present moment happiness
As we soak in the healing waters of the present moment, the chasms between sacred and mundane, bearable and unbearable, dissolve. We live in uncertain times. Putin’s …
and yet, and yet … nothing but Buddhist impermanence
When we come home to who we are in our entirety, as we are here and now in the dynamic flow of impermanence, we discover we never …
practicing present moment awareness
The practice of present moment awareness shows us that whatever we are dealing with does not define us. Difficult stuff comes up, but it doesn’t diminish our well-being. …
Don’t worry about progress in meditation, just keep going
Progress happens when you don’t think about it. I was struck by a poem the other day while reading a new translation of the Therigatha, a small book …
do you have to meditate every day?
Do you have to meditate every day? The question really should be can I be happily present with things just as they are, rather than struggling with …
stillness in meditation
With the gradual deepening of your practice, you will feel a wonderful stillness in meditation when you simply rest your awareness on the body. The meditation teacher …
does meditation help with patience?
I think so, but the real question is how to develop patience with the meditation process itself. The only way to fail at meditation is to stop meditating. …
the coup in Burma: when bad things happen to good Buddhists:
Although I try to not address too many political issues on this blog, for reasons I hope to make clear if you choose to read this post, …
tears, just tears
Tears just flowed from my face when I heard Amanda Gorman, the first national youth poet laureate at only 22 years old, stride up to the microphone in …
nurture your resilience
Realize that for many our negativity bias is on steroids right now, and that’s OK. Notice the lovely things that happen in your day. Perhaps someone holds …
Am I dreaming?
Just as our mindfulness meditation builds the capacity to unemotionally witness the unfolding imagery in our waking state, it also allows our dream-awareness to neutrally observe its own …
it’s crooked!
There is a lot of pressure on the whole New Year’s thing this year, right? I mean, the pandemic, economic turmoil; not to mention I am behind a …
thank you, nonetheless
Buddhism offers us a path to decolonize our own minds, thankfully. It not only teaches inclusion, it points out the shared insanity of separateness that causes so much …
2020 election: it’s a great time to be a meditator!
As I write this, the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election is still up in the air. The major news outlets sense our anxiety. We wonder how …
diving into the maelstrom
The next tine you dive into another maelstrom… strap yourself with the rope of mindfulness onto the buoyant barrel of breath awareness. Oh, wait. I’m getting ahead of …
a moment of well being
Despite all that is wrong, I can still take delight in a moment of well-being. News stories are not the conversation starters they used to be. In …
a peaceful, uneasy feeling
I feel that I should be above it all, but mostly I’m not. I struggle with my emotions. Meditation helps a lot, but sometimes I am just plain …
check the lining of your own mind
Just when I thought things couldn’t get more dreadful, they did. Yes, I know pandemics happen. Evolution hurts sometimes, I guess. Writing in the New York Times on …
now more than ever
The suffering in the world is overwhelming. But the whole mess looks differently when we have a rested, settled mind. Everyone is frazzled. Covid-19, politics, racial and …
the pure delight of samadhi
With samadhi, our simple path of awareness reveals the wonderful secrets hidden in the depth of our being. Meditation has many wonders to reveal, but they remain …
it’s just nature, my dear
In April of last year Doug McGill interviewed the Burmese meditation teacher Sayadaw U Tejaniya concerning how a meditator can practice mindfulness in the pandemic. His response …