The formal mindfulness practice serves as a way to be more present in our lives. It is a common trap in meditation that we practice to be mindful on our cushion, but are not present in our own lives. In fact, meditation can even become a defense mechanism to not fully experience our life. The [...]
Often we think of meditation as something quite formal, with lighted candles, a quiet room and burning incense. This is actually a very important part of the practice but out there in the crazy world is where the real practice begins. It is possible to incorporate mini-meditations in our daily lives. We all know the [...]
It’s not until you start meditating that you really see how much suffering is going on in this world.
The world is in a tumultuous state. Economical crises, ecological crises, psychological crises. Crisis is good news, say the buddhist teachings, that is of course if we work with it. We will let this ‘tough’ period motivate us to go about differently with ourselves and each other? Can we give more mindfulness to our minds, [...]
We have lost our appreciation of our natural wakefulness. It is not uncommon for us to live on our habitual patterns throughout the day. With the introduction of digital media this has become even worse. We check our smartphone 50 times a day, put on our computer as soon as we come home and are [...]
Mindfulness meditation is worldwide known as one of the most effective ways of stress reduction. Trungpa once said that meditation is for the normal neurotics. In my opinion this means people who are just barely coping with their stress might benefit enormously from meditation because they might actually gain a good surfboard to cope with [...]
There is a lot of talking going on right now about nature preservation, green living and fighting global warming. All things I myself am a great partisan of. But why exactly is it that nature is so very important for us? Is it just because it’s pretty to look at, or makes us feel good? [...]
Most of us have situations, people or places in our lives which bring about a lot of resistance in our selves. We often notice this firstly on a physical level, it might be a heavy feeling in the chest, pain in the neck or back. It might be a certain type of behavior which we [...]