Sensory information hurtles upon our eyeballs at the speed of light, crashes into our eardrums at the speed of sound, and courses through our body and mind as fast as an electro-chemical signal can flash from one neuron to the next. How do we deal with all this data without getting overwhelmed? By blocking out most of it, and stepping down the voltage on what little is left. The brain freezes the world into discrete mind moments, each capturing a barely adequate morsel of information, then … [Read more...]
Sharpening Mañjuśrī’s Sword
Leigh Brasington
Leigh Brasington has been practicing meditation since 1985 and is the senior American student of the late Ven. Ayya Khema. Leigh began assisting Ven. Ayya Khema in 1994, and was authorized to teach in 1997. He teaches in Europe and North America. Leigh, you are a teacher perhaps best known for guiding people through an exploration of the jhānas, stages of concentration meditation known as “absorptions.” But this is not all you do, am I right? For my day job I’m a software engineer. I live … [Read more...]
Only the Mountain Remains: Practicing in Nature
Mark Coleman
As long as there are monastics who delight living the forest at the foot of trees, the way of the Awakened One will not decline. –DN II 77; AN IV 20 I lead wilderness-based meditation retreats in many parts of the Western states, from Alaska to Baja, Mexico. Sometimes I am teased about my “work,” since it takes me to such pristine, idyllic nature preserves—some wonder whether the retreats are more like vacations than places for serious practice. For me, nothing could be further from the … [Read more...]
Food for Awakening: The Role of Appropriate Action
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The Myth of Bare Attention The Buddha never used the word for “bare attention” in his meditation instructions. That’s because he realized that attention never occurs in a bare, pure or unconditioned form. It’s always colored by views and perceptions—the labels you tend to give to events—and by intentions: your choice of what to attend to and your purpose in being attentive. If you don’t understand the conditioned nature of even simple acts of attention, you might assume that a moment of … [Read more...]
Mindfulness for Educators
Claire Stanley
The most practical thing we can achieve in any kind of work is insight into what is happening inside us as we do it. The more familiar we are with our inner terrain, the more surefooted our teaching—and living—becomes. —Parker Palmer These words from Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach (Jossey-Bass, 1998) have inspired many educators to explore the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Eloquent and provocative, Palmer’s work illuminates the perils, paradoxes and challenges that one faces … [Read more...]
No Harmful Thought
Andrew Olendzki
Is it really impossible to imagine that such an attitude is attainable? We so often hear such sentiments dismissed as idealistic or impractical. It seems taken for granted that humans are just hateful creatures, that animosity is an adaptive instinct and that “of course" we will hate those who threaten us. Who could blame us? The Buddha was showing us a more noble way of being human. Yes, the impulse to lash out against those we fear does lie within us all as a latent tendency, and it is all … [Read more...]
