[From meditation January 25th, 2021] This evening we sat for 30min as usual and afterwards a Q&A talking about different ways of meditating and about Insight Timer. In the book I keep referring to as my favourite intro to Buddhism The Road Home, Ethan Nichtern describe different types of meditation from page 65 onwards. Mindfulness meditationThe basic starting point of …
[From meditation January 18th, 2021] This evening we talked about one of the most known, most translated and most loved Buddhist texts, the Dhammapada. A sutta part of the Pali canon and thus considered to be the original word of Buddha. The challenge with interpreting the Buddhist text is that Buddha was adapting his message to meet his audience where …
[From meditation January 11th, 2021] In his excellent intro to Buddhism ‘The Road Home’ Ethan Nichtern uncovers a different interpretation of Hīnayāna in relationship to Mahāyāna. Let’s start with the most common interpretation to set the context. Hīnayāna is most often translated as the “the smaller vehicle”, “the lesser vehicle” or “the deficient vehicle”, and used as a pejorative term …
[From meditation January 4th, 2021] This evening we talked about empathy and compassion and did a 3x 8min loving-kindness meditation. Find an extended version of the conversation here.
[From meditation December 28th, 2020] This evening we had a chat about life in 2020, wishes for 2021 and I briefly touched the work of John Verveke taking a cognitive science perspective on wisdom and Buddhism and I referenced this talk.
[From meditation December 21st, 2020] We discussed the definition of religion and the Kālāma sutta to answer the question: Is Buddhism a religion? Find a long article explaining why the answer is No here.
[From meditation December 14th, 2020] This evening we had a Q&A and discussed two topics: about how to sit to avoid knee pain and about focusing our attention – meditating on our breathing, on a feeling, on a koan, a physical object or an imaginary object.
[From meditation December 7th, 2020] We discussed the The Four Noble Truths and the Entrance Through Practice (xingru) as a path to free ourselves from dissatisfaction. The Four Noble Truths are said to be Buddha’s first teaching and the most important as it encompasses the entire Buddhist path in four short sentences. Find my article on A contemporary perspective on …
[From meditation November 30th, 2020] This evening we had a question and answer session and most of the conversation evolved around two questions: > How to handle disturbing emotions?> How to move from thinking about being present to being present? How to handle disturbing emotions?On the first question I shared my experience working with Kegan’s subject to object move and …
[From meditation November 24th, 2020] This text is mainly from our Zen teacher Michael Pockley’s book How to Become a Zen Priest: without shaving your head. Find it on Amazon here, not only a good guide to your practice but also filled with great dry British humour. First, we often use the word zazen, it’s the name for sitting meditation …