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Mindfulness Matters

I am reading the lovely volume of excerpts from Rilke’s voluminous letters, Letters on Life, edited and translated by Ulrich Baer. Rilke wrote thousands of letters during his lifetime and seven thousand were reviewed for this volume. Rilke was a complex character. His biography, in some ways, parallels the Buddha’s. Like the Buddha he found…

Watch part one of my interview with Dr. Tyler Nelson on the overuse of prescription drugs in this country. We talk about alternative treatments, such as mindfulness and how they may play a role in offsetting prescription drug use.         Watch Part Two:  

The first in this series focused on stress. Anxiety and stress are closely related. Anxiety is central to our threat detection system and stress helps us to mount responses to potential threats. Like stress, anxiety gets a bad rap. Our culture feeds us the idea that we must eradicate all adverse feelings in order to…

Today, I will introduce a new series of posts with practical, mindfulness-based advise for dealing with common problems. These problems include stress, anxiety, depressed mood, pain, overeating, sleep difficulties, and more. Each post will provide principles and techniques for handling these problems so that they are no longer problems. If there are particular issues that…

My dharma friend, Soryu Forall, has founded the Center for Mindful Learning. “The Center for Mindful Learning (CML) is a non-profit organization devoted to improving lives and strengthening communities by offering mindfulness training that cultivates happiness, compassion, and success for the benefit of all people and all living things.” Burlington, Vermont is and will be…

I came across the title quotation–“reality is unforgivingly complex”–reading Anne Lamott’s bestselling book, Bird by Bird. This observation will be the basis for my reflections today. What does she mean by this? As a shorthand, we’ll think of reality as the things that happen to us–weather, accidents, medical events, how dinner turns out. I think we’d…

Having just written about the obstacles to practice, I would like to invite you, dear readers, to submit questions that are arising in your practice. My favorite way of teaching is responding to questions. The challenge of mindfulness is not understanding mindfulness–it’s easy in concept, difficult in practice: Pay attention to what is happening now…

This is the last installment of the final set of reflections on obstacles to practice focusing on the Buddha’s five hindrances (well not his hindrances, but the five that he set out as obstacles to meditation). The Five are a laundry list of things that are rarely a good idea–sensual desire anger, anxiety, laziness, restlessness, and doubt. We’ll…

This is the penultimate installment of the final set of reflections on obstacles to practice focusing on the Buddha’s five hindrances (well not his hindrances, but the five that he set out as obstacles to meditation). The Five are a laundry list of things that are rarely a good idea–sensual desire anger, anxiety, laziness, restlessness, and doubt. We’ll…

Last year at this time, I opined about the 4th of July Holiday. It’s one of my least favorite holidays. I’ll be working today in “celebration” and we sat our regular meditation schedule at the Studio. I eschewed the Burlington fireworks display again last night. If today is a celebration of freedom, I think we…
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