Posts Tagged ‘Secular Practice’
Practice Circle: Jason Siff and Recollective Awareness Meditation
Happy New Year! We’re excited to be starting 2015 with our first guest-led Practice Circle featuring Jason Siff, the author of “Unlearning Meditation” and “Thoughts are Not the Enemy.” Over the next two Practice Circle sessions, Jason will be teaching us the technique he calls Recollective Awareness Meditation, which involves open awareness practice, journaling, and…
Read MorePractice Circle: Resolution and Intention
The Western calendar is preparing to turn over to another year, and as a glance at any advertising medium will confirm, it’s time for New Years Resolutions. Time to promise one’s self to lose weight, quit smoking, perhaps even start a meditation practice. And we know the punch line, too; the health club that’s full…
Read MoreMindful America: A Review
I was by turns excited, puzzled and exasperated as I read Jeff Wilson’s Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture. This first attempt at an academic look at the rise of the mindfulness movement is a fascinating, provocative and often entertaining read, but its cultural studies methodology can be questionable and…
Read MorePractice Circle Turns Two!
The Sunday evening of October 15, 2012 marked the first gathering of the SBA Practice Circle. When we get together this Sunday at 8 PM CST, it will be our 47th meeting, a number that shocks me when I see it written down. In a lot of ways, every Practice Circle session still feels like…
Read MoreWaking Up: A Review
I still remember my excitement on encountering, in Sam Harris’ first book, The End of Faith, the suggestion that it would be possible to enjoy many of the benefits which people had traditionally sought from religion without the need to embrace religion itself. Buddhist meditiation was one of the practices Harris mentioned as a specific example of wisdom that…
Read MorePractice 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…
Read MorePractice Circle: Forgiveness
“He abused me, attacked me, Defeated me, robbed me!” For those carrying on like this Hatred does not end. “She abused me, attacked me, Defeated me, robbed me!” For those not carrying on like this, Hatred ends. Hatred never ends through hatred. By non-hate alone does it end. This is an ancient truth. (Dhp 3-5,…
Read MoreFinding Your Mindfulness Bells
One of the meanings of sati, the Pali word usually translated as “mindfulness”, is to remember. With a little practice, it’s not hard to learn how to concentrate and focus your awareness. The big challenge is remembering to do it. We forget even when we’re sitting on a cushion for the express purpose of meditating! …
Read MorePracticing with Technology
We recently did a survey among people who had signed up for Practice Circle to find out their most and least favorite things about our online mindfulness group. The likes were all over the map, but thankfully they were many: respondents rated Practice Circle 7.3 on a 10 point scale, with only 3 of 19 ranking…
Read MorePracticing Non-Self, III: Cultivating the Heart
All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? . . . For your brother is like you. He wants to be happy. (Dhp 129 – 130, Byrom) This happened to me last Sunday afternoon. I had just returned…
Read More