Positive Behavior Change
By Kalyan Shah (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons I often speak of five goals or applications of mindfulness: 1. Reduce suffering. 2. Elevate fulfillment. 3. Understand yourself at all...
View ArticleBeyond Words – and Back
William James was a major figure in 19th century American philosophy. Indeed, he is sometimes referred to as the Father of American Psychology. He was a rigorous thinker but also had a sympathy to...
View Article“Absolute Compassion is the Only Thing that Works”
http://www.iod.unh.edu/About/visionandvoice/Spring2015/negc_annualmeeting.aspx An old student and senior facilitator of mine, Dr. Sondra Solomon, passed away this morning. She was a truly remarkable...
View ArticleThe Mindful Geek, A new book by Michael W. Taft
We may be seeing the beginning of a major revolution. This revolution is in some ways a natural next step from the Scientific Revolution that occurred about 500 years ago and the Neolithic Revolution...
View Articleenlightenment, Enlightenment, and the Age of Enlightenment
I’m one of those teachers who’s comfortable with the “E-word”—perhaps because my very first teacher Okamura Keishin talked about kenshō and satori as realistic goals. I take the Zen notion of kenshō to...
View ArticleJoy on Demand, a New Book by Chade-Meng Tan
Meng likes to jokingly point out that he and I share three things: 1) We both speak English; 2) We both speak Chinese, and 3) We both speak geek. At the pinnacle of Asian culture, we find a singular,...
View ArticleAuto Think: A Strategy for Fostering the Wisdom Function
The word “science” can be used to denote two different but related things: a certain body of acquired knowledge—scientific theories a certain way of acquiring knowledge—scientific methods The Sanskrit...
View ArticleThe Grateful Dead – A Follow Up
I received a great question on my Grateful Dead post that I’d like to follow up on here. Could you clarify what you mean ‘The more dead you are in life, the more alive you’ll be after death’, is this...
View ArticleSee Good, Hear Good, Feel Good – Be Good!
Loving-kindness practice is a tradition in Theravada Buddhism. It is often thought of as a complement to mindfulness. But it could also be thought of as a form of mindfulness. Here’s what I mean. I...
View ArticleRemembering Leonard Cohen
As you probably know, the world recently lost Leonard Cohen, poet extraordinaire and old dharma bud of mine, who passed away on November 7. You can find many interviews with Leonard on the internet,...
View ArticleMindfulness: Hype and Counter-hype
A few days ago, a student sent me the following email. I saw this article online just now. VERY odd. I’d love to learn of your thoughts about it if you have any to share: ‘Mindfulness’ is a Meaningless...
View ArticleMindfulness in Arabic
Here’s a worthwhile project that some of my students and I, along with several well-known teachers, have been involved with for a while: The Mindfulness in Arabic Project. It’s really cool...
View ArticleGeek Humor in Honor of Pi Day
I just got back from leading a two week retreat for MAVN at this great venue. The retreat spanned March 14th – a date near and dear to every true geek – Pi Day! In honor of the occasion, I gave a...
View ArticleA Spiritual Hurricane: Vern Harper in Memoriam
As some of you know, for many years now I’ve been privileged to have several wonderful connections with the Native American community. Based on that, I’ve written and spoken much about the...
View Articler/StreamEntry AMA
I love the “Ask Me Anything” format. I always learn something new. And we had some great questions from r/StreamEntry for this AMA. Thanks for the conversation, Janusz Welin! The post...
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