Practicing Meditation

“We call meditation ‘practice’ for a reason. Any form of practice consists of doing something over and over again and failing at it over and over again. Through this process, we gradually build the capacities that make it possible to do what we are practicing.” – Ken McLeod, “The Progress Question”, Tricycle magazine.

A Way of Being

“The search for happiness is not about looking at life through rose-colored glasses or blinding oneself to the pain and imperfections of the world. Nor is happiness a state of exaltation to be perpetuated at all costs; it is the purging of mental toxins such as hatred and obsession that literally poison the mind.” – […]

Maintaining Skillful Intentions

“We may be powerless to change the past, but we do have the power to shape the present and the future by what we do, moment to moment, right now. And in maintaining our intention to be as skillful as possible in thought, word, and deed, we’ll find the only true refuge there is.” ~Thanissaro […]

What Defines Meditation?

Does meditation always mean sitting quietly on a zafu or zabuton? Can ordinary acts become acts of meditation? Yes. One very simple, but very powerful meditation is a walking meditation. As you take each step, focus on what your body is feeling. The shifting of your weight. The slight totter or wobble as you move […]

Sitting With Dignity

Those of us who struggle with depression may notice that when our depression gets bad, our posture gets bad right along with it. Our shoulders slump, our spine curves, our heads drop. As one astute observer said on the Facebook Jon Kabat-Zinn fan page, “It’s as though our spines are weighed down by the shame […]

Be Here, Now

“It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.” — George […]