Category: Zen practices
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Practice Takes Practice: Energy Awareness
Read time approximately 3 minutes. Learn a simple yet powerful energy awareness practice that helps you break the emotional feedback loop. Ahead lies a deceptively simple practice.But it only works if you’re willing—truly willing—to stop fighting what is.You don’t have to like what’s happening.You do have to stop arguing with it.Perhaps you find yourself struggling…
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Unknowing Into The Peace of No-mind: Who Knows?
We have been winding our way through a few of the seemingly endless dualities which arise with Zen thought and practice. Along the way we have seen that many of the concepts overlap each other. Such is the case with today’s topic of no-mind. I like to think of experiences of no-mind as little, momentary…
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Mindful Listening: A Meditation Game
So many times we have spoken of the importance of accepting and allowing. Yet so many times the focus has been on our mental attitude. Today we are going to highlight the experience of physically accepting and allowing. In order to do so, we will dig into the commonly employed practice of mindful listening. What…
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Practical Mindfulness and The Art of Experiential Knowing
In the last lesson I coopted Charlotte Joko Beck’s phrase, everyday Zen. I described it as a practice of daily, practical mindfulness. By practical I mean seasoned, well trained and skilled. We can begin to realize a real shift in how we feel, how we interact with life and others, by adding ever increasing moments of simple…
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Everyday Zen: 5 Tools Of Awareness Beyond Conditioning
Today’s lesson is one that we can get excited about. We are going to take some of the knowledge that we have been gathering and put it to work with some potentially life changing practice. Lately I have been quoting Charlotte Joko Beck quite a bit. Many of Beck’s teachings discuss the importance and nuances…
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Acceptance Meditation Practice: Die While You’re Alive
Today we are going to discuss a common, important and powerful acceptance meditation practice or mindfulness technique that involves contemplating death and mortality. Sounds like a real hoot, right? Actually, as grim as the subject may seem, this is a practice that can help us step into and embrace life. As is so often the…
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Active Meditation Practice: The Stories We Tell Ourselves
In my last series of lessons I discussed the topic of letting go at great length. Today we are going to take that topic and merge it into our current discussion regarding active meditation practice. The crux of this lesson involves a practice that we can turn to in our leisure time. On the one…
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Letting Go of Illusion: An Invitation to the Present Moment
Every once in a while I experience a dream in which something bleak happens. It might involve personal tragedy or loss. It might simply involve something I’d prefer not to have to bother with. Generally, at some point, I become conscious of the fact that I am still asleep. Oh, I say to myself, I…
