Five Breaths, Five Scenes

An idyllic late afternoon in the Berkshires Mountains of western Massachusetts. I’m down by the lake and noticed how as I was transfixed watching the light and colors, my breath slowed down dramatically.  

This inspired me to try a little experiment. This short video offers five scenes of ten seconds each. Your practice is to breathe in slow and regular, inhaling to the count of four and exhaling for the count of four.  

Notice what happens after five slow, deep breaths.  

Soundtrack: A Touch of Grace with Jonathan Foust, Todd Norian and Pravina Wahler.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

On Equanimity

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how you can cultivate the full expression of mindfulness practice: equanimity.   You'll learn about equanimity from the perspective of Buddhist psychology, practices to cultivate steadiness and clear-seeing and how to identify the 'near enemies' of this state - qualities of experience that are close to equanmity, but miss the mark.  

 

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

On Cultivating Joy

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how you can increase your capacity for joy.   You'll learn about the characteristics of joy from the Buddhist perspective, the shadowside of joy as well as how to cultivate joy as a spiritual practice.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

On Cultivating Compassion

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how you can cultivate your capacity for compassion.   You'll learn how compassion must be balanced with wisdom and how you can incline your mind to more quickly move to this sense of 'seing self in other and other in self'.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

Meditation - Breath, Body Scan and Resting in Presence

Special AUDIO: The meditation begins with a few minutes of conscious, circular breathing to focus, calm and center the mind. (22 minutes)   You'll then move into a body scan meditation, systematically sensing from the inside.   From here, you can use an embodied 'anchor' (breath, sound or felt sense) with an invitation to intimately rest attention in the here and now.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

On Concentration, Mindfulness and Insight

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how cultivating moment-to-moment, sustained attention is the doorway to transformation.   Concentration is the lens while mindfulness is the film or the chip that 'notices' what is there.   Concentration with deep relaxation can lead to not only profound states of awareness, but the arising of insight, allowing you to seeing deeply into the nature of reality.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

You Are Not What You Think

Special AUDIO: This talk explores the nature of the thinking process and points to who you are beyond your thoughts.   You'll learn about how thoughts harden into beliefs and a formula for examining what you believe is true. You'll also learn how to shift your attention to who you are as awareness itself.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

Five Weather Systems

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how to work with the five mind states that make it impossible to be present.   You'll learn strategies for transforming your relationship with 1) aversion, 2) craving, 3) worry, 4) sloth and torpor and 5) doubt and self-criticism.   Drawing on real-life stories, this talk can help you more quickly recognize these states and find creative ways to access wisdom and compassion.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

On Feeling and Healing

Special AUDIO: This talk explores what gets in the way of 'clear-seeing' and how you can work with the obstacles that naturaly arise when you pay attention to what is present.  

You're learn about 'clear-seeing,' the practice of recognizing what is present.  

Additionally, you'll learn about seeing what gets in the way of being free, seeing yourself through the transformational process and finally, seeing how you can incline the mind toward seeing the good in all things.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

The Three Characteristics of Reality

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how you can sensitize yourself to more quickly recognize the Three Characteristics of Reality and transform your relationship to stress and suffering.   You'll learn how these elemental qualities of existence pervade every moment and how, by seeing clearly into impermanence, your relationship to impermanence and how impermanence infuses your sense of self, you can hold your relationship to each moment with wisdom and compassion.   This talk is from the Fall 2014 Retreat with fellow teachers Anam Thubten, Tara Brach and Pat Coffey.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

Fall Migration Meditation

Canada geese moving along the Potomac on a cold, grey fall morning. Soundtrack from "A Touch of Grace" by Jonathan Foust and Tod Norian.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

Embodied Presence

Special AUDIO: This talk explores why awareness of the body is core to your meditation practice.   You'll learn the about the relationship of the body to the mind, emotions and states of consciousness as well as strategies for how to practice mindfulness of the body. You'll also learn how practicing awareness of the body can lead to deep insights in the three characteristics of reality.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

Change Yourself, Change the World

Special AUDIO: This talk explores the theme of Earth Care Week and how the stress and suffering of what you see around you can be seen as a mirror of your internal world.  

You'll learn how, by reflecting on the core teachings of 1) the fact of suffering, 2) the cause of suffering, 3) the cessation of suffering and 4) the path that leads to the cessation of suffering, you can change yourself. And by changing yourself, you can truly change the world.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

The Art of Yes

Special AUDIO: The talk explores some fundamentals of a meditation practice and how (sometimes) saying 'yes' to what is present can dramatically shift your relationship to the here and now.  

You'lll learn my favorite definition of mindfulness, the art of 'saying yes,' how every 'no' actually means yes - and the classic instructions to more intimately deepen your mindfulness practice.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

Twenty Minute Guided Meditation

Special AUDIO: In this 20 minute meditation you'll begin with a few rounds of conscious breathing, move into a brief body scan, then select an anchor that feels right for you. You'll end with a brief reflection on gratitude and the felt sense of the here and now.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

A Drone at Home

Two great friends showed up today … with a quadcopter!  

I’d never seen one up close. Amazing, kind of scary technology. You monitor the camera from an iPad, direct it where you want and shoot both stills and video.  

I couldn’t resist and edited the footage(which is captured in 1080p, by the way). You’ll see the Potomac River and for just a few moments, about three miles down to Great Falls where the Potomac River drops eighty feet in a quarter mile.  

Thanks, Peter!  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

The Awakened Heart and Mind

Special AUDIO: This talk explores what happens when the forces of greed, hatred and delusion fall away.  

You'll learn how present-moment awareness can help you identify and let go of what is between you and feeling free and how the characteristics of 'bodhichitta' - a heart and mind awake - emerge and can transform your life.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

Inquiry as a Path to Awakening

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how the questions you ask yourself can not only help you make better decisions, but can also reveal who and what you really are.  

You're learn about the power of thoughts and beliefs, how questions can cultivate greater intimacy with life, how questions can sometimes dramatically turn around problematic situations and how inquiry is used to take your awareness beyond the linear, rational mind.  

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

20 Second Meditation with Cormorants

Special AUDIO: Take five slow breaths and hang with some birds welcoming the morning light.  

 

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.

The Keys to Lasting Happiness

Special AUDIO: This talk explores how you can cultivate lasting happiness.  

You'll learn how to avoid the biggest trap in seeking happiness and how you can cultivate happiness both externally - through wise and skillful action - as well as internally - by how you pay attention.  

 

iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.