Meditation Archive

On the Motivation to Meditate

January 27, 2004 · Category: Eckhart Tolle, Meditation, Mindfulness

Kirez posts some interesting comments on his experiences with attempting to adopt a more regular meditation practice. Enjoyable reading. My meditation practice is aided greatly by the fact that, when I don't meditate, I feel lousy inside. That, and having discovered the joys of listening to Eckhart Tolle (or simply enjoying, and matching, the presence of his voice) in the car.

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Motivational Interviewing and Meditation

January 17, 2004 · Category: Buddhism, Intellectual, Meditation

I just sent the following to one of my primary meditation teachers. Anyone with an interest in this topic is welcome to contact me. I hope this letter finds you well. I have come across something in my graduate studies that I think could be very valuable to your meditation students and, perhaps, to you as a meditation teacher. I suspect other meditation teachers would be interested as well. One of the more exciting developments in research psychology in recent decades has been the refinement of a treatment modality known as motivational interviewing. It was developed and initially ...

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On Meditating Regularly

January 3, 2004 · Category: Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle, Meditation

This arrived today in my inbox: Some days, due to my schedule, I find it very difficult to meditate (I normally meditate for 20 minutes twice per day). Should I just not worry about it and try to do the two meditations the next day, or should I try to sit down and meditate for 5 minutes, or however long I have time for? Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I have a few suggestions. First, your idea -- about not worrying and resuming your regular meditation schedule the next day -- sounds to me like a good one. (Introducing worry seldom contributes to ...

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More Benefits of Meditation

December 10, 2003 · Category: Buddhism, Health, Meditation, Mindfulness

Marshall Sontag writes to point out a Psychology Today article about meditation that's worth reading if you've been debating whether to take up meditation. I've written before about the benefits of meditation. Here are a few choice paragraphs from their article: More new research offers additional encouragement. In a study published last year in the journal Stroke, 60 African-Americans with atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, practiced meditation for six to nine months. (African-Americans are twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease as are whites.) The meditators showed a marked decrease in the thickness of their artery walls, while the ...

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How to Meditate

May 7, 2003 · Category: Buddhism, Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum

In recent months, several people have asked me how to get started with meditation. Below is an essay I wrote on the subject for Mudita Forum. If you would like to print out this essay, you'll probably find the printable version of "How to Meditate" more suitable. The purpose of meditation is to strengthen your mind. Most people think of consciousness as something we “just do,” but conscious awareness can be strengthened just as a muscle can be strengthened; and meditation provides a workout for your mind. Through meditation, many people find they can make their attention more stable, strong, and ...

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Buddhism and Awareness

March 30, 2003 · Category: Buddhism, Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum, Objectivism

Our topical discussion of Wake Up to Your Life over at Mudita Forum is going remarkably well. I'm especially impressed by Andrew Schwartz's kickoff essay on Chapter 3 ("Cultivating Attention"), which elegantly lays out a number of ideas to which any Rand admirer worth his weight in dog-eared paperbacks should pay attention. Here's an excerpt: Finally, Buddhism includes a sophisticated psychological understanding of barriers to attention, and, viewing attention as a skill, includes sophisticated tools and methods for dismantling these barriers and achieving greater attention over time. The tradition has a sophisticated conceptualization of how experience leads to complex conditioned habit patterns that ...

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Mudita Forum …Launched

February 7, 2003 · Category: Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum, Web Development

Pressing obligations have prevented me from blogging much this week, but this evening I had the pleasure of launching mudita forum. Here's the welcome message I posted, which gives a preview of things to come: Welcome to Mudita Forum! We currently have 18 members, which is just about the perfect size in my mind, although I'm open to seeing the list grow. I've enjoyed reading your self-introductions, of which I'll be sending out a handful each day over the next few days. I've been discussing the concept for this list with Kirez for more than a year, and I'm ...

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