This is a great group. I'm teaching at UUCA tonight, but if you're wanting to join in with a group of like-minded folks, go here!
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There is no time
Just back from two weeks on the Kauai. Where did the time go?
Guided Meditation: Stretch, Flow, Scan and Breathe
This might be a good meditation for you if you're feeling a bit restless or distracted. You'll start with a seated stretch and use slow motion movement as a way to concentrate your mind. You'll then shift to sensing different parts of the body from the inside, then lightly concentrate on the movement of breath.
In the final minutes you'll explore simply resting in awareness and 'letting it all be.'
The Felt Sense of Awakened Presence
This week's talk continues along the theme of "feeling and healing."
The simple guideline to move from your narrative to your experience can cultivate dramatic shifts.
The arising of wisdom and compassion are more than just concepts. They are embodied experiences.
The blurb:
The flowering of your practice is Wisdom and Compassion. You see more clearly in the nature of things and your capacity to hold your experience and the experience of those around you can dramatically increase.
It's one thing to recognize these factors and another to embody them intimately. This talk explores the 'felt sense' of embodied presence.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here.
The Mystery
Is she seeing into the nature of Form and Emptiness? Or is it a bug?
Feeling and Healing
I'm working on an eight-hour audio training for Sounds True called "Body-Centered Inquiry." I'll record in September and it'll be out in April of 2014.
In the meantime, I continue to explore this nexus between mindfulness, the modality of "Focusing" and the power of questions that open up new possibilities.
This talk explores the technology of 'being with' and transforming your relationship to pain.
The blurb:
The bad news: Your self-centered behaviours are pretty locked in over years of reinforcement. The good news: You can change. This talk explores how to shift your relationship to physical and emotional pain.
iTunes podcast here, online streaming here
There's tall, then there's really tall
Most days I feel tall. The other day, with Carol and Nancy, well ....
Men Meeting for Meditation
I'm just back from an inspiring day at the IMCW Men's Retreat. There is nothing quite like the company of like-minded men who share an intention to be more awake and alive. We had a pretty diverse group and despite the differences in age, culture, sexual orientations and professions, a sense of kindness and generosity permeated the day.
It's been an honor to lead these gathering these last years.
If you are interested in joining up with men in the DC area, do check out Men Meeting for Meditation (M3). More about this group:
Men Meeting for Meditation (M3) is a monthly meeting of men for mindful movement, meditation and discussion. Our goal is to create a space for men to learn the power of silent meditation, to deepen their meditation practice, and to interact with other like-minded men.
This is a meeting for men who desire to live awake, alive and fully aware lives. An important goal of this gathering is to be challenged and corrected by like-minded men, “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” The Proverb is the metaphor for these gatherings. It is an opportunity for men to sharpen each other in their spiritual walk so we can live as fully awake beings.
Currently we are changing locations, but will announce a new location soon. In addition to the monthly meetings, we would like for M3 to serve as a forum and network of men who want to challenge each other and grow in their own meditation practice.
What are ways in which we could be of service?
We are looking at online video streaming sessions with live chats, simultaneous live meditation sessions, smaller local groups that could meet more regularly to have more personal interaction.
Other ideas and suggestions are welcome.
Contact Kevin at Kdejones@gmail.com with any ideas or comments.
Water
The power of reframing through awareness. http://youtu.be/xmpYnxlEh0c
(Thanks, Dorothy.)
Happy for No Reason: Relaxation is the Doorway to Liberation
If that statement is true, we've got a fully enlightened dog.
Dude, You Totally Had It Coming
This was my last talk on Capitol Hill for the season. Starting in June, community members will be leading class through the summer.
Much of mindfulness is about remembering. Coming back to the here and now. Two most important factors to remember: Impermanence and the Law of Cause and Effect.
Your relationship to impermanence absolutely determines the degree to which you will feel stress, dissatisfaction and suffering. Fight reality and you're probably going to lose.
Recalling that your thoughts, speech and actions impact your destiny can help you remember that it's not so much about what is happing, but how you are holding your experience.
Here's the blurb:
This talk was originally titled, "The Nature of Karma," but I like this one much better. When you remember impermanance and the law of cause and effect you can stay awake and aware of the infinite possiblity that lies in each moment.
When you remember that your thoughts, speech and actions create your destiny, there lies the possiblity of freedom in the midst of turmoil.
Podcast here, online streaming here.
The Frank Sinatra Sutta
I left the house Monday night on my way to class in Arlington with a sense that I'd forgotten something.
Once I relaxed and settled into the ride I realized I'd left my microphone on my desk -- too late to go back and get it. As a consequence, the sound quality suffers a bit on this talk.
That's actually part of this talk ... exploring the 'knowing' that arises when we relax.
This was a fun talk. I hope you enjoy it.
The blurb:
Spiritual practice and skillful living require a balance of willful, intentional effort as well as a conscious capacity to relax and tap into the flow of things.
This talk, based on what I call 'the Frank Sinatra Sutta,' explores the conscious use of will and surrender and accessing the subsequent arising of awareness that follows. The more you relax and pay attention, the more you become aware of things that were not accessible previously.
The sound quality is not so good on this one. Thanks for bearing with it.
iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.
Make Way
With the cool weather the bluebells are hanging on, but the Flox are already moving in. From one shade of blue to another. First light on Flox:
A Guided Meditation
Use this meditation if you'd like a blend of techniques ...
- A short stretch with a slow motion release
- A ten-minute body scan
- Breath and sound as an anchor to the here and now.
The Five Daily Recollections
How easy we fall into a trance of thinking, planning, judging, fearing ...
Remembering that everything changes helps us to celebrate what is here.
These five recollections were recommended by the Buddha as daily reflections.
1. I am of the nature to decay. I have not gone beyond decay.
2. I am of the nature to be diseased. I have not gone beyond disease.
3. I am of the nature to die. I have not gone beyond death.
4. All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will change and vanish.
5. I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related to my actions, supported by my actions.
Whatever actions I do, whether good or evil, of that I shall be the heir.
This week's talk is borderline morose as we dive into the Five Heavenly Messengers. As fair warning if you're drawn to listen to it, I tried to lighten things up with a few death jokes here and there.
The blurb:
The Buddha recommended reflecting on five essential truths that reinforce your awareness of impermanance. Only when we embrace the fact that all things born of conditions are subject to change we can truly grasp how precious this moment is.
This understanding can transform your relationship to death ... and, of course, to life.
iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.
Sunset on the River
First Paddle of the Season
Great to be on the river again.
Bluebells Gone Wild
It's peak Bluebell season here on the Virginia side of the Potomac.
Photo shot and edited by Sarah Foust
On Courage and Vitality
This week's talk is not quite a 'bait and switch' but it's different that the topic at hand. While the title was 'Mindfulness at Work," I thought I'd explore something transcendent to that, which is the cultivation of courage.
To wake up requires a capacity to identify what is between you and feeling free and to actively investigate the attitude in your mind, how you are holding your experience and what is actually true.
I've learned that doing the most difficult thing first in the day often leads to some kind of breakthrough. When I work through some gnarly action item and make progress, I feel great.
In that same way, bringing attention to difficulty can open up new possibilities.
The blurb:
Waking up to who you really are requires a blend of deep relaxation and applied concentration. Relaxation helps you sense outside the comparing and judging mind. Concentration helps you identify habitual patterns and helps you wake up out of the trance of busyness, fear, confusion and cycle of endless desires.
Waking up requires a special form of energy which is not just biological, but also mental and emotional. Courage gives you the strength to identify where you are stuck or lost and can open up possbilities where they did not exist before. Courage is the opposite of retreat. It is the capacity to engage with difficulty and open to new levels of aliveness.
iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.
Your Leaps of Faith
This week's talk from St. Mark's on Capitol Hill is about exploring faith.
There is a delicate balance, as in all things, of faith and doubt.
Too much faith and no doubt results in 'magical thinking.'
Too much doubt and no open inquiry results in feeling closed off from the mystery of this human experience.
The blurb:
Faith spans the full range of human experience - from a quality of faith that is filled with possibility but hasn't been tested to a mature, abiding faith. Each one of us has experienced a crisis in faith that results in some form of betrayal and each of us has experienced numerous times, a 'leap of faith' when we launch into the unknown.
This talk explores the delicate balance of faith and a discerning, skeptical mind. The result of that balance? The experience of 'verified faith,' the kind of 'knowing' that comes through sincere, rigorous investigation.
iTunes podcast here and online streaming here.