“Life is fulfilling when you are rooted in the essential Beingness of ‘I Am.’ . . . Then you bring that state of consciousness—that spacious state of consciousness—you bring that into your interactions with other people of great importance. It’s only then that you will stop treating other people as possible sources of fulfillment or as a threat.” —Eckhart Tolle, spiritual teacher and author, on his June 26
live meditation broadcast.
posted by Houyhnhnm
on Jul 12, 2011 -
83 comments
Labyrinths –
not to be confused with mazes – are being
rediscovered as tools for
contemplation,
meditation,
reflection, and
community well-being, as well as inspiration for
architecture,
music,
dance,
ritual,
business, and
visual art.
[more inside]
posted by velvet winter
on Dec 20, 2010 -
19 comments
Jon Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness presentation at Google. JON KABAT-ZINN, PH.D., is founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founding director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in various venues around the world.
posted by RussHy
on Apr 19, 2009 -
12 comments
Most of us are sadly aware of the protests over the last few months by Buddhist Burmese monks. (previously
1,
2). To sustain themselves in the face of likely attack these monks have been
chanting the Metta Sutta, the Buddha's teachings on compassion and loving kindness. The Metta Sutta is
here in translation,
some expositions (dharma talks) on the same subject:
One by Sharon Salzberg who has done much to popularize metta in the west in the last 20 years, and
a whole bunch from
Dharma Seed, which makes buddhist teachings available on the web.
You want to get in on the action? In the US you can try the
Insight Meditation Society, which is based in Barre, Mass., but has lots of local branches.
[more inside]
posted by shothotbot
on Nov 1, 2007 -
12 comments
'There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If
it be now, 't is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if
it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has
aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes?'
Chris Chester, author of
Providence of a Sparrow:
Lessons from a Life Gone to the Birds, a meditation on his life
with B, an English Sparrow which he raised from a hatchling fallen from
the nest, died suddenly early this past Spring. His nephew Marc Mowery
has created
Chris Chester - born May 14, 1952
died April 17, 2007 to his memory and has posted 6 of 8 short videos
of Chris and Rebecca Chester and the sparrow named B on YouTube.
And
here is
The Sorrow and the Sparrow: The
Life and Death of Chris ChesterExcerpt and video
links within [more inside]
posted by y2karl
on Oct 25, 2007 -
9 comments
Ken Wilber can stop his brain waves on demand. This (WMV) is the famous EEG machine recording where
Ken Wilber enters various meditative states, one of which is a type of "thoughtless," "image-less," or "formless" state, whose correlate is that his brainwaves come to an almost complete stop, as clearly recorded on this portable electroencephalograph (EEG) machine. Seeing somebody's brainwaves flatline in about 4 seconds is a sight not easily forgotten! Also on
YouTube.
posted by skepticX
on Mar 7, 2007 -
68 comments
TM without the ™. When he's not directing
one of the best movies of the year or
sitting on intersections with cows,
David Lynch is a vocal
advocate of
Transcendental Meditation. In his new book
Catching the Big Fish, he talks about
the Box and the Key, meeting Fellini, the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit, why he doesn't do DVD commentaries--and TM, which he calls "the experience that does everything." If you're intrigued by TM but sketched out by the
organization and the
$2,500 fee, perhaps you'd like to know that there is a
cheap, downloadable alternative.
posted by muckster
on Dec 3, 2006 -
35 comments
Holy Madness! (Flash interface.)
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City has launched a website that allows you to pore over and compare Tibetan Buddhist artwork from their exhibits. Use the "Decode" feature to pick paintings apart and learn about their intricate components.
See also: their
ambitious calendar of events.
posted by hermitosis
on Aug 17, 2006 -
18 comments
Let's say you like cats. When you visit a friend's house and he happens to have a cat, you make a big deal about stroking it, picking it up, talking to it. And you do the same thing with every cat you encounter. It demonstrates to the people around you that you're a sensitive, sympathetic, tactile person. All these things are true of you, including your innate adoration of cats. But that doesn't mean to say you haven't cultivated your cat-fancying into a self-conscious, gushing performance that somehow represents you. This doesn't make you a phony; it makes you something else: mediated. "Me" culture : Reality is so passéSalon interviews Thomas De Zengotita, author of
The Numbing Of The The American Mind and
Closure for You, Jedermensch ein Übermensch.
posted by y2karl
on Mar 9, 2005 -
50 comments
Dalai Llama muses: meditating monk sets "positive emotion" record : The 14th Dalai Llama, Tenzin Gyatso, muses on new research on the benefits of mindfulness meditation: "A University of Wisconsin-Madison research team has found that a small amount of "mindfulness meditation" results in
positive, lasting changes in the brain and immune system." The mainstream medical community in the U.S. has now acknowledge the significant benefits of mindfulness meditatiion -
"...a significant decrease in symptoms, both during and after the course."
[ Tenzin Gyatso ]
"The calamity of 9/11 demonstrated that modern technology and human intelligence guided by hatred can lead to immense destruction. Such terrible acts are a violent symptom of an afflicted mental state. To respond wisely and effectively, we need to be guided by more healthy states of mind, not just to avoid feeding the flames of hatred, but to respond skillfully. We would do well to remember that the war against hatred and terror can be waged on this, the internal front, too.".....I once was host to Tenzin Gyatso's brother and several other Tibetan monks for a few weeks - and was never again quite the same. So, when Tenzin Gyatso speaks, I listen.
posted by troutfishing
on Apr 25, 2003 -
22 comments
