When you are meditating, grant yourself permission to be easy, simple, open for experiences. Feel your body. If you lack joy, let it be. Instead of fixing it, explore. What’s this like for your body? Check for attitudes. If there’s disliking or judging present, that’s ok. Don’t force yourself to be perfect. Breathe. Stay present and persist in gentle exploroation. Bathe the whole mess in compassion or equanimity as needed.

Finally, we all tend to import the obscurations of samsara into meditation. Samsara demands things to be a certain way. Can you know your own deepest heart, beyond techniques or measurements? Who’s that sweet being who persists, even though life gets hard? Can you rest with them?

~Lila Kate Wheeler

gather. sit. listen. repeat.

inquiry for today~   cultivate a new practice for yourself today……listen for the resonant knowing…..

what it means to be human

It may help to redefine what meditation practice looks like. I understand the practice as one of arrival, a kind of homecoming if you will. In this way, it can be a great relief from the fragmented awareness of multitasking. Ask yourself: Are there moments in my day when I could check in with myself? You might find there are opportunities throughout your day wherein you could offer your undivided attention. How many times a day can I step out of my story and into direct experience? Close your eyes, turn your awareness inward. Slow it all down. This embodiment, this kind presence, offers us different gifts than a formal sitting practice does. It helps us give our lives back to ourselves.

~Vinny Ferraro