Meditation and Compassion, Part 4: Meditating on Suicide

(Photo courtesy of Audrey Nadia Rubenstein) At first I felt as though my heart had been ripped open. Then my mind went into a state of disbelief and confusion. I felt a sort of numbness and despair. Finally, my heart and mind came to rest in a state of meditation and compassion… and I didn’t even know her. I just learned of the suicide of a brilliant young woman, Sharoni Stern Siegel, a local artist who was beloved by those who knew her and had shared in her art and her passion for life. Her Facebook page has [...]

2014-08-25T17:37:54-06:00By |Compassion, Meditation|6 Comments
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Meditation and Compassion, Part 3: Open Your Mind, Open Your Heart

In the past two weeks, we've talked a lot about meditation and compassion, and how the meditative mind opens up the heart of compassion. This week we'll continue on this topic by reflecting on a comment made by Sogyal Rinpoche, meditation master and author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. In a teaching that Sogyal Rinpoche presented on July 6, 1999, at the retreat center in Lerab Ling, France, he stated that, "...without an open heart, the practice of your mind [meditation] won't work...The true nature of your mind is wisdom and compassion..." I had to think about [...]

2015-01-28T19:03:10-07:00By |Compassion, Meditation|1 Comment
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Meditation and Compassion, Part 2: Get Real!

In last week's post, Meditation and Compassion, Part I: The Man in the Mirror, we discussed the need to examine ourselves and the nature of who we call the "self" as a means to entering into an understanding of the relationship between meditation and compassion. This week we'll continue with that theme and "get real" with ourselves as a means to engaging in our most compassionate nature. What does "getting real" mean to you? Does it mean getting honest? I know that sometimes when someone says "get real," I think of honesty...to the point of being "brutally" honest. But, what [...]

2014-08-25T17:39:58-06:00By |Compassion, Meditation|1 Comment
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How to Meditate: Who Is the Meditator? Nine Questions…

When I began to meditate, I found that I kept on returning to my thoughts, emotions, ideas, distractions...basically, everything that I use to identify myself as "me." What meditation does, at its deepest level, is to help us to free ourselves from this grasping after a "self," a self that we identify with our feelings, our hopes and fears, our projections. For some people, and in some methods, "meditation" is defined as a relaxation technique, a way to de-stress from everyday life and find inner piece. That's good; most of us need a way to remove ourselves from normal speed [...]

2012-02-22T12:17:41-07:00By |Meditation|0 Comments
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Heal Your Past – Meditate With the Present in Mind.

There are so many ways to meditate, many of which have been discussed on this blog. And, there are so many reasons to meditate. What comes up repeatedly in discussions that I have with others is how our past and the emotions related to the past can intrude on our present life and within our practice of meditation. Since meditation is - essentially - the state of non-distraction, based upon mindfulness, meditative awareness and spaciousness - within this state, there is little room for ruminating upon past traumas, emotional injuries, and patterns that have predominated our lives with their insistence [...]

2012-02-06T13:38:39-07:00By |Meditation|2 Comments
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How to Meditate: Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts…Five Key Points

For meditators, old and new, expert and novice, thoughts arise within the landscape of the mind. The difference is in how the experienced versus the novice meditator deals with these thoughts. How we are with out thoughts when we meditate will determine, to a great extent, how our meditation can benefit ourselves and others. If we're intimidated by thoughts, or have a difficult relationship with what arises within our mind when we meditate, then our ability to take our "meditative mind" into our daily life and integrate meditation into our life will be a difficult journey. The whole endeavor of [...]

2012-01-31T10:46:50-07:00By |Meditation|1 Comment
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How to Meditate When Fear Takes Over, Five Important Things to Remember…

How to Meditate When Fear Takes Over Yesterday, on a flight back from San Diego, I had the wonderful opportunity to meditate on...turbulence! With this turbulence, came fear...all sorts of it! Even before we'd taken off on our flight heading back to Colorado, the pilot announced that there would be some "rough skies" ahead. Rough? How about downright roller-coaster!??!! Have you even encountered fear that took you over so much that you couldn't think of anything else? Maybe your body was in such a state that you weren't able to do or think about anything but the object of your [...]

2016-01-19T21:19:57-07:00By |Meditation|9 Comments
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How Do I Meditate? Use Compassion…For Yourself!

HOW DOES COMPASSION HELP YOU TO MEDITATE? Good question... Let's start this post with the wisdom of a wonderful writer, James Finley. I've used this quote in other posts and keep coming back to it because...it's so good! Our feelings of impatience and frustration with ourselves in meditation are certainly understandable, especially when they persist in spite of our best efforts to overcome them. But as we sit in meditation we can begin to recognize the subtle violence inherent in our impatience with ourselves. As our awareness and understanding of our limitations in meditation continue to deepen, we begin to [...]

2014-08-25T17:42:26-06:00By |Compassion, Meditation|2 Comments
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The Allure of Life’s Dramas, Are We Addicted to Strife?

Are We Addicted to the Soap Opera Mind? Since I first began to meditate, and even after years of meditation, I've found that the "non-meditative mind," the mind that is habituated to distraction, still remains. Though I find more peace and am able to live more presently with the mind that is free from the routine habits of distraction, there's a powerful force within my mind based on the habit of running after drama and strife. I'll call this the "soap opera mind." The soap opera mind likes things stirred up a bit, it likes to chase after drama and [...]

2014-02-24T12:27:13-07:00By |Meditation|3 Comments
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