PICK UP ONE SMALL STONE

Loving-Kindness is a warm, open-heartedness. You can think of Mr. Rogers as the avatar. "Won't you be my neighbor." Everyone is welcome. When we practice Loving-Kindness, we benefit from this expansive open-heartedness by finding greater equanimity. But, we need to be careful to not fall into the trap of Loving-Kindness' far enemy, ill-will, or its near enemy, possessiveness. This meditation focuses particularly on overcoming the near-enemy, possessiveness -- the tricky, Lovi

Common humanity is a key component of compassion. It distinguishes compassion (I'm with you and I want to help) from pity (I'm so sorry for you, over there). This practice is designed to help us feel into our common humanity, so that we have greater compassion for others -- and also, importantly, for ourselves.

Karma is generally the concept that "we reap what we sow." But, the Buddhist understanding of this concept is a little different than how it gets interpreted in our Judeo-Christian culture. For one thing, Buddhism is non-theistic, so there is no accountant in the sky doling out karma. In addition, karma is hopeful - it is a way of creating the future we want. Go to 2:57 to skip the intro and get right into the meditation:

The "Yes and..." practice can be a tool for feeling our feelings without getting overwhelmed and bogged down. Try it and see how it works for you! (You can fast forward to 2:45 to skip the intro and get right into the practice.)

Gathas are short verses that can be used to bring mindfulness into mundane, everyday moments. Below are a sampling of gathas from Thich Nhat Hanh. As you read the first line of each gatha, breathe in. When you read the second line, breathe out. And, so on. If you like, you can place these around your house to remind you to come back to the moment - as you drink your tea (or coffee), brush your teeth, take out the garbage, etc. The meditation uses a gatha focused on the breath

Chakras can be a great framework for self-inquiry, for balancing energy, or simply for anchoring into this present moment. Go to 1:53 if you want to skip the intro.

Social convention is to ask "How are you?" and to answer "fine." From my not very scientific observations, I wonder how much we do that to ourselves. We are fine. But also we are complicated. Can we spend a little more time understanding ourselves -- offering that love that Thich Nhat Hanh talks about as "understanding is love's other name"? It's not to stir up trouble, but the more we know about ourselves, the more we can listen to our own sense of morality, the more we trus

Go to 1:00 to skip the intro and get right into this practice:

The Fall Equiniox was on September 22nd this year - but we can continue to listen to its invitation for many weeks. The equinoxes invite us into balance. What do we need to release? What do we need to call in? The two meditations below are both (very similar) contemplation practices for creating balance in our lives. Recorded Monday morning, September 23: Recorded Tuesday night, September 22:

Fall is a "both/and" season: Leaves fall and we're invited to release We celebrate the harvest and are invited to count our blessings And, with the harvest, we are invited to prepare seeds for next spring All these options call for the wisdom of discernment. What do we want to release? What do we want to "water" and grow? Meditation helps us to cultivate clear seeing so that we can make wise choices. Go to 1:44 to skip the intro and get right into this meditation for acceptin

This meditation uses progressive muscle relaxation to settle the body into meditation. Go to 1:36 to skip the intor and start the practice.

Babies belly breathe when they are born. As we get older, many of us unknowingly shift away from belly breathing and into chest and shoulder breathing -- our body's natural reaction to stress. Belly breathing (also sometimes called diaphragm breathing) lowers heart rates, blood pressure, and cortisol levels in the blood stream -- it moves us out of "fight or flight." But, as we get older and experience life's stresses, it is something that many of us need to practice - both

Wendell Berry passed away on Monday, leaving us with so many amazing poems, including "The Peace of Wild Things," which is instructions for mindfulness meditaiton in poetic form. This group has read a bunch of his poems over the years and we donated $580 to the Berry Center at the end of June to support the Center's environmental work. Today's meditation is another expression of gratitude for him and his legacy. Go to 2:10 to skip the intro and jump to where the poem starts:

Visit https://www.instagram.com/p/DW9X0sQEUCa/ for this poem and more good ones at Joseph Fasano's instagram account. This meditation starts with Fasano's poem, Night Swimming. Go to 2:12 to skip the intro and get right into the practice. But what I say in the intro that might be helpful to hear: you deserve joy; it's not weak to need a gratitude practice; our gratitude practices foster connection, compassion and care which makes the world a better place. xo

Go to 2:04 to skip the intro. With the intro the video is 16-minuntes. Without the intro, the meditation is 14-minutes.

Sympathetic Joy is one of "4 immeasurables" in Buddhism. Sometimes also called the "4 limitless ones," sympathetic joy, along with compassion, loving-kindness, and equanimity, cultivate an expansive heart, open to an immeasurable, or limitless, degree. Counterintuitively, sympathetic joy is usually harder than compassion or loving-kindness. Joy may seem easy - but actually our negativity bias and scarcity mindset make joy harder than you'd think. Sympathtic joy -- the abilit

Mindfulness: Paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgmentally. - paraphrase from Jon Kabat-Zinn

This 16-minute practice is a variation on the traditional Buddhist compassion meditation, Tonglen.

Loving-Kindness changes the way to talk to ourselves, as well as those around us. It decreases our knee-jerk reactivity and lets us speak and act with more compassion.

The Matrix movie is often used as a metaphor for the practice of meditation. When we start to see our thoughts as thoughts, we realize that we don't have to believe everything we think. This is a practice for waking up: