After our 30 min meditation today we talked about how to be a student based on Great Perfection: Outer and Inner Preliminaries by Dzogchen Rinpoche. Not to listen is to be like a pot turned upside down. Not to be able to retain what you hear is to be like a pot with a hole in it. To mix negative …
How to enter your meditation. Sit in a cross-legged position. The ideal is to sit in the full lotus position, which involves crossing the legs while sitting on the ground or a flat surface, with the top of each foot resting on the opposite thigh. Next best is the half lotus, which is similar, though only one foot rests on …
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 mediation where you focus on …
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 they were in their understanding …
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 for the Theravada school of …
This evening we talked about empathy and compassion and did a 3x 8min loving-kindness meditation. Find an extended version of the conversation here.
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.
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 The Four Noble Truths here.
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 NLP. Don’t know what Zen …
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 as practiced in Zen Buddhism. …