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psychological issues

meditation as play
daily practice | psychological issues

you can’t win if you don’t play

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on12/09/202307/17/2024 07/17/2024

Experiment infusing your meditation time with playful qualities such as curiosity, lightness, awe, and child-like delight in the present moment’s unfolding. The…

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You certainly feel she is pracicing wise speech--she looks so gentle and calm.
daily practice | psychological issues

in praise of maladjustment

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on05/15/202207/22/2024 07/22/2024

Who is maladjusted? It is someone who lost the ability to be surprised. We must re-learn how to be surprised. Alice Walker…

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nurture your resilience
political/ social issues | psychological issues

nurture your resilience

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on01/14/202103/27/2024 03/27/2024

  Realize that for many our negativity bias is on steroids right now, and that’s OK. Notice the lovely things that happen…

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Second Dream, by J. J. Grandville (French, Nancy 1803–1847 Vanves)
psychological issues | U Tejaniya

lucid dreaming and meditation

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on01/07/202107/10/2024 07/10/2024

Just as in a moment of lucid dreaming we realize Wow, I’m dreaming, we can similarly realize while meditating Wow, I’m thinking….

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a moment of well-being
poets and poetry | psychological issues | Zen teachings

a moment of well-being

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on10/20/202007/19/2024 07/19/2024

Despite all that is wrong, I can still take delight in a moment of well-being. News stories are not the conversation starters…

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mindfulness of emotions
impermanence | psychological issues

a peaceful, uneasy feeling

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on10/16/202007/19/2024 07/19/2024

I feel that I should be above it all, but mostly I’m not. I struggle with my emotions. Practicing mindfulness of emotions…

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suffering is natural
psychological issues

suffering is natural

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on09/17/201906/30/2023 06/30/2023

As a species we seem to have solidified a very real revulsion for the inevitable, as well as toward the smaller slights…

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Henri Rousseau's Tiger in a Tropical Storm (1891
psychological issues

savor the resistance

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on06/21/201907/05/2023 07/05/2023

Do we feel we are missing out on some better, or more spiritual, experience by being stuck with a mountain of laundry,…

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no self help
joy | psychological issues

no self help

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on04/22/201906/02/2024 06/02/2024

Mindfulness meditation leaves the self-help mindset in the dust by challenging the existence of the very thing we are setting out to…

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Everyday mysticism and the art of Picasso: Woman in a Hat with Pompoms and a Printed Blouse.
psychological issues | simplicity

everyday mysticism

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on12/28/201807/09/2024 07/09/2024

 There is a way to live your ordinary life in pristine peace and joy just as it is right now. This is…

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psychological issues

emotions

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on10/08/201706/10/2024 06/10/2024

I would like to address a couple of misconceptions I often hear regarding meditation and one’s emotional life. The first is we…

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boredom (Ennui) Walter Richard Sickert
progress in meditation | psychological issues

boredom

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on08/10/201707/09/2024 07/09/2024

The creator of a popular Mindfulness app was on Jimmy Fallon Live last Friday night talking about how boredom happens because we…

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lychees, or letting go of thinking
impermanence | psychological issues

the lychees, or letting go of thinking

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on07/10/201708/20/2024 08/20/2024

The work of meditation is finding a home in the present moment and letting go of anything that tries to pull you…

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drink deep- self compassion
compassion | psychological issues

drink deep

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on02/08/201708/12/2024 08/12/2024

Meditation practice is about coming back to love and compassion, and celebrating the one who is doing it, AKA self-compassion. In one…

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woman_pounding_maize, Diego Rivera, Mexico, 1924
Pema Chodron | psychological issues

mindfulness: unfolding into wholeness

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on03/03/201606/10/2024 06/10/2024

I was recently reading a very inspiring book by Mary O’Malley, the title of which I love: What is in the Way…

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Mindfulness is allowing seeing just to see
patience | progress in meditation | psychological issues

the monkey pod tree in the beach park

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on01/21/201608/12/2024 08/12/2024

Life just as it is, is eloquent. The world is its own magic. We need to need to stop seeking some additional…

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redemptive suffering
Christian mystics | patience | psychological issues

wholeness and redemptive suffering

ByTom Davidson-Marx Posted on02/14/201503/22/2025 03/22/2025

Redemptive suffering suggests that even in pain, there’s potential for positive change. We’ll look at practical ways to apply it in the…

Read More wholeness and redemptive sufferingContinue

topics to explore

  • aging
  • attachment
  • basic Buddhism
  • basic mindfulness
  • Buddhist meditation
  • Buddhist precepts
  • Christian mystics
  • compassion
  • courage
  • daily practice
  • death and dying
  • expectation & goals
  • gratefulness
  • humor
  • impermanence
  • intimacy
  • Israel-Hamas War
  • joy
  • metta/ loving-kindness
  • pandemic teachings
  • patience
  • Pema Chodron
  • poets and poetry
  • political/ social issues
  • progress in meditation
  • psychological issues
  • simplicity
  • the present moment
  • U Tejaniya
  • uncategorized
  • War in Ukraine
  • Zen teachings

for a deeper dive, explore sub-topics

Ajahn Chah Ajahn Sumedho Carl Rogers compassion contemplative life contentment daily life David Steindl-Rast depression Dhammapada dukkha Emily Dickinson emotions four noble truths Gaza happiness impermanence intimacy Israel-Hamas war Jack Kornfield Joseph Campbell Krishnamurti Kuan Yin Larry Rosenberg Mark Nepo Norman Fischer Pema Chodron present moment resistance Robert Aikten Roshi Rumi Ryokan samsara Sharon Salzberg Shinzen Young Suzuki Roshi T. S. Eliot Tara Brach the three poisons Thomas Merton U Tejaniya Viktor Frankl vulnerability W. B. Yeats Zen koans

A mind unruffled by the vagaries of fortune, from sorrow freed, from disturbing emotions cleansed, from fear liberated, this is the greatest blessing.

~The Buddha (Mangala Sutta)

When you find your place where you actually are, practice occurs. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs. Here is the place. Here the way unfolds.

Dogen, 1200 – 1253, Genjōkōan: Actualizaing the Fundamental Point

We can always imagine more perfect conditions. But it's not our task to create ideals, but to learn from the world as it is. For the awakening of the heart, conditions are always good enough.

Ajahn Sumedho

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