Tactical Mindfulness

way. If liberation is the central aspiration of your life, periods of intensive meditation practice can be of inestimable value. They generate tremendous energy, power, and insight. But there are also cycles of living actively in the world, developing generosity, morality, truthfulness, and compassion, qualities more easily expressed in daily life

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Another factor that affects your progress is the problem of compartmentalization. We have a common tendency to separate meditation practice from the rest of our life. If the skills and insights we learn on the cushion don’t infuse our daily life, progress will be quite slow. It’s like filling a leaky bucket. This may be one reason why some people c

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Most meditation systems are depth-first : you plunge, deeply, into one area of your mind—by, say, learning how to concentrate on your breath with heroic clarity—and then you take the mental machinery thus developed and try to iron out your life with it. Mark’s is breadth-first : he wants you to mindfully do a whole bunch of different little things—... See more

If you want to make meaningful progress on your goals without sacrificing your peace, try out one of the above practices for a month. You'll find yourself both enjoying the work more and progressing on your most important goals much faster.