John Tarrant : Articles

Working in this way loosens the knots in the mind, and it also introduces a space so that you can start moving between anxieties and distractions and not struggle with them so much. Just staying with the questions, life grows calmer

Some people fight boredom in meditation, yet to be bored can be a good thing; it can mean the beginning of an appreciation for bare, plain qualities. Enduring your own consciousness is so valuable, I thought, Why shouldn’t a koan be there just to bore you? In this way, might not you appreciate your mind even when it is not being amused or having a

As well as the multitasking that the universe seems to be so fond of, there is the thusness of common things, the way that, when you look at objects without prejudice, they seem to carry a brightness inside. There is a Tibetan meditation in which you imagine yourself to be that Bodhisattva of Great Mercy with all those arms—and eleven heads to boot

If you are working with the pot metaphor, you don’t have to interfere with your thoughts or feelings. You needn’t approve or disapprove of them. This is not the moment of pruning; it’s more like the moment of making wine. Compassion has to start somewhere, and embracing your own life is itself the beginning of a change of heart. Some people do spea