We have been practicing the opposite of what meditation asks of us for so many years, no wonder it is so hard to meditate every day. We often get frustrated and give up. I am often asked why is hard to meditate every day? Despite the utter simplicity of the practice itself, why is it…
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 a goal? I find that newer students don’t ask this question much in their meditation groups, fearing, perhaps, that they might be the only ones with this…
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. As long as you show up, the meditative process happens. It’s really simple: sit down on a chair or a cushion, set the timer on your phone…
Meditation is not easy, I get it. There are aches and pains in the body, the mind gets restless, and the breath fades in and out of awareness. Sometimes, mostly out. But, as Hawaii-born retired Sumo grand-master Akebono would say to reporters after winning yet another match, “I just try my best.” That’s all…
No matter how nice our home is, it is still “of the of world,” as my Buddhist teachers in Asia would say. We are settling in to a new house. As I get older, moving feels more emotional, more gut-wrenching. Witnessing our old home slowly coming apart, with carefully chosen bits going into carefully chosen…