Posts on Meditation Practice

One of the touchstones of this blog has been notes and reflections on meditation practice.  During the first year of keeping the blog, my practice became essentially daily.  I've included sections on meditation practice and on living mindfully

Meditation Practice/Instructions - Key ideas about mediation and Buddhism - Living Mindfully

Meditation Practice

"Listen and Sense What Matters to You" (November 18, 2021) Tara Brach meditation.  With an inner listening, pose the question 'what really brings me to meditation practice right now? What's my deepest intention? Listen and sense what matters to you.  Listen and sense what feels most sincere in you.

"JKZ's 7 Attitudes" (September 7, 2021) is Kabat Zinn's video about the importance of 7 (or 8) attitudes: nonjudging, patience, non-striving, etc.  I like the list and have thought of making such a list about what I've learned about meditation myself.  My list wouldn't be far different, I guess.

 "Saying Yes in a Radical Way to What's Here" (July 17, 2021) contains notes from one of Tara Brach's guided meditations on Insight Timer titled "Loving this Life." I recorded some of the phrases she uses that seem helpful in a basic meditation practice.

"Where is Your Mind?" (July 13, 2021) contains notes about self-questions during meditation from Jon Kabat's Zinn's 5th episode of his pandemic Zoom meditations.  

"Jon Kabat-Zinn 65 Meditations" (July 3, 2021) is just a link to JKZ's YouTube playlist of the meditations that he did on Zoom during Covid.  After I found this, I kept dipping into them, then listening to them from Episode 1 forward.  I began just listening to a chunk at a time.

"Weekly Meditation Schedule" (May 28, 2021) is my own list of links to meditations on the internet, broken up to a weekly schedule.

"Nothing to Do, Nothing to Be, Nothing to Have" (April 28, 2021) is a reflection on this phrase from Goldstein and Wolfe... and how in meditation it helps with some unclenching and not-leaning-forward.  It quotes also the Basho poem about "sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows, by itself."  That Basho poem might be one of my favorite things.

"The Four Immeasurables" (April 27, 2021) is about the collection of 4 related meditation practices referred to as the Bramaviharas (loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, sympathetic joy.).   The post links to a conversation between Dan Harris and Joseph Goldstein. I write: I like the name "the four immeasurables."  It has the essence of magic... Strega Nona's pasta pot, the fountain of youth.  Immeasurable can be "not usefully counted or measured" or it could mean "so big that it can't be measured" (the promise of meter-less electricity!) (space!) or both.  It makes me consider if these things are like an electrical socket to be plugged into or something that shouldn't be spoken of in the same way that measurable things can be. 

"Counterprograming against the habitual" (April 26, 2021) is a series of quotations from a podcast conversation between Dan Harris and Joseph Goldstein.  The reflection is about how we have micro-emotions and micro-thoughts all day (not just big emotions or thoughts) and these condition us throughout the day... and make us "dream ourselves into being."

"Five TILF from 40 Days of Meditation by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfeild" (March 7, 2021).  I did a 40-day meditation course by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield and took notes on each of the meditation sessions.  Here's a review of the best.

"Forty Lessons from Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield." (March 2, 2021).  Over the past couple weeks, I've been spending time each morning listening to a Course on Insight Timer App called "Mindfulness Daily."  The short (10 minute) talks are given alternately by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield.  I wanted to record my notes on each session on the blog, but maybe in chunks of 10.  Here is Part 3 of my notes.  Here is Part 2 of my notes.  Here is Part 1 of my notes.

"TILF Joseph Goldstein" (December 29, 2020).  I listened to 4 med sessions on Insight Timer from JG and took notes on some of the things he said (during guided meditation) that seemed helpful.

"Things I Learned from Tara Brach" (December 16, 2020) After listening and taking notes to three or so Insight Timer meditations, I massaged the instructions today here.  It's a step-by-step guide to "Brach meditation."

"Five Things I Learned from Shizen Young" (December 13, 2021) After listening to a number of Young guided meditations in Insight Timer, I recorded the big points

"Tara Brach's 'Blessings of Love'" (December 4, 2020) This is a deep dive into this specific Insight Timer guided meditation.  I try to provide a sense of the step-by-step AND reflect on a couple of the key phrases -- this is your true home, being in relationship with your inner life, sensing who you are when you give and receive blessings.

"On Negative Emotion and RAIN" (October 16, 2010) references Lori Santos, Thubten Chodron, and Joseph Goldstein -- all about dealing with negative emotions.  It's in relation to Charlotte returning after spending a week at Karrie's.  This was a really hard time in our lives.

Key Ideas and Wisdom of Meditation and Mindfulness (and Buddhism)

"Default Mode Network and the Direct Experience Network" (November 8, 2021) Karolien Notebaert TED talk (Hack Your Own Brain) talks about DMN and DEN.  This is in line with Ellen Langer mindfulness, not Buddhism.

"Three unwholesome roots" (November 5, 2021) Three unwholesome roots or three poisons are considered to be three afflictions or character flaws innate in a being, the root of Taṇhā (craving), and thus in part the cause of Dukkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness) and rebirths

"Aversion and Sadness" (November 2, 2021) is a longer post that is reflective and mostly about a talk by Joseph Goldstein.  He looks at the conditions that cause it and the conditions that remove it.

"Four Immeasurables in Bewilderment" (November 1, 2021) is a section from Richard Power's novel that deal specifically with the Buddhist concept of the Four Immeasurables. "There are four good things worth practicing.  Being kind towards everything alive. Staying level and steady. Feeling happy for any creature anywhere that's happy. And remembering that any suffering is also yours."

"The Act On Which the Whole World Revolves" (October 30, 2021) is about drinking tea mindfully.  It contains quotations from Thich Nhat Hanh

"The Work that Awe Requires" (October 29, 2021) is a quotation from John Green's Anthropocene Reviewed and has some nice language about "How and whether" you look and suggests that "awe" takes some work.

"Discrimination without Prejudice" (September 22, 2021) is a long quotation from Mindfulness by Ellen Langer about how experiments that demonstrated that kids could be discriminating about handicapped people, but not prejudiced.  It's an interesting concept!

"Novelty Must Be Introduced" (September 19, 2021) is from Ellen Langer's Mindfulness book.  It's about how doing things mindfully (playing in the symphony, going to work) novelty must be introduced into the task.

"Labeling and Mindfulness" (September 18, 2021) is from Ellen Langer's Mindfulness book.  It's about labeling, especially labelling old people and building preconceptions.  Behaviors make sense from the actor's point of view.  

"Three Alternative Choices" (September 17, 2021) is from Ellen Langer's Mindfunlness book.  It reports on giving retirment-home resisdents more responsibility to increase their happiness and health.  There is a sweet spot of asking people to track some activity, but then to think of "three alternative choices" that they could have chosen.  Right now there's something magical about that in terms of journal/diary keeping... not just what happened, but what CHOICES did you make and what were other options.

"Boredom is a function of mindlessness" (September 14, 2021) is from Ellen Langer.  It's a selection from her book Mindfulness that pretty much says the title.

"Make the piece new in subtle ways" (September 12, 2021) is a longer quotation from Mindfulness by Ellen Langer about the experiment she did with orchestras that suggested that "individual newness" created a more unified and more pleasurable experience from the audience.

"All the Little Things" (June 14, 2021) is a summary of a Bill Moyers report on Jon Kabat-Zinn.  The summary tries to show how the documentary highlights some of the key pieces of wisdom in meditation and mindfulness.

"Ellen Langer and Mindfulness" (June 6, 2021) is an exploration of a couple Ellen Langer podcasts I listened to.  She's the "godmother of mindfulness" or something like that.  Her take on mindfulness is completely secular.  There's a lot in this posting, including some summarizing of key ideas that I'm connecting between meditation practice and the good life.

"Four Noble Truths" (April 21, 2021) is just a definition of what the terms means in Buddhism -- the origins of suffering, the end of suffering along with the path to Nirvana (the Eightfold Path - Right Living, Right Speech, Right...)

"Forest Bathing" (March 14, 2021) is a link to a PBS video about this and some official directions about how to do it - to add to mindfulness. 

"Hokusai Says" (March 3, 2021) is a poem about a Japanese print block artist by Robert Keyes that Tara Brach references in a couple different places.  It includes the line "let life live through you.

"What is in that space" (December 29, 2020) is a quote by Viktor Frankl (and references JKZ) about the important of the space between stimulus and response.

"Enjoy the Sound of the Bell" (December 11, 2020) is a reflection (pretty thoughtful as I reread it) of how we should not just "be grateful" but "take pleasure in." (after a Shinzen Young meditation practice.

"Four TILF from Thubten Chodron's Google Talk" (December 21, 2020) is just that, ideas about checking motivation, about being reflective, about being imprinted with anger.

"On 'it might have been otherwise'" (November 9, 2020) starts with the Jane Kenyon poem (which will become a key poem for our marriage in June, 2021) then moves to thinking about the ENERGY of wanting something different, wondering if I should be at least happy that my kids are alive and healthy, even if they want no part of me, of that's lowering expectations.  Then I talk about the sense of trying to push a rock uphill or push a wet noodle, but say that it's more like trying to push a dog's face away from food bowl, then it ends with a Twitter-found list of "Things I would tell my younger self" that are about setting boundaries and not trying to change others.  It's a meaty and reflective posting.

"On Impermanence" (October 22, 2020) contains passages from Thich Nhat Hanh and Joseph Goldstein about the basic idea of impermanence, which is the first of Buddhism's three characteristics of existence (including suffering and nonself). It's both a continual loss and a continual creative arising.

"On the courage to change our lives" (October 21, 2020) contains two long, great passages from The Art of Living from Thich Nhat Hanh.  It talks about having the courage to be cutting the ropes that entangle us so that we can begin to live fully now -- in every step.  It references the shortness of life.

Living Mindfully

"Sufficient" (September 21, 2021) is a reflection on Michael Pollan's book Your Mind on Plants whne he describes mescaline trips and how he was consumed (in a positive sense) with what was going on around him... things were just sufficient.  I list a number of other meditation/mindfulness ideas (and my own experiences) that match this sense.

"When We Hear Bells" (June 25, 2021) is an account of a tiny section in a Thich Nhat Hahn documentary where the monk describes to a person signing up for a retreat why everyone is hushing at a small clock chime - it's a call to mindfulness.

"A Repeated Act of Will" (June 11, 2021) is a reflection on one section of A Forest Unseen by David George Haskell.  It's about the network of alarm calls in the forest and how we are almost always unable to perceive them because, like hawks and other dangerous things, the alarm network has sounded and done its work before we arrive on the scene.  There's a mindfulness key idea about how we are always riding the waves of the past or future in our heads and it takes "a repeated act of will" to get to the present.

"Equanimity" (March 13,2021) is a longer post that has quotes about saying yes to the world from Brach and inviting peace from Kornfield.  It begins with some excerpts from lack of peace from 2016. 

"5 TILF from Tara Brach's Radical Acceptable" (March 12, 2021) five ideas - pausing, saying yes, grasping.

"Being Expectant vs. Being Curious" (Feb 27, 2021) is a reflection about listening to music on playlists or for the first time.  It also references Marie Howe - the Gate - and living with grateful attitude and Tara Brach and the "negativity bias" that we have, scanning for bad things.

"Hey, Look" (February 17, 2021) references Kleon, Burkeman, Kornfeld.  It's about the proper, curious, interested stance towards seeing the world (and writing about the world): 'hey, did you see?' and describing it.

"On 'Taking a Break'" (February 13, 2021) is a nice little posting involving Andy Goldsworthy, Hedda Sterne, and a reflection from real life.  It looks at 'planned breaks' that are actually just more work and images what truly taking a break might look like.  It even has a little joke at the end.

"Don't Notice... Observe" (January 29, 2021) references an old journal and Rob Walker and Marie Howe.  The idea is that you should stop and describe, not just NAME things you notice.  This might be a hint about how to become mindful better.  

"Superpower-Power to Choose" (November 25, 2020) is first a link to a short blog post that names the moment that you can reflect and not react as your superpower and then a link to a passage in "This is Water" by David Foster Wallace (in the grocery store line) which really is Wallace collecting himself and doing a mindful self-collection (watching breath...reflecting).

"When the mind is not clouded by unnecessary things" (November 16, 2020) is a haiku by Wumen Huikai.  Blossoms in spring, moon in autumn, breeze in summer, snow in winter... "if your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season." It reminds me of Marie Howe's "The Gate."

"On setting intentions" (October 15, 2020) Is partly about anticipating Charlotte returning to spend a week with us and partly about the idea of setting intentions before each meditation session -- but maybe also before each troubling encounter -- or before any segment of the day.