The conscientious young monk
Meditating three years alone
Can no longer be moved
By the four worldly winds.
– from fictional Zen story told by Ajahn Brahm
An Empty Cup | Dharma Talk with Josh
Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? – Zen Master Nan-in
Questioning Compassion | Dharma Talk with Josh
Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings. – Buddha (from the Metta Sutta)
Race, Jazz and Healing | Greg Thomas
When we shift from being subject to a racial worldview to looking at it as an object; when we are able to see how it works and work to not racialize ourselves or others… now we’re getting to where we can start to actually get off that karmic cycle. – Greg Thomas
Compassionate Inquiry | Dharma Talk with Josh
The Buddha spoke of sati (mindfulness) and sampajanna (clear comprehension) as the twin aspects of awareness that nurture wisdom and compassion. Mindfulness and clear comprehension suggest the relationship between deep listening and deep understanding. – Josh Summers
Compassionate Alignment | Dharma Talk with Josh
Real compassion includes wisdom and so it makes judgments of care and concern: it says some things are good, and some things are bad, and I will choose to act only on those things that are informed by wisdom and care. – Ken Wilber
Compassionate Receptivity | Dharma Talk with Josh
The three intentions of compassionate RAIN (receptivity, alignment, inquiry, and negotiation): May I create the conditions for this energy or part of me to feel safe, to feel heard, and to feel integrated. – Josh Summers
Listening Like Water | Dharma Talk with Josh
Trauma – any experience that cannot be integrated at the time of its occurrence – causes parts of oneself to freeze, like blocks of ice. These frozen parts evolve to keep us safe, but in their frozen state they alienate us from flowing with life. – Josh Summers
St. Anthony’s Valentine | Dharma Talk with Josh
“More than anything, there is a value placed on listening as closely as possible to the mysterious silence that supports existence, which is both the actual silence of the desert landscape and the silence of the self in contemplation. They listened to this silence with hopes of transforming their identities and reimagining community.” – Douglas Christie
A Functional Approach to Harmonizing Qi with Yin Yoga | Talk with Josh
“As a teacher, you won’t be able to address the specific needs of each individual. However, what you can offer is a creative way of working with posture, breath, intention and attention so that student and customize – within their own experience – a way to nudge their particular pattern, whatever it might be, towards homeostasis.” – Josh Summers
What is Qi? | Talk with Josh (republished)
“Qi produces the human body just as water becomes ice. As water freezes into ice, so Qi coagulates to form the human body. When ice melts, it becomes water. When a person dies, they become spirit again. It is called spirit, just as melted ice changes its name to water.” – Wang Chong (Taoist philosopher, AD 27-97)
My Take on Yin Yoga and Chinese Medicine | Talk with Josh
Yin Yoga collaborates with the organs of Chinese Medicine to support holistic health. It’s not just a matter of stimulating the channels; it’s a matter of optimizing organ health through the integration of posture, breath and psycho-spiritual practice. – Josh Summers
The Language of Jazz | Aaron Goldberg
“Everything I play is a reaction to everything that I just played and to what everybody else is playing at that moment. Great jazz is played when multiple people play together with that kind of necessity and mindset.” – Aaron Goldberg
Corks and Stones | Guided Meditation with Josh
Mindfulness functions like a stone that doesn’t stop the flow of the river, rather it comes to a deeper and calmer relationship to the flowing content of the river of experience. – Josh Summers
The Yoga of Grief | Donna Brooks
“One of the paradoxes about life is that when we’re really open to life, the tremendous suffering and the tremendous joy can coexist.” – Donna Brooks
Digging Deep | Dharma Talk
When you dig the well deep enough, you realize we’re all drinking from the same source. – Abdullah Ibrahim
Winter’s Listening | Guided Meditation with Josh
Listen to the movement of experience and listen to the space within which this occurs. – Josh Summers
Yang Vipassana Meditation | Dharma Talk
The only job of a yogi is to note the object that is most predominant, moment by moment. – Sayadaw U Pandita
The Divine Algorithm Sutta | Robert Wright
Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them. – Robert Wright
Relaxing the Breathing | Dharma Talk
Buddhists, however, saw that karma acts in feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped by both past and by present actions; present actions shape not only the future but also the present. This constant opening for present input into the causal process makes free will possible. – Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The Power of Mythos | Bernie Clark
The point of a map isn’t to be right. The point of a map is to help me with something; it’s to be useful. – Bernie Clark