How many times when we’re feeling a bit “off” does someone ask, “What’s wrong?”. What about instead we ask “What’s good?” and working on noticing what's right? Is it possible for us to begin to notice the actual experiences we're having instead of our thoughts about the experiences? Notice the experience, not our thoughts about […]
You don’t need me to tell you that what is going on around many parts of the world is destructive, chaotic, unkind, and even sinister. All we need to do is turn on the news for five minutes to feel the weight of despair. Disease, war, oppression, discrimination, climate change, violence, intolerance, and unrest. What does […]
We are excited to welcome honored Tibetan Buddhist monk the Venerable Zawa Tulku Rinpoche back to Satsang House! In addition to teaching and performing empowerment ceremonies, Rinpoche is also a master of the construction of sand mandalas and ritual arts. Rinpoche will be hand-designing and bringing to life a special mandala during his stay. For […]
If we walk around believing everything we think without question, particularly the not so pleasant self-doubting thoughts, it’s pretty hard to see any other viewpoint than our own. If we tell ourselves certain things about ourselves long enough, it may never even occur to us to question our own thinking.
Meditation isn’t about trying to stop thinking. Instead it’s about noticing the thoughts as they arise and allowing them to be. To be able to have access again to our ground state of being which is already whole and complete, we must recognize how we’ve allowed ourselves to be hooked by the stories and conversations we tell ourselves in our own minds. Most times, we don’t even question the thoughts, perceptions, judgments or beliefs and instead believe our own thinking.
Consider that most of your mental suffering actually comes from how tightly you hold on to your beliefs. What if you were to discover that your stories do not fully define who you are and what is actually happening to you? With mindfulness, we can step out of the story we tell and simply notice the telling of the story.
Meditation is not about ridding yourself of your thoughts, since that's virtually impossible for anyone to do. Meditation instead, is literally about noticing that your mind has drifted into thoughts and then practicing bringing your mind back to a place of stillness - over and over again. The noticing IS the practice.
Through the practice of meditation, you develop what is known as “witnessing awareness” which allows you to observe your thoughts, feelings and stories with greater objectivity and distance, rather than getting pulled into the drama and emotional reactivity. Over time, you will begin to notice that some space has been created around difficult emotional states. You will start to see that there is more to who you are than your moods or thoughts, and you may also observe that the sensation associated with the negative feelings dissolve altogether. I like to say that you begin to develop a sense of responding as opposed to reacting.
You certainly don’t need me to tell you how stress accumulates in your body. The way we eat, drink and live takes its toll on our bodies, minds and well-being to be sure. Deep relaxation meditation is an opportunity for our body to rest, to heal, and to be restored. Today, I offer you a […]