Lately, I’ve been participating in Tricycle magazine’s The Big Sit, a 90 day online meditation challenge. The discussion boards are filled with popular teachers (mostly from the Zen tradition), who are there to answer questions in their respective forums. I spent some time searching through the forums, where I stumbled in the the discussion page [...]
Entries from February 2009
24 February 2009
Like Learning Any Other Skill
I spent some time reflecting on how my meditation practice is unfolding, and I came to realize something profound that should have been quite obvious to me earlier.
I’m learning to meditate in the same way that I learned to play guitar over many years. I started out by really listening to the sounds and learning [...]
20 February 2009
Map Based Meditation Practice: Some Pros and Cons
I regularly participate in an online forum called the Dharma Overground, which was founded by Daniel Ingram – a self proclaimed “badass dharma cowboy” who has attained arahatship. An arahat, according to Ingram, is one who “has seen through the sense that there is a continuous, separate, or special controller, doer, observer, or centerpoint that [...]
9 February 2009
Acceptance and Letting Go
I’ve come to realize that the spiritual life is characterized by the paradoxical pairing of two radical practices: acceptance and letting go. In acceptance, we must remember not to grasp. In letting go, we must be careful not to push away. For me, the play between these two practices is the heart of the spiritual [...]
