Under this category we share articles with you.
Right Concentration begins with our breath. These breath concentration exercises offer simple ways to help us focus. We can practice concentration with a number of objects and items. We can use a mantra, or focus our gaze on a particular icon or statue. Candles work, too.…
Well, we’ve made it to the last step on the Eightfold Path: Right Concentration. The simplest way to define Right Concentration is “one-pointedness of mind.” It’s when we are totally laser-like focused on one point, one thing. We know what it means to concentrate. We’ve all…
To practice Right Mindfulness, simply take note. Bhikkhu Bodhi says: Mindfulness brings to light experience in its pure immediacy. It reveals the object as it is before it has been plastered over with conceptual paint, overlaid with interpretations… All these ‘doings’ are modes of interference, ways…
What do pumpkins and stones have to do with Right Mindfulness? Bhikkhu Bodhi says the mind without mindfulness is like a pumpkin, while the mindful mind is like a stone. If you place a pumpkin on the water’s surface, it will bob at the top and…
When you awaken to Right Mindfulness, you free your reality. To be clear, you don’t free reality itself. But you absolutely free yourself from only being able to see your particular version of it. In other words, if we practice Right Mindfulness, some of the places…
In the fourth foundation of Right Mindfulness, we watch the object of our thoughts. I know this sounds confusing, because in the third foundation we watch our thoughts. What’s the difference? The fourth foundation is contemplation of phenomena. Phenomena means both our thoughts, and the things…
Who doesn’t want to practice Right Mindfulness in a pandemic, right?! I’ll return with the fourth foundation of Right Mindfulness in the next post, but today I want to share a few thoughts about practicing Right Mindfulness in the midst of coronavirus, social distancing, and so…
The third foundation of Right Mindfulness is contemplation of the mind. When you practice this, you learn to mind your mental formations. And that includes…just about everything. Formations in Buddhism is a technical term for anything that is made of something else. So fear is a…
In the second foundation of Right Mindfulness, we contemplate how we are feeling. Then we use that feeling “as a springboard for understanding the nature of experience,” according to Bhikkhu Bodhi. And part of that nature of experience is that all feelings pass. They arise, and…
There are four foundations of Right Mindfulness, and the first is contemplation of the body. Quite simply, we begin by learning to just breathe. Obviously, the intention is to practice this in meditation, but it’s a teaching we can do anytime. The great news is we…
