Five Keys to Sticking with Practice

I’m sure we all know that watching YouTube videos isn’t really adequate as a form of practice. So how should we view our ongoing practice? How long will it take to reach the goal? In this video I’ll discuss five keys we should use to engage best with practice.

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Practice Circle: The Benefactor Body Scan

Recently, SBA Community Director Jennifer Hawkins engaged us with folks from the North American Buddhist Alliance to talk about the body scan, a practice used widely in both Buddhist meditation and mindfulness programs. If you’re not familiar with it, it consists of systematically directing your concentrated awareness to one body part at a time, starting…

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My First Retreat – Part 3

This is Part 3 of a series of 3 articles.   For Part 1: https://secularbuddhism.org/2017/10/12/my-first-retreat-part-1-of-3-a-zen-sesshin-at-rocky-mountain-ecodharma/ For Part 2: https://secularbuddhism.org/2017/10/12/my-first-retreat-part-2-of-3/ …continued: Morning 3: This was the last day, a short day. And in everything, I “relaxed”… in a “bad way.” I think that one factor was a personal or internal one: all of the praise I got during Dokusan…

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My First Retreat (Part 2 of 3)

This is Part 2 of a series of 3 articles.   For Part 1: https://secularbuddhism.org/2017/10/12/my-first-retreat-part-1-of-3-a-zen-sesshin-at-rocky-mountain-ecodharma/ …continued: Day 2: We woke up at 5AM (successfully!), chanted, and sat (zazen). I couldn’t tell you much about what came up during that specific sit, but I do recall that most other retreat attendees took full advantage of any breaks to…

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Practice Circle: Mindfulness of Sound

Stop what you’re doing right now, and just listen. Were you surprised by all you heard? Before you stopped to listen, you may have been completely unaware of all of the sounds going on. As soon as you directed your attention to them, there they were, loud and soft, far and near, pleasant, unpleasant and…

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Practice Circle: Autumn and Impermanance

We’ve crossed the Equinox, and here in the northern USA where I live, the arrival of autumn is unmistakable. Green leaves dry and are touched with orange, red and gold. The evening turns cool and dark. Soon the lush profusion of life will give way to the barren cold of winter. It’s a very good…

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Practice Circle: Lake Meditation

Continuing in our exploration of visualizations in contemplative practice, this Sunday at 8 pm CDST, Practice Circle will focus on the Lake Meditation. To join our video conference group, simply follow this link: https://zoom.us/j/968569855. Ted Meissner, MBSR teacher with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Center for Mindfulness at UMass, will be leading this session’s half hour guidance and…

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