Mindfulness-Based Everything: The Dharma of Daily Living

  Friday, February 5, 2010 Awe At Christmastime a few years ago, a colleague sent me a card which was inscribed, "If you are not in awe, then you're just not paying attention." This sentiment succinctly describes introspective practices, such as meditation. At its most fundamental, when we meditate we are practicing paying attention to one object in order to allow the mind to collect in the present moment. Being more present, in turn, helps make us more available to the awe-inspiring experience of being alive. In the practice of vipassana meditation, this cultivation of awe starts with the body, a most worthy and interesting object of attention. The Buddha considered mindfulness of the body to be the path "to the supreme peace" (quoted in  The Heart of Buddhist Meditation , by Nyanaponika Thera, p. 158). Therefore, the body is a great place to begin any practice. It is the platform from which we experience everything in this lifetime. Awe literally means, "...

    A couple of months ago, a meditation and dharma student with whom I have been working privately for a number of years remarked during one of our meetings, "I just want to be free!" I gave the standard dharma teacher reply. "Who is keeping you in bondage?" It's a glib answer to a deep longing, and I knew it. So I followed up with another one. "What if you are already  free, but it's just not how you imagined 'free' would be?"  This question is useful in all aspects of our lives. What if this moment is perfect as it is, and it's just not the way we imagined "perfect" would be? What if this relationship is perfect, and just not how we imagined a relationship should be? What if this experience in the body is perfect, but it's just not how I thought my body experience would be? After all, this moment can only be the way it is right now . So since it can only be this way, isn't that the way this moment is supposed  to be...

  Sunday, August 15, 2010 The Miracle of Sympathetic Joy Sympathetic Joy,  mudita  in Pali, the language of the Buddha, is one of the natural abodes that are cultivated through the practice of meditation. Generally speaking, it refers to the joy we feel at the good fortune and joy of others. Some years back [1997?] I came into possession of a sitar through a set of circuitous circumstances. I had never considered learning to play one of these instruments, even though I had been playing guitar since I was nine. The sitar, however, is much more complicated. For example, in addition the seven "playable" strings, it also has sixteen "sympathetic" strings, each tuned to match one of the strumming strings and closely aligned below them. These strings are not plucked, but merely vibrate sympathetically when the main strings are played. This is one of the familiar sounds of the sitar: the resonating tonal buzz after the striking of a main string...