Mind – Day 3 Being fully present in any given moment opens us to the space, or spaciousness, of pure potential – that meditative sweet spot where the mind steadies, expansiveness readies, and… we simply give ourselves over to the Now. After the hustle and bustle of a holiday week, let’s go there and linger. Happy … More The Now
Mind – Day 2 The longer we practice meditation, the more familiar we become with how our mind functions. It’s important to bring about an element of compassion when we begin to see how unpredictable and hasty the mind can be. We want to cultivate a friend, not an enemy which must be suppressed or … More Making Friends with Monkey Mind
Mind – Day 1 It’s safe to say that the wide variety of meditation trainings have one one thing in common: they are a doorway to getting acquainted with your mind. The Buddha observed that the primary source of our suffering is to be discovered within the mind. If we’re feeling stressed or worried, it … More Mind
Mind Meditation – Day 3 There are levels of density to everything in our world… seen and unseen. Ice is more dense than water. Water is more dense than steam. The density of a substance is the relationship between the mass of the substance and how much space it takes up, or simply put, … More Above the Clouds
Mind Meditation – Day 2 In the last podcast, we mentioned that Day 2 of this step would focus on concentration, which we would usually generate with specific meditation exercises. In the last round, we offered a candle meditation, in which focusing on a flame supports one’s mental steadiness. We’d like to go at it from … More Tracks of the Mind
Meditation Audio: Mind – Day 1 What is the mind? One definition refers to the mind as “a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, language and memory. It is usually defined as the faculty of an entity’s thoughts and consciousness.” Another definition states that the mind is an “element of a person … More The Mind
Mind Meditation- Day 3 Awareness is omnipresent; it just is. Our mind operates within the field of awareness and wisdom precipitates from it. As we create stability in the mind through non-judgmental attention (mindfulness + concentration), we create a doorway into the vast field of awareness. This doorway can easily become obstructed or even slammed shut … More Vastitude
Mind Meditation – Day 2 The Eightfold Path was consistently presented by the Buddha as a guide to end suffering. The eight suggested directions of the path are divided into three groupings: ethical conduct (right speech, right action, and right livelihood), mental discipline (right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration), and wisdom (right thought and … More Samadhi
Mind Meditation – Day 1 Meditation teachings have one clear purpose: befriending the mind. In order to do this, you have to spend some time together. Make a date, find a quiet place and ask, “how have you been?” After the steady intensity of the last seven days… prepare yourself for an earful; that’s what friends are for! Let’s … More “How are you, friend?”
We truly don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are, through our filters. Have you noticed that when your mind is distracted or you are emotionally upset that clarity tends to be elusive? A pure sheet of glass allows 100% of the light to flow through it. Imperfections will alter the … More Clear Light
Have you ever driven down a road for many miles and all of a sudden you realize that you had traveled much further than you thought, without registering that fact? That is actually a good thing though it can be momentarily jarring. The unconscious mind is so much more aware of our surroundings and able … More Who is Driving?
Life is so busy and that fullness is often the excuse to not listen, I mean to really listen. Listening is a wonderful gift of presence. We are reminded to be present and listen to others, really listen to what they are saying, without judging, and without planning our response before hearing the other. Listening … More Are you Really Listening?
Nature often offers us an accurate reflection of our inner and outer states. While walking in nature today, I remembered a time when my daughter was first introduced to and became enamored with the phrase “dappled sunlight”. It was as if the word tickled her with joy, just as the light seemed to tickle the … More Dappled Light
The intelligence of life, of which we are an integral part, is always available to us. We just aren’t practiced enough to see it. Imagine flying in a plane on a rainy day, looking down or straight ahead we just see clouds and fog. When we lift the awareness above the clouds, it is bright, … More Light and Clarity Permeate the Mists of Mind
We have trained our minds to be smart, to be busy, to think, worry and create. Incredibly we create about 65,000 thoughts a day! 90 percent of our thoughts are repeats! What an interesting use of our time and energy. The lifetime of an emotion is about 90 seconds unless we engage it or try … More Surfing the Clouds of Thought
In Wild Awakenings, the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche writes, “Pointing out may also be understood as being introduced to the reality of mind’s nature. …. In all of the Buddha’s instructions from beginning to end, the basic techniques are shamatha and vipashyana.” … “Shamatha is sometimes translated as ‘tranquility’ or ‘calm abiding’ … In (the) context … More Intermediate: Supporting presence
Two great teachers of the art and science of meditation have been Buddha Shakyamuni and Patanjali. They provided methods that elucidate the natural state of luminous being while -at the same time- entraining one to this truer freer state. Their methods mirror each other. As such, there is not much difference between the techniques given … More 10a: A natural state of being
Why does humanity exist? Among the significant reasons is the human capacity to express light. Clarity, ingenuity, integrity, wisdom, and harmonious creativity are expressions of light through creative intelligence. Respect, kindness, care, equanimity, compassion, saving and helping are expressions of light relationally. Lightness of being, humor, the arts, inspiration, aspiration, idealism, optimism, humility, genuineness, patience, … More Intermediate: The Light of Sacredization
Being human is to embody the Christ Consciousness – the capacity of the heart. Being human is to express buddha nature – the fullness of expansive, enlightened wisdom and perception. Being human is to understand oneself as identical in essence as all existence on Earth. In this way, does on boldly express the Shamballa energy … More Christ/Buddha/Shamballa nature: we are this!
Luminous perception is a synthesis of a few ingredients. It is also a result. The meditation guides one simply and effectively such that one experiences the components as well as the result. Enjoy this meditation! Downloadable podcast: Entry: This is how it works. Photo: Dew from Sampok on DeviantART
The experience of swimming is much more vibrant than reading about swimming. The taste of a mango is distinct from looking at the picture of a mango. Similarly, the personal experience of observing and recognizing the states and qualities of mind empowers one in a way that no theory or explanation of these qualities can. … More 9c: Experience is what matters.
Right and wrong is a teaching for children; and in the case of potential danger, appropriately so. However, when cultivating meditation or reflecting on one’s livingness of truth or integrity, right and wrong does not serve. Instead, one evaluates limitation and range of expression or range of Being being expressed as a litmus. As such, … More Intermediate: Refined Vibrations
Our experiences are all we need to truly and deeply understand ourselves. With even the smallest insight or revelation, our day, our relations, and our way with the world benefit. The experiences of our thoughts and thought processes, ascriptions of color, shape, size, form, texture, smell, sound, projections of like/dislike, agree/disagree, prefer/avoid, wish it were … More 9b. Teasing it out
For me, this image says it all. As the Entry practice is experiencing three aptitudes of mind and emotions, the Intermediate practice will explore how those three abilities or natural tendencies of awareness-mind are operational through one’s day. The three qualities are: exacting-contracting, expanding-opening, and to be naturally empty-void like the sky. The image … More Intermediate: How do we choose our reality?
The nature of Mind is vast, compound, and beyond categorization. At the same time, the qualities of Mind are many, maybe limitless. Some of the qualities are to be exacting or contracting, to be capable of opening, widening, or of detaching/abstracting from… . Also Mind is innately empty which is how inventiveness, intuition, creativity or … More 9a. Options
The Intermediate practice is examining inseparability, and that one is inseparable from the reality that one creates. There is tremendous empowerment in living with the understanding of inseparability forefront. But, what is inseparability? An example will help the mind wrap around it. For instance, wetness is inseparable from water. Water, in a liquid state, is … More Intermediate: the wetness of water
Reality is what one makes of it. Truth be told, reality is only what one makes of it. In other words, one’s reaction and relation to anyone or anything is one’s reality to that person, place, or thing. The simplicity of this fact – that reality is truly in one’s mind – means that one … More Intermediate: Reality
What do you pay attention to? And, what do you give attention to? – two distinct questions. What does not get your attention? Furthermore, if you were to guess, what percentage of your day has no true attention applied to it? – it is being lived habitually. Meditation requires sustained attention that is withdrawn from … More Puppy training: learning meditative attention
All through the day, quality is expressing. Realizing the qualities as they express is an aspect of awakened awareness. Happiness or sadness, jealousy or delight, impatience or ease are the surface noticings of qualities. Registering the karmic feeling in a meeting or relationship, or acknowledging the sensations and intuitions in a location are further examples … More The Inseparable Pervasive Three Qualities of Awareness-Mind
All along the way in The Practice of Living Awareness, the practitioner is asked “to notice the usually not noticed,” and experience his or her moment, its sensations, as well as the comings and goings of breath and thoughts. As a result, the practitioner has become increasingly aware overall, both on and off the cushion. … More 9a. Get to know your mind
Perception has been on my mind. What really is it? Clearly, it is implicit in everything we do, think, and say, in all ways that we determine or ascertain reality and what is in it, as well as what we do not notice, give credence to, or reject. What is perception, and how do our … More Perception and Options
Light is a result in a meditative practice. It is that because light is innate. Furthermore, light is a choice – as in lightness of being. Everything in a meditation practice steers the practitioner inside. With that reorientation one experiences the light that is within. The more one abides in this inner light, trains oneself … More Innate light (Step 10a)
The experiences of each day are vibration. We are pulsing with vibrations. Our words, thoughts, feelings, and actions are vibrations. Yes, I will be teaching a new online course tonight focused on just this – but Step 9 of Mind also is about vibration. The three qualities or states of mind (contracting, expanding, and spacious) … More Vibrations of Mind
There’s nothing theoretical about meditation. Do it, and the benefits result – pretty quickly too. We are in Step 9 wherein we observe and experience three fundamental qualities of mind: contracting, expanding, and spacious. We are encouraged to notice these off-the-cushion during our day as well as use them during our meditation sitting. All three … More You have options!
Heart-mind is one. It is one broad spectrum of relatedness that includes and makes thinking, creativity, associations, and ease possible. Separated – or brainwashed and acculturated to believe that heart and mind are separate – the problems of separateness result: violence, judgement, animosity, negation and limitation. Heart-mind are provide a limitlessness of responses, possibilities, creative … More The truth of it
Touch your heart. Now think of being angry. Nadda, right? Keep your fingers on your heart. Consider being impatient, or petty, or argumentative. Not happening, and actually feels unintelligent, right? In this moment, if you did the experiment, you just proved to yourself that heart-mind is a unified field of creative awareness that gives a … More Already here
Heart-mind is not two things and never was. Heart-mind is a range of Awareness. An individual might not have less capacity with one or the other but that simply indicates where growth is possible as well as he type of limitations that the person will experience and live from. Heart awareness is empathic and wholistic … More One whole Awareness
Meditation has prompted a variety of research over the last 30 years. The Dalai Lama sparked it – actually requested it – of western science. As a result, whole fields of new western science have been birthed and all of them explore the integrity and integration that the heart brings to human existence. Profoundly, what … More Living from the mind of the heart
This round of Intermediate level of instruction in meditation sets out from the premise that our collective perception of duality and ourselves as dual can be used to establish the more true and refined awareness of One and, thus, oneness. Duality is experienced as perception, concepts, ideas, desires, and the experience of having an experience … More Using duality 2: the gaze
It is delightful to see the names of registrants for all levels of The Practice of Living Awareness, old names and new ones. Excitement is in the air to be meditating together again. We begin Monday, January 26 at 9 am ET with the Entry level. Tuesday is Intermediate, and Saturday is the Generative Stage. … More Ready?
Learning to bring a meditative-type focus to our moment brings a number of benefits: increased observational skills, increased creative thinking, decreased stress and worry, increased open mindedness, increased capacity for listening and allowing other points of view.
The Practice of Living Awareness synthesizes Raja and Agni Yoga and tantric techniques in the nowness of humanity and its evolution. As a result, it is effective. It is effective also because it is a step by step graded method of meditation, just as the methods of the East have been. Sometimes, Intermediate level meditations are … More Mahamudra Meditations 1 and 2