Friday, May 8, 2020
Creating a place to sit This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. When we sit it is helpful, indeed I might say important that we have a place that is conducive to us for calming our mind. A place of our own which is just for sitting.Thursday, May 7, 2020
Through May I am streaming twice weekly meditation sessions on YouTube. For those who cannot make the live stream, all of the videos are archived on my YouTube page. The schedule can be seen here. As a compliment to the live sessions, I am writing daily short pieces on tips and advice for meditation. I am calling these brief posts, May Meditation Nudges. Here are the topics and links for the first week.Thursday, May 7, 2020
Motivation & Dedication This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. If you are joining the meditation sessions, you’ll know that just before the sitting starts I suggest that we sit for a moment and reflect on our reason for being there.Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Meditation is a marathon not a sprint This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. We live in a world of quick results (a lot of the time). Flick a switch and the light goes on. Look at the speed and capability of the device that you are reading this on.Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Familiarization This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. My background in meditation comes via the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, specifically the Gelug-pa tradition, which I have been practicing for 30 years now. Although I have complimented my Tibetan practice with studies of other spiritual traditions and philosophies, my center and focus is the Gelug-pa tradition.Monday, May 4, 2020
Frequency - how often and for how long? This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. For me this is a question of quality over quantity. There are no awards in the meditation world for gritting your teeth and trying to sit for as long or as often as you can.Sunday, May 3, 2020
To compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be running through May on YouTube and are now archived on YouTube, I am posting what I call a daily ‘Meditation Nudge’. These short posts will offer a meditation instruction or practical meditation tip. I am posting them on my Micro.blog site. If you bookmark this page and refresh it each day, you can read the latest post. I hope to have them up mid to late morning (Hawaii time) each day.Sunday, May 3, 2020
Meditation Timer This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. A practical piece today. I learnt to meditate before electronic aids were available. Well, some electronic timers were becoming available, but they didn’t work for me. Yes, I could have set an alarm clock for 15 minutes hence, but I found the sound rather jarring and so I didn’t use them.Saturday, May 2, 2020
Beware of looking for good and bad meditations This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. Whatever my meditation practice is, from my experience it is very easy to have judgements of how well I am doing. I can set arbitrary goals for myself based upon what I feel I should be aiming for, with the judge of whether I meet those goals being myself.Friday, May 1, 2020
The Meditation Posture This is an ongoing series running through May to compliment the twice weekly meditation sessions that I will be hosting on YouTube (and are now archived on my YouTube page). If you have any questions, please contact me. First and foremost, be comfortable. If you are not comfortable, the body will be screaming, you will be distracted and at worst be put off the idea of meditation completely.Thursday, April 30, 2020
Update on December 17, 2020: I have now moved the videos from YouTube to my YouTube page. Following the daily meditation sessions through April, I have decided to continue the meditations through May, just with fewer sessions. During May I will host two sessions a week, Monday and Thursday. They will be held live at 1:00pm Hawaiian time (to help - 3 hours behind the US West coast, 6 hours behind the East coast, 11 hours behind the UK, and 22 hours behind New Zealand).Thursday, April 30, 2020
With the April meditation series now over. The question came up for me as to “what next?” I set up the April series not only as a class for those who wanted to learn more about meditation, but also as a resource for people struggling with the stay-at-home order. Through meditating individuals can start to build tools for themselves to work with their minds, quite often the source of these struggles.Thursday, April 30, 2020
Update on December 18, 2022: I have now archived the videos on my YouTube page. After 3½ weeks, in 45 minutes I will streaming my last daily April meditation session. Please do join me on my YouTube page. I have enjoyed doing this through April and because of interest will be running further meditation sessions through May. Details to follow. 🧘🏼♂️Days lack little variety right now. A job in the garden might take me down one road, or a work related task might keep me busier than usual, but they all happen at home, in the same environment. Yet some days feel easy and others feel like a slog!
Meditating soon. 🧘🏼♂️
Monday, April 13, 2020
Update on December 18, 2022: I have now archived the video on my YouTube page. Just a reminder that I am offering a daily meditation through April. You can either join me at 1:00pm Hawaii time or all videos are archived (daily streams can take 12hours+ to upload 😳) so you can watch in your own time. Just visit my YouTube page. 🧘🏼♂️Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Update on December 18, 2022: I have now archived the video on my YouTube page. For those who joined the first Self-Isolating Meditation Sessions today, I apologize for the loss of sound at the end of the session. I have figured out the problem and I hopefully will be good to go for tomorrow. I have now removed this session from my YouTube page and added an Introduction video (YouTube video link).Monday, April 6, 2020
Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, April 7, I shall be offering a free virtual meditation session each day, probably through April. The intention is to give me and hopefully you a break during your day, a time to come back to yourself in a world of self-isolation. Details on how to join me or watch later are in the invitation below. No experience is required, just a wish to stop, breathe, be with yourself and let the world carry on without you for a few minutes.Starting Tuesday I will be offering short virtual daily meditation sessions, no experience necessary. I hope these will offer an opportunity to come back to yourself during our days of self-isolation. Interested? Please contact me.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
I mentioned in my last blog entry how I live overlooking the Hana Highway in Maui. It is one of the major attractions for visitors to the island, to drive the two hour journey out to the town of Hana that sits at the far end of this road. Actually the two hour pin is from the town of Paia. Depending on where you are staying on island, the journey could be closer to three hours one way - and, “yes” you can stay in Hana.Friday, February 7, 2020
There is a Tibetan saying that just as every valley has its own language so every teacher has his own doctrine. ~ Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism While this saying contains many exaggerations, it speaks to the variety of Buddhist traditions within old Tibet. In the same way meditation is not just a handful of techniques, but rather a multiplicity of methods that have evolved over the millennia as those who have used meditation have found the need and want for that development.Friday, January 31, 2020
I share here an experience from a few weeks ago. I stepped outside, I made it into town for the first time for two weeks. The world appeared so vivid and colourful, so bright, so varied. I was reminded that the world carries on regardless of whether I am a part of it or not. That was freeing. Through unplanned circumstances I had spent a week in relative solitude. Let me explain.Tuesday, December 31, 2019
I sometimes say that having goals is a dangerous place to be when you are starting a meditation practice. Why is that? What I am not saying I am not suggesting that you should cast aside all of the reasons that you decided to start meditation. That would be ridiculous. The reasons that you started asking questions about meditation or sought out meditation instruction, are the motivating factors that will drive your initial forays into meditation.For meditation to be truly effective it must be integrated into your daily life. This can be helped by setting yourself some personal guidelines like watching how you speak. Such guidelines go towards increasing your awareness and with that quieting the mind.
Monday, November 18, 2019
Those days when I can’t seem to find focus. My mind is looking for ways out. I can feel the resistance to what needs to be done. Time is wasted doing that which does not need to be done, following links on websites, reading that which is interesting but not necessary right now. I write this as much to remind myself of what I need to do when resistance creeps into my life.Sometimes the challenge within meditation is to stay present with yourself when a difficult emotion arises. To constantly return to the object of meditation, just observing, noting and letting go of the emotion. And sometimes it’s best just to take a break.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
During an afternoon Mentoring circle in Maui Community Correctional Center (MCCC) yesterday, I led a meditation. The meditation was on awareness. Initially I asked the men present to bring their awareness to the breath as a means to focus ourselves and to quiet the mind. To move away from the busyness of the day to the be present in where they were now. Next I led us on a scan through the body, bringing our awareness to sensations in the body and using that light of awareness to relax and let go of areas of tension.Wednesday, October 2, 2019
If you have an intellectual leaning, it is very easy to learn about meditation, what it can do for you and the transformation that it can bring. Books about meditation are a dime a dozen these days. Magazines devoted to mindfulness, an aspect of meditation, sit on the magazine racks in all good book shops and grocery stores. Reading through these publications, it is very easy to understand the mechanics of the meditation process and how the transformation can take place if you follow the instructions given and diligently pursue the practice.Saturday, September 14, 2019
Meditation is giving a huge, luscious meadow to a restless cow. The cow might be restless for a while in its huge meadow but at some stage, because there is so much space, the restlessness becomes irrelevant. So the cow eats and eats and eats and relaxes and falls asleep. ~ Chögyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom, pp. 48-9 Giving space to our thoughts At times my mind can feel very small and constricted.I have just put the 2nd edition of my Meditation eBook up on my website. Although titled that it is aimed at introverts and highly sensitive people, anyone who wishes to build a meditation practice will find benefit in it.
I have finally put my book on building a Meditation practice, along with tips on how meditation can help introverts and HSPs, up onto my website.