Meditating on Mountains of Suffering

Integrating Meditation Into Physical Challenges Maybe I've been spending too much time on the cushion lately. Or, maybe I've been working too hard on integrating meditation into my family life and into the process of writing and publishing my book. Whatever the reasons, I recently experienced an entirely new level of challenge in working with my mind while training for the Colorado Triple Bypass (a bike ride, not a surgery!). The Triple Bypass is a popular, "lung busting" 120-mile bicycle ride over three mountain passes, climbing a total of 10,000 feet of elevation, in a day's ride. How I got [...]

2014-01-13T13:45:48-07:00By |Meditation|3 Comments
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Part Four – Challenges (and Solutions) With Learning to Meditate

Challenge Number Four: Sleepiness! Oh my gosh, do I need to sleep! Why am I so sleepy? Was I meditating or sleeping? I don't know how many times I've said any or all of these things to myself while trying to meditate. I've started my session doing everything that I needed to; gotten myself a glass of water, made sure that the phone was out of reach, opened up some space in my calendar. Perfect! I sit down to start practicing, and the next thing I know, instead of realizing some great depth of my mind, I’m nodding off…or even [...]

2011-06-24T15:45:03-06:00By |Meditation|1 Comment
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Part Three – Challenges (and Solutions) With Learning to Meditate

Challenge Number Three: Emotions! In the previous two posts, we've discussed how to work with our thoughts and with sensations while we practice to meditate. Once we've gained some stability in working with our mind and with the thoughts and sensations that arise, we'll notice that they can come and go rapidly, and that given some space and distance, they'll disappear back into the landscape of the mind. But, what about emotions? Strong emotions can feel like tidal waves, washing over us, knocking us from any sense of stability that we may have around our meditation practice. I know that [...]

2015-12-21T22:02:22-07:00By |Meditation|11 Comments
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Part Two – Challenges (and Solutions) With Learning to Meditate

Meditation Challenge Number Two: Sensations! In the previous post, we looked at how to work with our thoughts when learning to meditate. This topic was identified as one of the four major challenges in learning to meditate. In this post, we'll move the discussion to how to work with the sensations that arise when we meditate. As we discussed previously, many people experience difficulties and challenges when first starting to meditate. Especially if the technique or method that is being used is based on observing the mind and its characteristics. Sensations are....Sensational! Many (or most?!) of our thoughts are based on [...]

2015-12-21T22:48:13-07:00By |Meditation|8 Comments
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Challenges (and Solutions) With Learning to Meditate

Challenges in Meditation? I think that it's fair to say that many people experience difficulties and challenges when first starting to meditate, especially if the technique or method that is being used is based on observing the thoughts, feelings and/or sensations. We need to know that there's nothing wrong with us if we find ourselves wanting to get up from our meditation practice and run away, get a cup of coffee, watch the TV...basically, do anything but meditate. What are the biggest challenges in learning to meditate and what are solutions to these challenges? In this four-part series, we’ll address [...]

2015-12-21T22:16:38-07:00By |Meditation|10 Comments
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Using Thoughts During Meditation as the Object of Meditation

Meditation Can Be Using Your Thoughts as the Object of Your Meditation For many of us, when we begin to meditate, instead of sinking into a blissful space of quietude and relaxation, we find the exact opposite. We encounter a torrent of thoughts, distractions, and just about anything else that we wouldn't want to be thinking when we're supposed to be taming our mind. But, isn't meditation supposed to free us from our thoughts? That's what I assumed when I first began meditating. After all, I'd seen enough photos of robed figures seated, motionless, in peaceful settings, undisturbed by the [...]

2015-01-20T15:19:36-07:00By |Meditation|4 Comments
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