Uprooting the Weeds

Uprooting the Weeds

Weeding is just like living mindfully. The metaphor of gardening as cultivation of mindfulness is a classic and I didn’t suddenly invent it last week, but I deeply appreciate learning this dharma lesson through direct experience. There are many parallels. Here are some that I’m discovering.

Truths That Blow Your Mind

Truths That Blow Your Mind

Over the years I have heard statements that rang true and woke me up to reality. These are truths that seem obvious upon hearing, but also feel familiar because they are easily verifiable by direct investigation or experience. It leaves you wondering, “how could I have forgotten this?” or amazed that you’ve never thought of it in that way before. The truths that blow your mind.

Steady in the Middle of it All

Steady in the Middle of it All

The spring equinox brings an equal amount of daylight and darkness, and it’s a good time to explore balance. Learning to surf the waves of life requires a commitment to turn toward direct experience, to include whatever is arising with acceptance, to learn how to balance in the gap between stimulus and response. Equanimity develops as the other factors of awakening are cultivated, and mindfulness is the link between them all.

Befriending Baby New Year

Befriending Baby New Year

If the past year is an old man, and the new year is a baby, how do you relate to babies? As a new year begins, is it possible to approach our lives and relationships like they are a baby? That stuff you went through in the past year that makes you feel like you really need to get your act together? That's your teacher, your friend, a gift.