not peace, nor is it bliss. It is to wake up. Another way of saying this is that the aim is to have no aim whatsoever but to relax completely. Absolutely. At this point, awakening is discovered rather than manufactured and suffering ends. The advice to stop, slow down, look within, and allow for both your brilliance and your brokenness flies in the face of conventional self-help. Self-help is not about relaxing with yourself exactly as you are. Meditation is. [Read more →]

Happy new year! Today is Tibetan new year and as I am a student in a Tibetan Buddhist lineage, I say to you: Happy New Year!! Today is the day a new cycle begins. (And it’s the one year anniversary of The OHP—so, yay!!)

Today marks the beginning of the year of the dragon, which basically means this: fasten your seat belt and get ready to ride because the dragon is a symbol of power, assertiveness, expansion, and intensity. As always, whether it is used for good or ill is entirely up to you. [Read more →]

Yesterday I read a tweet from someone looking for advice about taking up meditation for creative reasons. I don’t know this person and I’m not sure what they were looking for, but it started me thinking on what I would say if he asked me directly.

Some of you may know that I lead meditation and writing retreats that are about reconnecting with our own creativity and, beyond that, with the moment of inspiration. And after all, what is creativity exactly, besides a continuous series of moments of inspiration? Which begs the questions: what is inspiration and where does it come from? Can my meditation practice help?

When it comes to the latter question, the answer is “absolutely” and “of course not.” [Read more →]

Hello and happy Valentine’s Day. It is a great day to think about love, although the same can be said of every day.

I returned yesterday from teaching a weekend workshop called The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, based on a book I wrote by that title. Once again, I was reminded of some very interesting things about love:

1. When we say we’re looking for love, most of us mean we’re looking for safety. Loving is the opposite of safe. Then what?
2. There is only one seat of power when it comes to love, and that is as a lover.
3. Heartbreak is simply love unbound from an object.
4. It is possible to stabilize your heart in this (broken) open state.

One of the best things ever said about love comes from Zen priest and poet, John Tarrant Roshi:

“Attention is the most basic form of love. Through it, we bless and are blessed.”

Perhaps above all, as Tarrant Roshi suggests, love is about the ability (and willingness) to simply pay attention to others, to be mindful of them. Of course a meditation practice teaches this exact skill. Please sign up for The Open Heart Project to receive instruction and support.

Beginning a meditation practice is a wonderful thing. Beginning a meditation practice with crazy expectations–as in, “I’m going to meditate from now on, every day of my life”–is a nutty thing. Establishing new habits takes time and an unswerving focus on incremental steps.

Here are some thoughts about how to slowly bring your practice to life in such a way that it will become ingrained, as opposed to a bright flash of light that is here and gone.

1. Try to practice at the same time each day. There is nothing magical about this, it’s just that our habits seem to take root more readily when such a routine is established. [Read more →]

This is me*, awaiting your questions about meditation practice. Please post in comments and I will do my best to offer you a helpful answer.

*I have been a student of Shambhala Buddhism since 1995. I teach meditation workshops all over the world. I graduated from a Buddhist Seminary in 2004 and was authorized as a meditation instructor in 2005. I am the NY Times best selling author of 6 books. I started The Open Heart Project in 2011 in order to teach everyone on earth to meditate for 10 minutes per day. As of this morning, there are 3892 members, but who’s counting.