Blog

Years ago, I worked intimately with a very strict Burmese meditation master, Sayadaw U Pandita. At every interview, Sayadaw would either exhort me to “try harder” or “maintain the effort that I was applying.” For him, enlightenment was the inevitable result of a ‘job’ well done. If you weren’t awake, you simply hadn’t finished the […]

This week, we’ll begin a look at the second Factor of Awakening: Energy or Effort (Virya). In some respects, developing a skillful relationship to the energy and effort that goes into practice is vitally important if we are to make any realistic progress along the path. At times it’s important to know when to apply more […]

This week, we’ll be looking at the first Factor of Awakening: Mindfulness (sati).  As the namesake of this newsletter, ‘mindfulness’ is a theme that gets regular review and attention. In many respects, mindfulness is the foundational capacity that both steers and fuels the course of our spiritual lives. Without it, we wander (or skid) aimlessly from […]

I’ve had a very full spring, and I apologize for my lapse in keeping in touch. With two teacher trainings on the schedule, a retreat in Vermont and a trip to Ireland, I’ve found it challenging to get to the computer. But no matter, I’m back in Boston now, with a spacious schedule ahead, and […]

The Buddha described seven faculties of mind that, when brought to a sufficient degree of maturity, lead one to an experience of unconditioned freedom. These faculties are referred to as the Seven Factors of Enlightenment: Concentration, Tranquility, Equanimity, Investigation, Energy, Rapture and Mindfulness. We’ll look at these more in coming weeks. But… As sacrilegious as […]

I’ve been having a fantastic time teaching Yin Yoga workshops in Luxembourg and Munich. Tonight, I will wrap up the final leg of this trip with an Yin intensive in Zürich. Throughout these workshops, I’ve been addressing a theme that I think is becoming increasingly relevant:how we engage with our practice. Are we practicing to get […]

So, for the last several weeks, I’ve been listening to a talk by Ajahn Amaro called, Understanding the Nature of Experiencing Itself. At one point, Ajahn quotes Voltaire’s pithy axiom: “Doubt is uncomfortable, but certainty is absurd.” This has lead me to reflect on ways that the mind tries to assert stability with concepts of certainty. […]

For many, freedom implies the ability to fulfill a spectrum of desires. If you’re free and hungry, you eat whatever suits your fancy. If you’re free and bored, you watch something on the television or listen to some music. But the great wisdom traditions insist that true freedom is based on a foundation of restraint, specifically […]

I wanted to begin this week’s thread with a quotation from the Indian teacher, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: “All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are a longing for happiness. Basically, you wish yourself well… Desire itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in […]

In recent classes, I’ve been addressing one of the functions of mindfulness, namely its capacity to monitor objects that enter our awareness at each of the sense doors. Mindfulness sees ‘images’, hears ‘sounds’, feels ‘bodily sensations’, knows ‘thoughts’, etc. Ajahn Brahm, a monk based in Australia, likens this function of mindfulness to that of a […]

Recently, I had a new battery installed in my digital watch. And now my continuity of mindfulness feels like it has improved by a power of ten. How is that? The watch has a simple ‘chime’ function that can be set to beep every hour. And whenever I hear the chime, I now take five […]

This week is always an interesting time of year.  Are the resolutions going to plan? Have they crashed and burned? Or are you hunkering down with grim determination to make this year different? Someone recently remarked that the holidays are a ‘study of expectation and disappointment.’ New Year’s resolutions can have that feel, too, if […]

I confess to being a bit behind the ball, what with a 7-day silent retreat stacked right before Christmas stacked right before New Year’s.  What’s a writer of Minutes of Mindfulness to do?? Even now, I still feel myself stumbling out of the deep Silence that held me during my 7-day ‘power-down’. Many of you […]

Wise Samadhi is the crown jewel and final limb of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path to happiness. Within various traditions there is great debate about what constitutes samadhi. The term is often translated as ‘concentration,’ or ‘single-pointedness of attention.’  But, over the years, I’ve come to appreciate interpretations closer to‘stability’ or ‘steadiness’ of mind. If you recall the […]

‘Mindful’ is a word that turns up everywhere these days.  There’s mindful oral hygiene, mindful communication, even mindful diplomacy. But what does the word actually mean?  In the context of our meditation life, ‘being mindful’ or ‘practicing mindfulness’ has some specific characteristics that are helpful to be mindful of. Bare attention:  Mindfulness is kept bare, […]

Typically, the Buddha’s teachings on Wise Effort involve directing one’s awareness in four ways: To prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states To abandon the arisen unwholesome states To arouse unarisen wholesome states To maintain arisen wholesome states The Buddha seems to be implying that there’s a lot to do here in cultivating the ‘good’ and expunging the ‘bad’. […]

Wednesday is often coupled with the moniker: ‘hump day’.  Middle of the week.  Half-way done with the mind-numbing banality of workaday existence.  Half-way to the weekend when we can kick back, forget the week, and try to remember what it’s like to bealive. For many this is an all-too familiar scenario: at best, we work […]

Wise Action is where the rubber hits the road in our spiritual life.  Put simply, we can ask, “Do our actions find alignment within Wise View?”  Are we acting in ways that create suffering for ourselves and others?  Or are we acting in ways that promote connection and harmony? The Buddha framed Wise Action in terms of five training […]

The Third Limb of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path looks at Wise Speech.  In many respects, our speech emerges directly from our view of and our alignment towards the world.If we hold ourselves as separate from all we see, then our speech reifies and reinforces that sense of separation.   Or, if we align ourselves with […]

Last week, we explored the central core of the Buddha’s teachings: Wise View, or seeing things as they really are. Flowing out of Wise View, Wise Intention emerges to establish our internal alignment with this view.  In other words, we align our Heart’s aspiration to be in accordance with the understanding of how things are, particularly with respect […]

This week, my classes have emphasized the first limb of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path: Wise View. Wise View simply sees things as they really are. In the beginning, Wise View aligns our energy with the direction of the path, towards a freedom that is independent of conditions.  In a sense, Wise Viewharnesses our energy towards a deeper understanding of how […]