Right Mindfulness & Right Concentration Of The Eightfold Path
If I were to define Zen Buddhism, I would do so in two four-word sentences: Absolute attention is prayer. Compassion for all beings. “Zen teaches nothing. It merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach; it points. The truth of Zen is...
How To Stay In The Present Moment
I’ve never met anyone who was trained in mindfulness at an early age. Have you? I wonder if they have to try as hard as those of us who were introduced to mindfulness in adulthood. I wonder if they struggle with distractions or if they have emotional outbursts. For...
Mindful Movement Is A Life-And-Death Matter
There’s nothing like a drastic, life-changing event to test your practice. I recently became a father. Being a new parent of an infant has its ups and downs. The lows come mostly from lack of sleep, but also from second guessing everything from when, what, where, who,...
Deepen Your Mindfulness Meditation Practice
Mindfulness is always now. It may sound trite, but it’s true. The reality of your life is always now and to realize this, and experience it, can be liberating. But, we spend most of our lives forgetting this truth—running from it, repudiating it. We somehow manage to...
Mindfulness And Distraction: The Gardener Removes The Weeds
The essence of mindfulness is to shine as much awareness onto each moment as possible, and to notice the stimuli in our immediate surroundings. This beholding of the present moment, cupped precariously in our hands like water from a spring, is the closest we’ll ever...
What Is Mindfulness? An Introduction & 3 Essential Practices
“Mindfulness isn’t difficult,” writes Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness: The Power of Attention, “we just need to remember to do it.” Both statements are true. Mindfulness isn’t difficult. And we need to remember to do it. We need to remember to practice...
How To Breathe With Intention To Reduce Stress
It sounds funny to talk about ‘discovering breathing’ since we have all done it from the moment of birth. But breathing is like dreaming. It yields its spiritual treasure only when we practice the unnatural discipline of bringing into consciousness what has normally remained unconscious. The beauty of experimenting with intentional breathing is that it requires no belief, no faith, no dogma, no authority…
Living Mindfully Requires Grit And Discipline
Living mindfully is not always easy. We spend a third of our lives sleeping and most of us spend another third working. This already puts us at a deficit of time and energy remaining for living life. There’s little we can do about the lack of time. We need to work and...
Ambitious Habit Energy & Finding Rest Anywhere
Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist monk and renowned peace activist, writes about habit energy, describing it as the habitual chasing after the future in our thoughts—a blockage of our ability to be in the present moment. If you have ambitions, dreams or aspire to change...
Thich Nhat Hanh Walking Meditation
We walk all the time, but how many of us walk effortlessly? When was the last time you experienced pleasure from the simple act of walking? Walking is an opportune moment to be truly in the now. Taking one step followed by another is a powerful yet simple exercise to...
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