Mindfulness
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If karma is the observation that intention shapes action, and action shapes experience, then a further question naturally follows: how do we live in a way that supports clarity rather than confusion, ease rather than friction? The Buddha places this question at the very beginning of the Eightfold Path. Not as a moral demand, not…
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Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh paraphrased the Five Remembrances (found in the Upajjhatthana Sutta) like this: On a first reading, the Five Remembrances can seem very bleak statements that describe unavoidable human suffering. They certainly challenge our tendency to live in denial of ageing and death. We don’t feel very comfortable facing our own…
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A couple of weeks have passed, and you’ve meditated nearly every day, extending your initial ten minutes now to fifteen. Several times, your breath counting has reached ten and back to one without it feeling as though you have been hijacked by your own thoughts. To your initial surprise, you have discovered that if you…
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The early days (and possibly weeks and months) of a new meditation practice have a certain comedic property. There we are, trying to conjure up deep thoughts. We’re not sure what they should be about, but they’re undoubtedly deep. And we’re trying to follow the guidance and meditate ‘on the breath,’ counting the in-breaths and…
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So, interest aroused, you have put the cart before the horse and ordered both an inexpensive paperback meditation primer (such as Steve Hagen’s Meditation Now or Never) and a zafu (a circular cushion on which you propose to sit), which you think rather expensive for what it is. The delivery driver throws them down at…
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If you feel curious about Buddhism and go looking for information about the different schools, with their core beliefs and practices, you will quickly encounter lots and lots of numbered lists. No one loves a list like a Buddhist teacher. Just on a first pass (never mind a closer look), you’ll encounter: Most of these…
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Unless something comes along that makes it impractical, I sit in quiet meditation every morning (around 10am, if you were thinking of phoning). I practise (now that’s a word that needs unbundling – I’ll come back to it sometime) what a Sōtō Zen Buddhist would recognise as shikantaza (just sitting), a distinctive form of zazen…