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Mindfulness Matters

Gil Scott Heron died yesterday, the poet and musician most known for his composition, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” The context was different in 1970 when he made this recording; he was speaking to a social revolution, for civil rights, for waking up out of complacency. He wasn’t speaking of an internal revolution, or…

Today, I’ll introduce another series in addition to Waking Up is a Revolutionary Act. This primer, Meditation Made Simple: Seven Considerations to Get You Going will be presented in seven sections. It answers basic questions and addresses particular myths about mindfulness meditation. 1. You Already Know How to Meditate There are thousands of techniques that…

Speaking of smiling. Check out this seven minute talk and you can’t help but smile :-). Ron Gutman makes a quick and convincing case for the super powers of smiling. A few interesting numbers: Kids smile on average 400/day (not so many for adults) One smile packs the pleasure payload of 2000 bars of chocolate…

I recently bought these iridescent orange running shoes. I just love them. The color is bold, bright, and downright audacious. Every time I put them on I feel happy. How could you not? Is it possible to understand and practice joy through a set of orange sneakers? For me, the answer is, “yes.” Anything can…

As I alluded to in the entry, The Mindfulness Revolution, any good revolution needs a manifesto. So here it is, part one of ten. There is a book out called the Mindfulness Manifesto and I confess that I haven’t read it. Here is my version. To adumbrate, here are the ten chapters that comprise it: Start…

I wonder what the Buddha would think about all this fuss about his birthday or celebrating his enlightenment. He might just say — work on your own enlightenment! Of course, rituals can be a beneficial part of practice, but I doubt the Buddha would have been comfortable with this sort of attention. Still, people all…

This metaphor comes from, Lorie, a member of our little meditation community in Burlington, Vermont. The insight came to her while on meditation retreat at IMS (The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts). We can understand the mind as a tree and thoughts as birds. Birds come and go to the branches of the tree.…

This axiom of wisdom comes from Jo, the author of “Kensho: Or What I did on My Christmas Vacation.” It’s disarming in it simplicity; obvious in its importance. It speaks to the futility of worry and reminds us that when we show up for our lives things usually work out OK. Some situations require homework…

As I alluded to in the entry, The Mindfulness Revolution, any good revolution needs a manifesto. So here it is, part one of ten. There is a book out called the Mindfulness Manifesto and I confess that I haven’t read it. Here is my version. To adumbrate, here are the ten chapters that comprise it: Start…

Whoever said mindfulness was supposed to be all gentleness, nicety, and soft? Attention is a psychological faculty. It’s neither nice nor cruel. It’s job is to apprehend what is going on in the world around and inside us in any given moment. As David Whyte points out, attention can be fierce, and I dare say…
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