FINDING YOUR OWN SEAT
Remain for a little while in naturalness. According to you, this could a simple form of quietude, a gentle kindness, a relaxed and curious intelligence, or an awake and yet unattached open state of awareness.
MINDFULNESS
AYURVEDA’S WISDOM FOR WINTER
The rise in a multitude of ways to have a quick fix, a good body, and perfect health is another manifestation of our cultural sickness. Simple direct ways to live, eat and follow the flow of nature have become totally uninteresting to our hyped-up western culture. If it’s not sexy, trendy or going to make you famous, then it’s not of value to us at all. This is the danger of our current way of being in relationship to our lives and a direct affront to the sacredness and true purpose of life itself.
ABOUT IMPERMANENCE
Observe with mindfulness. If we become accustomed to this kind of observation, our vision of the world and of ourselves will change subtly, we will be freeing ourselves from the bounding chains, the clinging and we will be enjoying the events in the present moment, here and now, while they last, letting them go and allowing them to fade away until they become a simple memory.
JOURNEY FROM FEAR TO COMPASSION
We must take empowered responsibility, skillful means, insight, awareness, make decisions with perspective and perform interconnected and compassionate actions beyond self-interest and fear, the fear of ourselves or self-doubt, fear of others, of the open space of possibilities, and beyond fear of action.
PROGRESSIVE VARIATIONS ON SHAMATHA CONCENTRATION
Just as we experience the fear, love, and humor of the characters in a movie, so do we experience the enlightened mind of the entities that we visualize. When we visualize an enlightened entity, we are able to recognize its enlightened mind because it is our own – it is inherent within us and it is the basis of our consciousness – so when we call upon it, we find it to be there.
THE FALSA EXPERIENCE OF SUFI MUSIC
Sufi music is a language around love and ecstasy, that is fundamental to the human experience, an abiding recognition of the astonishing complexity of being human. It is a tenderness around the most important, deeply felt emotional and psychological needs, and a cultural mechanism whereby satisfying these does not have to be a struggle.
THE ULTIMATE PANACEA FOR CUTTING THROUGH OUR ADDICTIONS
We may not call them addictions or think of them in that light and yet habits, what ever they may be, have a hold upon us. Addictions imply that we are not free, that we are not unfettered. Whether we are addicted to TV, to being in love, to running in the park, to smoking, to our mobile phones, to music, to anything whatsoever. Yes, we can even be addicted to meditation.
ANCIENT MEDITATIONS FOR MODERN TIMES
Many ancient Asian meditation practices have come to the West since the early 60’s. But are they of benefit in this modern day and age? We have lost our groundedness and centeredness due to being more in our heads, we constantly ask why, how, who, what, when? And therefore we are always analyzing and over thinking things.
BRINGING MINDFULNESS BACK TO ITS BUDDHIST ROOTS
During five weeks in Nepal, mindfulness teacher Rikke Braren Lauritzen tested the waters at a traditional nunnery and discovered that it is possible to fuse a spiritual path which draws on both the old wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings and the modern scientific-based interventions used in the Mindful School program, to support the new generation of young monastics living in the 21st Century.
THE PERFECT MIRROR
Nyoshul Khenpo’s message was to set mind free through being awareness, mindful of whatever happens and not caught up in anything. In this way, the techniques taught in mindfulness on being attentive of body, sensations, mind and reality, become the setting for being free, placing yourself at the mercy of what simply is.
BE HERE NOW 2.0
Each time I try to grasp the past, present or future, they slip through my fingers as if trying to grasp air. Try it for yourself. Can you find the now? Can you find the present moment? If we really investigate and look closer, we start to see that both the now and the present moment can not be found.
EMPOWERING CAREGIVERS WITH MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness and meditation is a practice, resting on time-tested three pillars for anything we want to do: patience, persistence and perseverance. It’s about empowerment for ourselves so we no longer will say, I cannot do this because I don’t have it. This in turn will empower our kids. Because we cannot give others something that we do not have. Empowerment ignites empowerment.
SUBLIME BALANCE
To soar effortlessly, the mighty eagle needs two wings. One is just not enough. My teacher Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche often said this to illustrate, that a sublime balance of mind is needed when facing challenges, both from outside and from inside oneself. In good times and bad times, a much coveted secret is how to maintain an even keel, no matter what happens.
MINDFULNESS & GROWING PAINS
A mindfulness teacher and executive coach discusses some of the current challenges facing the development of mindfulness and how to integrate a deeper meaning and practice that is consistent with Buddha’s path.
RETHINKING MINDFULNESS
An invitation to broaden our understanding of mindfulness by looking at the original sources, the importance of ethics and our intention. Includes a discussion on how mindfulness teachers can upgrade their skills.
SPIRITUAL BYPASSING
Unfounded and unguided spiritual training like excessive detachment ability, one-sided focus on positive thinking, fear of anger and artificial kindness, neglect of emotions and difficulty in setting limits.
AUTUMN WALK
As I walk on, streams of clouds sedately roll past on a pale blue sky illuminated by a milky-white sun. I center deeply in my breathing as if to gently cradle the world in my arms. For a split of a moment it seems that my consciousness is ceasing the subtle motion in all elements.
WAKE UP TIME – THOUGHTS ON REINVENTING SOCIETY
When we look at our own lives, and at the world in general, the fact that we are ‘sleeping’ stands out very clearly. We live in a world in deep crisis. It is like a violent nightmare that requires us to wake up; as in truly wake up. We are like sleepwalkers, walking closer and closer to the edge.
AWARENESS IN THE CLASSROOM
Practicing mindful breathing, sitting, walking and communicating, students can discover that there are so many things in their daily lives to notice, to enjoy, to explore. In fact everything inside and outside, everything in their life experience and everything in their surroundings are changing and impermanent.
SURFING ON THE STREAM OF CONFUSED THINKING
When we open our hands, minds, and hearts, moving into the flow of the stream, we either can paddle forward to or float back to the bank of our true identity much more easily. Practicing meditations helps us to recognize our mind patterns and habits, and helps us to see our choices.
SWORD OF FUDO
A live sword of Fudo — who has it? We often hear that just reading and intellectualizing teachings are not enough, we have to practice and embody them. Only then we can see if they work and only then we can see a change.