The Practice of Buddhist Meditation is Not for the Fainthearted

We’re hearing about studies that boast meditation reduces stress, lowers high blood pressure, and calms the mind. These all sound great, and perhaps over the course of time, meditation has that effect, but that is not the purpose of Buddhist meditation. In fact, if your meditations are relaxing and cozy, I’m going to be bold…

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Episode 119 :: Shinzen Young :: Meditation, Pain, and Science

Shinzen Young Shinzen Young joins us to speak about meditation, pain relief, and science. We encounter this practice in so many ways. Often through suffering. Sometimes through disciplines like the martial arts, or from an interest in fixing some issues we’re having with concentration. And sometimes, we come to it through a fascination with a…

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Loving Kindness Meditation

Starting to meditate, I was taught two practices and I am very grateful for both of them. The first was a meditation on the breath. Not something that we can easily control, all we do is watch it coming in and going out. Sounds simple but once we try we realize that it ain’t.

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Episode 104 :: Rick Heller :: The New Humanism

Rick Heller speaks with us about the intersection of Secular Humanism with mindfulness practice.

Hi, everyone. There’s been a great deal of discussion online recently about how Secular Humanism has very strong alignment with what we’re calling Secular Buddhism. We see very little difference in the ideological propositions about social interaction, and one of the few outlying differences seems to be in the realm of practice. That is, we agree that improving our interactions with others is a positive thing, but what can we do to get better at that on a personal level?

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Happiness, The Great Illusion

Most of us have been raised on various stories that end in “And then they lived happily ever after.” Our media pushes the importance of happiness, as though any other state of mind is repulsive. We tend to gravitate towards people who seem happy, and let’s face it, we all enjoy the feeling of happiness.

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Episode 102 :: Martine Batchelor :: Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits

Martine Batchelor speaks with us about her book, Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits.

Habits. We all have them, most insidiously if we aren’t even aware of them. Fortunately, we’re not stuck with habits, and every moment is an opportunity to have a new and fresh beginning at redirecting our minds, so we can break that cycle of habit formation and continuation.

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