When I meditate, I often get drowsy after awhile. At other times, I’m agitated and feel like jumping off my cushion. In neither case do I feel like I’m meditating correctly. What do I do? As long as there have been meditators, people have been encountering the extremes of drowsiness and agitation. This isn’t surprising, since in our daily lives we go through cycles of high [...]
How to Practice Zen Koans
John Tarrant demystifies Zen koan practice. Yes, it’s paradoxical, poetic, and totally personal. And so is life. The koan: The coin lost in the river is found in the river. A koan is a little healing story, a conversation, an image, a fragment of a song. It’s something to keep you company, whatever you are doing. There’s a tradition of koan study to transform your heart and [...]
How RAIN Can Nourish You
Jack Kornfield teaches us the transformative mindfulness practice known as "RAIN." Mindfulness does not reject experience. It lets experience be the teacher. With mindfulness, we can enter the difficulties in our life and find healing and freedom. There are four principles for mindful transformation of difficulties that are taught in Western mindfulness retreats with [...]
A Practice for Developing Kindness Toward Yourself
Valerie Mason-John, author of Detox Your Heart: Meditations for Emotional Healing, shares a meditation for cultivating a positive relationship with yourself, and, by extension, the world. When we take positive action and respond creatively to our anger, we are taking good care of ourselves. Taking care of our hearts, minds, and bodies is taking positive action. Learning to [...]
How to Practice Mindfulness Meditation
This basic mindfulness meditation from James Ishmael Ford offers a great practice to start your day. 1. Choose a quiet and uplifted place to do your meditation practice. Sit cross-legged on a meditation cushion, or if that’s difficult, sit on a straight-backed chair with your feet flat on the floor, without leaning against the back of the chair. 2. Place your hands [...]
Sit Every Day
Diana Winston on commitment to the practice of sitting, why we should sit regularly, and advice on how to keep yourself on schedule. Your unforgiving alarm rings for all it’s worth. It’s 7AM. You crash out of bed, slamming your toe on your bedside table. You fumble for your zafu in the dark. “It’s over here somewhere,” you mumble. Hearing you awaken from the dead, your cat [...]
Metta for Refugees
Zen priest Liên Shutt teaches a short meditation to foster compassion for beings in search of refuge. Many people think Buddhism is about getting rid of desire. Really, our main focus is on promoting non-harming in the world. We look at how we can alleviate suffering. Given the social climate of the world today, people often ask, “How do I know when to meditate and when [...]
Shamatha–Vipashyana: Our Original Nature
Gaylon Ferguson says through the practice of both shamatha and vipashyana we bring our mind back to its original state. In the tradition of the buddhadharma that traveled from ancient India to Tibet (and, more recently, to various points west), the two main kinds of meditation practiced are shamatha (peaceful or calm abiding) and vipashyana (insight). These are two different [...]
How to Feed Your Demons
Lama Tsultrim Allione teaches you an innovative technique to turn your inner demons into friends. Feeding our demons rather than fighting them contradicts the conventional approach of fighting against whatever assails us. But it turns out to be a remarkably effective path to inner integration. Demons (maras in Sanskrit) are not bloodthirsty ghouls waiting for us in dark [...]
Two Practices for Times of Tragedy
Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön and Zen teacher Bernie Glassman both teach three-step meditations that can help foster wisdom in times of tragedy. When tragedy strikes, we can feel like the ground has dropped out from under our feet. The Buddhist view, though, is that these experiences offer an opportunity to directly experience wisdom and compassion — exactly what [...]
