Play As a Root of Sati (Mindfulness)

Suppose for a moment that play were a root from which mindfulness develops—its immediate precursor, or most archaic form—and that root shared by accomplished meditators, children, and animals. Continue reading

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G. C. Pande’s Stratigraphic Criteria

Govind Chandra Pande (1923-2011), an Indian historian of the Vedic and Buddhist periods, provided a set of criteria for separating earlier and later strata in the Pali suttas. Continue reading

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Paying Attention: How to Endure Spending Time in an Art Museum

[I wrote this in 2015 for a group of college students. But the need to wrangle attention runs through all of life: museum-going is just another instance of practice in daily life.] Continue reading

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Getting the (Working) Mind to Empty

Personal productivity expert David Allen is interested in what allows people to work in the state Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow”: relaxed, focussed, and in control, making intuitive choices, knocking the work out—and enjoying it. Continue reading

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Improv, Dress Up, and Deity Yoga: Playing With Identity

I have already posted an article about how I see improv as meditation’s extraverted twin. But I got interested in improv because of another, rather different, connection—to a couple of other forms of meditation: those practices that work to deconstruct the sense of a solid and permanent self, particularly deity yoga. Continue reading

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Improvisation As a Spiritual Practice

I have been doing some improv this fall—as a spiritual practice. Standard principles of improv include: stay in the present moment, listen carefully, do not get tangled up in your ego, keep letting go of your idea from a second ago, and trust what emerges from the group. Oh, and take care of each other. Continue reading

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Reading the Suttas with Dharma Contemplation

On five Tuesdays in April and May, 2013, I led a Dharma Contemplation group in my home for seven meditators. Four had meditated primarily in Buddhist contexts, two were Quakers with other meditation experience, plus myself. Continue reading

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Dharma Contemplation Now Available as E-book

dc-ebook-cover-125Gregory Kramer’s 2011 guide, Dharma Contemplation: Meditating Together With Wisdom Texts (Orcas, WA: Metta, 2011), presents a step by step approach to using a short reading to launch group Insight Dialogue. Continue reading

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Dharma Contemplation for Interfaith Dialogue

This spring, with the help of friend and co-conspirator the Reverend Liz Stout, I led a series of interfaith dialogues using the structure or protocol of Greg Kramer’s Dharma Contemplation. Continue reading

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Meditating at the Edge of Reactivity

I have been remembering my first encounter with Insight Dialogue and thinking about how my understanding of that practice has grown and shifted over the years. Continue reading

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Experiment Using Dharma Contemplation: First Series

Eight participants (including myself) met in my small apartment on six Tuesday evenings in September and October (2012) for an experiment in Dharma Contemplation. Continue reading

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About This Project

So, who am I, publishing this stuff? And what on earth do I think I’m doing? Continue reading

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The Scent of Green Papaya

This film depicts a sense of present-moment wonder—as a durable habit, not just some anomaly triggered by happy circumstances—and inquires about its role in the life of a human growing up. Continue reading

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Experiment Using Dharma Contemplation: Planning

I’ve begun an experiment: facilitating group dialogic meditation using a text—using Greg Kramer’s Dharma Contemplation method—and doing so primarily as a way of conveying certain meditative skills. Continue reading

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Pali Flashcards for Lily de Silva’s Primer

Here’s a deck of flashcards for Lily de Silva’s Pali Primer. Continue reading

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Lighting Up The Night: Mahagosinga Sutta, MN 32

Spring storms made the afternoon overcast and rainy. The meditation hall was dimly lit. I could tell from the posture of bodies around me that I was not the only one struggling to stay alert. Our teacher Santikaro started talking about strategies for brightening the mind: one can imagine a light; one can recall a person or an idea that evokes confidence; one can recall one’s own virtues. That’s what reminded me of Mahāgosinga Sutta, MN 32. Continue reading

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Half of the Holy Life: Upaddha Sutta, SN 45.2

This web site draws its name from the Upaḍḍha Sutta, a conversation between the Buddha and Ānanda. Continue reading

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