meditation
Ideas for practice and teaching
meditation
Recently, one of my private meditation students asked me, “What do you feel like when you meditate?” Right away I said, “Ordinary. Beautifully ordinary.”
If anxiety, anger, or any other feeling comes along and is just some mild atmosphere in the background of your experience, don't worry about it. But if it's so strong that it stomps up to the foreground and demands to be addressed, note how it feels ... physically. Neutrally, nonjudgmentally, matter-of-factly, allow yourself to experience the
... See moreDean Sluyter • Natural Meditation
Just as there is no one instrument that is the sole, true embodiment of music, there is no hierarchy of traditions or practices. Who is to say that the violin is better or worse than the piano?
Barry Magid • Ending the Pursuit of Happiness: A Zen Guide
You’ll try as much as you need to try till you’re convinced that trying doesn't work. It's self-defeating, it prevents settling down, and that's going to make meditation tedious. Most people go through a certain amount of this. It's clearly recorded that the Buddha did, and that his enlightenment came when he finally stopped trying. You try for a
... See moreDean Sluyter • Natural Meditation
I guess I meditate because attention is my art form. I’d even wager that much of what we call art — paintings, novels, poetry — are secondary, byproducts of rarefied attention. Attention, then is the primary art form.
Why I Meditate
Early in the journey you wonder how long the journey will take and whether you will make it in this lifetime. Later you will see that where you are going is HERE and you will arrive NOW...so you stop asking.
Ram Dass • Be Here Now
After all our futile efforts to transform our ordinary minds into idealized, spiritual minds, we discover the fundamental paradox of practice is that leaving everything alone is itself what is ultimately transformative.
Barry Magid • Ending the Pursuit of Happiness: A Zen Guide
We so routinely look outside of ourselves for answers that when we turn to look within, it can feel foreign. It can feel challenging, confusing, scary, and painful.
Anne Berube • The Burnout Antidote
The lesson here, which you can actually apply to anything that happens in meditation, is: Just say "Hmmm." There's a scene in The Big Sleep where Humphrey Bogart, as the detective Philip Marlowe, is considering a clue. Tugging at his earlobe, he says, "Hmmm." When Lauren Bacall asks him, "What does 'Hmmm'
mean?," Bogey replies, "It means, 'Hmmm."
Tha
... See more