Category: Advanced Meditation

This is Why Meditation is for the Brave of Heart

This is Why Meditation is for the Brave of Heart

Posted by | Jan 10, 2017 | , , ,

  By Ruth Lera   I try my best to remind my students that the act of meditation is a great act of courage. The reason for this is that I can’t stress enough that we all have pain and suffering. I am all too aware that much of the pain and suffering that goes on in the world are acts of great atrocity. That these horrible acts of cruelty are often so terrible, it is difficult not to find ourselves casting our eyes away, because just the thought of what some people and animals are going through on this...

Read More
Opening the Sky Door: Introduction to Vipassana Meditation

Opening the Sky Door: Introduction to Vipassana Meditation

Posted by | Dec 31, 2016 | , , ,

  By Daniel Scharpenburg When people talk about meditation they’re usually talking about one kind—Shamatha, or concentration meditation. Vipassana, or Insight Meditation is another kind that’s often done alongside Shamatha. Shamatha provides ground for Vipassana and the two are equally important. I’m not suggesting Vipassana to be superior to Shamatha. Without a solid foundation of Shamatha practice, Vipassana isn’t really possible. Shamatha quiets the mind and Vipassana expands awareness. Vipassana is the practice of mystics and hardcore dharma explorers and leads to insight. It plants the seed of prajna—transcendent wisdom—and is the practice that prepares us for the deepest teachings. It’s what allows...

Read More
Authentic Spirituality Means Connecting with Our Ordinary, Mundane Life.

Authentic Spirituality Means Connecting with Our Ordinary, Mundane Life.

Posted by | Nov 15, 2016 | , , ,

  By Reginald A. Ray, Ph.D. My principal meditation teacher was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan lamas to present meditation in the West. During the 17 years that I knew him, from 1970 until his death in 1987, he transmitted the somatic Vajrayana lineage to me and his other senior students. Since his death, I have been fortunate to have the time and the opportunity to explore extensively Rinpoche’s transmission through study, practice—and most importantly, teaching—where I have learned the most. One single concept best characterizes the instruction that Rinpoche received from his teachers and that he wanted...

Read More
The Drive to be Heard: Finding Silence in the Age of Social Media.

The Drive to be Heard: Finding Silence in the Age of Social Media.

Posted by | Nov 6, 2016 | , , , ,

  By Tammy Stone “Silence is a true friend who never betrays.” – Confucius I’m hardly a pioneer in noticing that huge doses of time on Facebook (to say nothing of the Twitters/Instagrams/Snapchats/whatevers/blogs) compromise everything from the way I manage time, the way my brain and mind works, and the way I feel about myself. The kicker is that I’m actively curating my own personal descent into the e-rabbit hole with every group I join, every page I like, and even everything I don’t attend to, on purpose or by accident, stuff that ends up disappearing from my virtual...

Read More
The Heart Sutra: A Meditation Guide.

The Heart Sutra: A Meditation Guide.

Posted by | Jan 2, 2016 | , , ,

  By Daniel Scharpenburg The Prajnaparamita Hridyam Sutra is a short text; it is about the length of a page. But it’s a very deep text. It’s title means The Great Heart of Transcendent Wisdom Sutra, but we usually just shorten it to Heart Sutra. It’s part of the Prajnaparamita school of texts, along with the Diamond Sutra and a few others. These are called the ‘Perfection of Wisdom’ texts and they are considered by many to be the greatest works of the Mahayana. Prajnaparamita means Transcendent Wisdom of the Other Shore. The Prajnaparamita School presented a new goal for Buddhist...

Read More