The First Noble Truth Life is challenging…While navigating its ups and downs, we try hard to hold on to whatever pleases us and push away that which causes discomfort. As a result, life becomes a constant struggle. Even when things are going reasonably well, we are inherently aware of the impermanence of everything and our […]
The essence of meditation The essence of meditation can be summarized in 1 word: awareness. Incorporating active awareness in one sentence: Meditation is the practice of mindfulness-based active awareness to experience the surrounding realities of the present moment. In other words: active awareness is moving away from your permanent daydreaming state. Let me go through […]
Why is it so hard to meditate every day? Our Western culture is imposing on us to be busy. Our ego also loves to be busy because it implies “ I am indispensable, important, I am not lazy, and I don’t want to be bored”. To the question “ How are you doing? most of […]
Letting Go This is Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching about the practice of nurturing serenity using letting go. Taken and largely edited by myself from his book: “No Mud, No Lotus.” One method of creating /maintaining serenity is to leave behind, to accept. There is a kind of joy, and liberation that comes […]
Sounds familiar? Emotional suffering begins when you mentally label a person, a situation, or an event as negative such as: 1- Either coming from Desire: ..............meaning not getting what you want. 2- Or coming from Hatred: ..................meaning getting what you don’t want 3- Or coming from Illusion/delusion: Not being able to differentiate realities of life […]
Creating gaps in the stream of your thinking Discover inner peace by creating gaps in the stream of your thinking. Without those freedom gaps, our thoughts are repetitive, uninspired, and devoid of creative spark, and decisions. They are just daydreaming stuff made of desire, hatred, illusions, delusions, positive & negative feelings, or just navigating in […]
What is Awakening? Awakening is a shift of consciousness from ongoing thinking to active awareness, allowing awareness to take over our constant daydreaming thinking in which we are trapped and lost, and what Zen calls. “Day sleepwalking” or “Thinking zombie ”. Awareness, as a direct consequence of Awakening, is experiencing surrounding concrete realities of […]
MINI MEDITATION There is a lot of hype around mindfulness and related practices these days; as a result, it’s common for many of us to get excited when we are first introduced to them. We arrive at our first formal meditation practice very hopeful, only to find out how hard it can be. Our minds […]
Listening to silence: an excellent way to meditate It is easier than we think but it takes practice and discipline like anything else. If you walk into a forest - you hear all kinds of subtle sounds - but underneath there is an all-pervasive silence. Every sound is born out of silence, between noise, between […]
“What a dreadful day!” "We said that once a while without realizing that the cause i.e. weather, event, situation, people, not getting what you want, getting what you don’t or whatever zillion of other external triggers you react against, are usually not…………so dreadful. They are as they are, whether we like it or not. What […]
