If the straight-ahead, conscious approach fails to render a solution, the “lateral drift” approach can be employed by allowing the mind to stop thinking about the problem which allows a solution to suggest itself.
Dharma Talks
The Knowing Ungrasps Tanha: Dharma Talk and Meditation
As the Buddha said, “The rain could turn to gold and still your thirst would not be slaked.” In many ways, the entire path pivots on the skillful relationship to desire.
The Heavenly Stings: Dharma Talk and Meditation
The initial experience of awakening is not often one of calm, serenity, and bliss; rather, the initial encounter is one of waking up to confusion, uncertainty, and despair. We can map our own psychological experience to the mythological story of the Buddha’s biography.
Ungrasping This Moment: Dharma Talk and Meditation
If you let it, reality will wake you up out of your drifting state into a naturally awake state. This transitional pivot is the key moment upon which the entire spiritual path unfolds.
The Movie, The Viewer, and The Light: Dharma Talk and Meditation
“The ‘I’ that is looking for pure awareness can’t find it, just as a wave can’t do something to find the ocean.”
I Am Not My Green Jumper: Dharma Talk and Meditation
If we respond to every television advertisement by purchasing the thing being advertised, we’d go bankrupt. In the same way, if we reflexively identify as the thinker of our thoughts, we make ourselves vulnerable to the demands of their message.
The Antifragile Heart: Dharma Talk and Meditation
All experience, if you let it, will reveal the vast empty space from which all things arise and cease. Recognizing that open space as the source of your own awareness facilitates the emergence of an undefended Heart.
The Critic’s Gold: Dharma Talk and Meditation
The Inner Critic seems to present an obstacle on the spiritual path, judging and disparaging our practice at every turn. But what if there was gold to be found in even its nastiest of statements?
Dharma Talk and Meditation: The First Step as Friendship
Josh considers wise friendship as the foundational energy of the spiritual path. The Buddha is believed to have said that wise friendship is, “the entirety of the holy life.” How might we weave this statement into our meditation and practice of yoga?