Tag: mindfulness
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The place where I sit.
The term zazen means sitting-zen. And zen is just a word for meditation. Nothing mysterious. Nothing esoteric.Zen is simply the practice of meditation.Meditation is simply a discipline of abiding wholeheartedly in the present moment as it unfolds without adding anything extra. And boy do we add a lot. I sit zazen in the corner of…
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Physiological benefits of slow breathing.
It is no coincidence that most of the world’s spiritual and contemplative disciplines involve some form of breathing focused practice. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the scientific literature concerning the beneficial effects of slow breathing on our physiological systems. Including: Enhances ventilation efficiency and arterial oxygenation via alveolar recruitment, and distension and reduction…
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When Time Slows Down.
You may have heard someone recount a harrowing story where the events seemed to unfold around them in syrupy slow motion. You may have had such an experience yourself. I have. Such moments of altered perception are known as Time Expansion Experiences (TEEs). I have always thought that they were just the way we remembered…
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How best to approach nature.
“When you perceive nature only through the mind, through thinking, you cannot sense its aliveness, its beingness. You see the form only and are unaware of the life within the form – the sacred mystery. Thought reduces Nature to a commodity to be used in the pursuit of profit or knowledge or some other utilitarian…
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I’ll see you on the other side of sesshin.
Well Im about to go off grid for a week. I will be attending the yearly sesshin (an intensive 7 day meditation retreat. Sesshin literally means: touching the heart-mind) with the Black Mountain Zen group. The retreat is being held at a beautiful location beside Lake George just outside of Canberra. I’m all packed for…
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Mindfulness and Zen
The continuing public interest in meditation has led to a huge marketing growth industry supporting mindfulness (estimated $1 Billion industry in US alone) and secular mediation teaching through apps (eg Sam Harris Waking Up app), online guided meditations, corporate workshops and even colouring books. Mindfulness practice may indeed be a useful tool to help individuals…
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Mind at large.
Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting…
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The Hero’s Journey.
So this movie serendipitously arose in my feed today. At first, I was going to skim right past it, pretty much because I saw the name Deepak Chopra whom I find slightly on the spiritually sketchy side….but for some reason felt compelled to take a look at it despite my biases. And you know what….it…
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Interconnection.
In order to see the intertwined nature of life, you have to incline your mind toward living from the principle of interconnection. That means self-centered demands need to be examined; opinions questioned; aversive responses countered; egoic images investigated; and mental projections reinterpreted. Start slowly and first get a sense of how distant your mind is…
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