Blog

In this talk, I share three points of advice for anyone embarking on a silent meditation retreat, either at a center or from home. My advice comes down to: 1) set the schedule and forget time, 2) kiss the moment, and 3) notice the negative. I hope this talk supports your practice.

In this episode, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Don Goewey (Executive Director of the De Mello Spirituality Center). We discuss DeMello’s significance as a spiritual figure of the 20th century, and how he offers a unique view of eastern and western spirituality. Don and I reflect on DeMello’s dharma, the experience of […]

In this talk, I discuss practice as a form of improvisation and suggest ways of working with “forms” of practice as a way of developing one’s skills at improvisation. I conclude with a Sufi story about a duckling, leaving open the question of how improvising in practice reveals our true nature.  

In this talk, I reflect how, on a vipassana meditation retreat in Myanmar, I became compulsively obsessed with finding the perfect height for my meditation cushion; I explore what this behavior reveals about the “clinging” mind.” “An attachment is an emotional belief that without a person, thing or experience you can’t be happy.” – Anthony […]

In this episode, I speak with my friends and colleagues Linda Modaro and Nelly Kaufer about their wonderful new book, Reflective Meditation. We talk about many themes of their approach to meditation, including: listening, journaling, and improvisation. Reflective Meditation is now available in print and as an e-book in the United States, and for a […]

In this talk, I share a patchwork of dharma reflections, exploring some everyday conundrums and synchronicities – appreciating the sublime in the innocence of a niece and a godson.

The questions that have gripped me for the last twenty or so years of my practice are these: What is the relationship between yoga practices and Buddhist meditation, and what does Qi cultivation, as described within Chinese Medicine, have to do with yoga and meditation?  

As part of a Mother’s Day reflection, I recount the harrowing story of getting robbed in the middle of the night on a train in India, and how a “spiritual” mother appeared to both save me and subsequently change the course of my life. I conclude with a meditative prompt for honoring and appreciating our […]

In this dharma reflection, Josh draw’s on his and others’ observations of bird life in the natural world, and weaves these reflections into a broader meditation about the role of images and reflections in the practice of the dharma.  

The students were discussing the famous statement uttered by Lao Tzu: “Those who know do not say; those who say do not know.” When their teacher arrived he offered some helpful analysis in the form of a simple dialogue. In this talk, Josh reflects on this wonderful story and its implications for meditation practice.  

The Buddha once said: “Nothing whatsoever should be clung to as ‘I’ or ‘mine’.” In this talk, analyze this statement as an important signpost on the map of practice. As Georg Feuerstein put it: “The sense that ‘I’ can go beyond where ‘I’ am right now is the place from which to start your practice.” […]

In this talk, Josh continues to unpack the experience of waking up, exploring how consciousness often awakens to being entangled with some part of experience (usually thoughts), and to explore what it’s like when consciousness relaxes into itself, embracing the entire field of perception. A free guided meditation accompanies this talk here: Practice Etude – […]

In this dharma talk, I reflect on a teaching from my dharma mentor Jack Engler: “the entirety of the spiritual path is a path of mourning.” This talk is an attempt to explore that reflection in light of the practice and experiential dynamics that occur when we let go of grasping at views, perceptions, orientations […]

In this episode, I welcome Donna Brooks back to the podcast to talk through the experience of grief and how embodiment practices support our capacity to navigate this challenging emotional landscape. Donna Brooks’ website: http://www.originalbodywisdom.com  

In this talk, I explore some common views about meditation and thinking, and I encourage bringing inquiry to the views of practice that we may be clinging to. Releasing views is somewhat like voluntarily jumping into free fall. The self will grasp, but in releasing the grasping, we align with the Buddha’s famous teaching: “Nothing […]

In this week’s practice story, I continue to explore the famous Buddhist parable about the tiger and the snake, and I suggest how the core images of this story symbolize the central dharma themes of our practice and life.

In this old Buddhist parable, we are presented with a description of the human predicament. In the face of being caught between death and something worse, how does our practice serve us to live, as Munindra put it, “the life fully?”

In this episode, I share Jung’s famous story of the Rainmaker. I suggest ways in which this story offers insight into the direction of the spiritual path. But when there was a prolonged drought in China, and the Rainmaker was fetched, this is what happened…  

In this talk, I reflect on the heart-rending story of a mother who lost her young son, experienced inconsolable grief, and what happened when she met the Buddha. Kisagotami’s story is nearly identical to my teacher’s teacher’s story, that teacher being the great Buddhist master, Dipa Ma. Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a […]