Background, context, and poem text: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/24/tara-brach-reads-mary-oliver/

Excerpted from Tara Brach's lecture "Universal Faces of Love": http://traffic.libsyn.com/tarabrach/2014-02-05-Part1-Universal-Faces-of-Love-TaraBrach.mp3 

MORE / POEM TEXT

Tara Brach reads from Mary Oliver's "Dog Songs"

This episode aired on June 10th, 2015. Today’s guest on Flourish is Dr. Raphael Kellman, an internist who practices integrative medicine and who is an expert on assisting people alleviate the root causes of their ailments. Chief among these root causes is what’s known as your microbiome— the bacteria in your gut, your genitals, and your mouth and throat. Indeed 80% of our immune system is at the openings of the body. Tune in and listen to how you can disease-proof yourself by cultivating your inner garden! 

You And Your Microbiome

Here are the meditations and introductions for day 1 of the 2015 Triratna International Urban Retreat on the theme of 'Living In The Greater Mandala'.

www.thebuddhistcentre.com/urbanretreat

This set comprises:

01 Kamalashila introducing and leading through the Mindfulness of Breathing meditation practice. Suitable for those new to meditation.

02 Rijumitra introducing the Brahma Vicars series of Buddhist meditation practices. These are: the Metta Bhavana (Cultivation of Loving Kindness), the Karuna Bhavana (Cultivation of Compassion in response to suffering), the Mudita Bhavana (Cultivation of Sympathetic Joy with others), Upekkha Bhavana (Cultivation of Equanimity).

03 Rijumitra introducing the first of the Brahma Viharas series of Buddhist meditations - the Metta Bhavana (Cultivation of Loving Kindness).

04 Tejananda introducing and leads through a Just Sitting meditation practice.

Recorded for the Triratna International Urban Retreat 2015 at Vajraloka Retreat Centre, Wales.

Tejananda - Guided Just Sitting Meditation Practice

This is a led meditation practice, as taught at the City Lit and the West London Buddhist Centre.

I encountered this meditation for the first time when I was finding life a little stressful, and there is no doubt that it has helped me immensely since 2007. I would heartily recommend anyone to have a go.

You could start right now, but you might like to read this introduction that Jinananda once wrote:

The first thing is to find a quality of stillness.  It is possible to move or walk with this quality of stillness, but in this practice, you can start to develop it by being physically still.  You can move during the practice, but the invitation of the practice is not to fidget. 

If you need to, you can lie down to do the practice, but if you can, you should sit up, in a chair or on the floor, either kneeling astride cushions, or if sitting cross-legged, sitting high enough on cushions so that the knees are lower than the hips. 

The aim of the practice is to cultivate a concentrated appreciative attention to our moment-by-moment experience of the breathing process. 

There are four stages, or approaches, to the practice.  Each of these stages represents a slightly different way of being aware of the breath, of being aware of in the breath.  Starting with the easiest, and working towards the stage requiring the most delicate focus of concentration. 

Mindfulness is not about closing down or cutting off our thinking, it is not an exercise in fixing or forcing the attention.  It simply provides our thinking with something to come back to when it becomes aware of what it is doing. 

We are being mindful at the very moment that we realize that our mind has been all over the place.  Coming home to the breath, we are coming home to ourselves.  Without trying to stop the mind doing what it wants to do, we are centring the mind, settling it.

You can find other meditations of Jinananda's on jonfrewin's soundcloud page.

A guided Mindfulness of Breathing meditation for beginners, by Jinananda

A 10 minute guided relaxation for deeper powerful stress reduction and energy boost...

Yoga Nidra Deep Rest and Relaxation

Practicing Tonglen is a powerful way to connect with yourself and all of humanity. We all experience sadness and other "negative" emotions at different times, yet when we do, we often feel very alone in it. This practice reminds us that we're not alone when we are in pain. If we have the courage to break the habitual pattern of pushing away the pain, we can experience deep compassion for ourselves and all beings.

Befriending difficult emotions - Tonglen with yourself

A conversation with  Liz Stanley.

This episode's guest is Elizabeth Stanley, a professor at Georgetown University and author of the book "Widen the Window: Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma." Liz is a U.S. Army veteran who came to practice (in part) to help her with PTSD. In their conversation, David and Liz discuss contemporary definitions of trauma and how this relates to the current moment; the neurophysiology of trauma, including the relationship between what Liz terms the “thinking brain” and “survival brain”; and their current assessments of the impacts of COVID-19, it’s impact on social windows of tolerance, and their hopes for the path ahead.

Episode 14 | Widening the Window of Tolerance

Your spacious mind is the natural awareness that knows and accommodates everything. My meditation teacher in the forests of Thailand, Ajahn Chah, called it “the One Who Knows.” He said this is the original nature of mind, the silent witness, spacious consciousness. His instructions were simple: become witness to it all, the person with perspective, the One Who Knows. - Jack Kornfield

The One who knows - Part 1

Commentary on the 8 point attitude training.

Lojong - Transforming Problems - Part 2

Lojong - Transforming Problems - Part 3

Lojong - Transforming Problems - Part 5

Stephan Wormland, MA in clinical psychology and trained in Gestalt therapy. He has studied and practiced meditation in multiple Buddhist traditions for over 30 years and spent altogether 5 years in meditation retreats. Stephan was a monk in the Tibetan tradition for 11 years and teaches meditation in Buddhist centers in Europe.

The One who knows - Part 1

Natural Meditation podcast