PICK UP ONE SMALL STONE

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

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

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:

Tonglen is the traditional Buddhist Meditation for compassion. Today's variation is Tonglen for self. We can't give what we don't have and this practice offers an accessible way to support and empower ourselves.

Gom is a Tibetan word for meditation. It translates as "to familiarize." During the razzle-dazzle of summer, it's easy to be distracted from our own life. This meditation is an invitation to re-familiarize ourselves with ourselves and give ourselves a little love because, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, "understanding is love's other name."

What we see is interesting. What we don't see is even more interesting.

Using Buddhism, Tarot, and poetry, this meditation invites us to let go of our fixed ideas of how things "should" be and find more peace in how things are.

Reclaiming our attention is a radical act that lets us control our own time and our connections. Our time and our connections determine the quality of our lives.

The 3 Root Poisons cause our suffering. We filter everything in our lives through one of three lenses: attachment, aversion, and ignorance. We can practice meditation as a way to see these root poisons - and then gently clean the lenses - so that we can see a little more clearly and suffer less.

A good boundary protects our peace and allow us to remain in alignment with our values. This is easier said than done, especially if we've spent years developing defense mechanisms that rest in anger, detachment, or people pleasing. The Loving-Kindness meditation can help us put down our unhelpful defense mechanisms so that we can create healthy boundaries.

People (myself included) usually come to meditation because they want to feel different, better.

On Spring, “Speedy-Busyness,” and Finding Ourselves Anyone else have the feeling of being a little all over the place this spring? Buddhism has a very descriptive term for this energy of running around, doing a thousand things at once: “speedy-busyness.” I picture Looney Tune Tasmanian Devil energy. 🌪 It’s a little dizzying. The sense of being a spinning top - or maybe a drifting dandelion seed in spring - often feels even more acute at this time of year as the world blooms

A quick, powerful meditation for processing emotions.

A Zen Koan: "Only one thing made him happy. When it was gone, everything made him happy." - Leonard Cohen

Meditation trains us to come back to reality as it is. During practice, we notice the stories and assumptions that we layer on top of what is actually happening. As we meditate, we build the habit of recognizing thoughts as thoughts, letting them go, and coming back to reality as it is in this moment. We do this because it is nice to be with reality directly. And, also, because we increase our own suffering with our assumptions and fixed ideas. As the story of "Good or Bad Lu

Sympathetic Joy, or taking delight in other's happiness, is one of the four Brahmaviharas along with compassion, loving-kindness, and equanimity. All four require a psychological expansion of self. Sympathetic Joy is said to be the hardest to practice -- maybe because of our natural negativity bias, maybe because of a scarcity mindset. But, when we practice it, we get to experience more joy! And, the practice of sympathetic joy also feeds into the other Brahmaviharas, increas

Both of these meditations incorporate James A. Pearson's poem, "Meanwhile," which landed like a gift in my inbox at a particular time in my life. It was a time when something so big was happening in my own life that, at first, I didn't understand how the world kept obliviously spinning. Have you ever had that feeling? Maybe with a birth, a death, some big life event -- your world is forever changed and you can't believe that everyone else doesn't also recognize the enormous

For more of a written explanation, please see here.

An old Buddhist teaching says that speech should pass through 3 gates before it leaves our mouths: Is it true? Is it necessary ? Is it kind ? I have started seeing these questions as a sort of Rorschach test. 👉 Which appears: a shrinking violet or a tall sunflower? Here’s what I mean: The questions can be cautionary. Careful not to hurt anyone's feelings! Don’t speak when you’re not sure. Or, they can encourage us to speak up when truth, need, and kindness align. Be an up

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." - Jon Kabat-Zinn Thank you for being here! Today is a New Moon, punctuating the start of a fresh cycle – during what feels to me like an interminable season of uncertainty and fear. Maybe, like me, you find comfort in the moon cycle's reliable invitation to look up, to look out beyond ourselves, and into the broader rhythm of life. In that spirit, please enjoy this invitation to Buddhist equanimity: 💭 Imagine 4 people