On this blog, I’ve posted a host of meditations, and basically not a single one of them is strictly a mindfulness meditation. This is despite the fact that I am a longtime practitioner of mindfulness meditation. I like my thinky little gee-whiz meditations, and I hope you do too. They make me feel connected and… Continue reading Ambitious Meditation
A description of mindfulness I hear a lot is, “Being present, in the moment, without judgment.” I guess I struggle with the “without judgment” part, because I judge pain as being a worse state than being deeply happy. I can accept pain, I can embrace with relief that it’s temporary, I can even let go… Continue reading I’m Doing It Wrong Part II
The mind is a bizarrely dangerous place. It sounds wildly anti-evolutionary, but the mind is full of thoughts that want to hurt you. Compulsive and addicted behaviors that have the potential to kill you. Self-doubt and pain to the point of suicide. Lots of us are mentally ill, and even more of us are poorly… Continue reading Relief from the Roiling Flood
It turns out there’s a wrong way to meditate. The ultimate goal of meditation, the desired end of mindfulness practice, is to reach a state of perfect equanimity where the most enlightened practitioner is able to greet all states of being, good or bad, with neutrality. The desire to cling to what is good disappears.… Continue reading I’m Doing It Wrong: Part I
I’ve been breathing for a long time. I learned this to my surprise in about 2018. The only times I noticed the breath, and I wasn’t even really noticing the breath, was when I was smoking or exercising (which I did only briefly in 2002). When I started meditating, I held grimly onto the breath,… Continue reading 24/7 Friend
Distraction is powerfully addictive. Some distractions feel like paying attention. Some distractions feel like flow. But they are not real in the same way this room is real, or my cat is real, or the breath is real, or my mom is real, or a forest is real. For my whole life, TV has been… Continue reading An Analog Message on a Digital Platform
I’m an ambitious person. I am also someone who’s always done work for the satisfaction of a job well done. This has been the case in virtually every job I’ve ever done, from menial to professional. I have always found intrinsic, zen satisfaction in getting all the parts exactly right, over and over again, with… Continue reading Mindfulness and Ambition
