Every week at Satsang, we do a short chanting ceremony called a pūjā, or devotional ritual. We chant a few ancient verses in Pāli, the language of the early Buddhist texts. These verses are excerpts from a longer sequence of chants done daily in Theravāda monasteries, emphasizing the basic lay (non-monastic) practices of going for refuge and the five ethical precepts. […]
Theravada Refuge & Precepts Pūjā Read More »
We do this chant at the end of the Satsang meditation period. It’s an ancient mantra beloved in both the Buddhist and Hindu Yoga traditions, and translates roughly as: May all beings be at ease.OM, Peace, peace, peace. If you want to use it as a mantra to repeat, you could omit the “oṃ śāntiḥ” part and just let the
Chants: lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu Read More »
I assembled this bibliography in 2015 for my PhD dissertation. It’s not exhaustive, and focuses on the use of Authentic Movement both as an expressive therapeutic form and as a mystical spiritual discipline. Adler, Janet. “Who is the witness? A description of authentic movement.” 2000) Authentic (1985). Adler, Janet. “Body and soul.” American Journal of Dance Therapy 14, no. 2
Authentic Movement: Selective Bibliography Read More »
Talk: Mindfulness as intimacy with ourselves, with the world through our senses, in relationship with each moment. Given at Vajrapani yoga and meditation retreat with Pete Guinosso. (10.2.15)
Mindfulness means intimacy Read More »
The core Buddhist doctrine of the Four Noble Truths is a lens through which to see the world, which is why it’s the heart of the path, described in the first limb, Right View. It explains the painful reality of the world in compellingly simple terms, offering a beautiful, if stark, framework for understanding who I am and what’s happening
From this craving for power, this global disaster Read More »
Both Buddhism and Hinduism personify Death in the form of a deity. The two traditions’ imagination around this figure naturally has many overlaps, but I’m suddenly thinking about some that I can’t find any reference to in the scholarly literature. The correspondence is about the role of Death as Teacher, as appearing in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, and the role of Māra
Yama and Mara: Hindu and Buddhist personifications of Death, a hypothesis Read More »
Several folks have posted this Thich Nhat Hanh (TNH) interview to me, after my recent dip into the Google-Mindfulness-Buddhism-Capitalism debate following the Wisdom 2.0 protest. There’s a good debate about it on Be Scofield’s Facebook wall, and a smaller one on mine after this post, and I don’t need to repeat many of the elements of the discussion in those
Saffron-washing part 2: Response to Thich Nhat Hanh Read More »
For the last few years there’s been a growing uproar in San Francisco rooted in dismay and anger over ballooning rents, historically high eviction rates, and other markers of the intense gentrification that has been happening for 15 years or so — if I choose the tech boom of the 90s as a convenient recent historical marker. The recent acceleration
Mindfulness the Google Way: well-intentioned saffron-washing? Read More »
I tell you that there is no making an end of suffering & stress without reaching the end of the cosmos. Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, with its perception & intellect, that I declare that there is the cosmos, the origination of the cosmos, the cessation of the cosmos, and the path of practice leading to the
Inner and outer gaze in dharma and art practice Read More »
This morning, walking up the steps of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley, through the crisp fall air, I heard a fragment of melody, whistled, in the distance. I only heard a handful of notes, but recognized it as the distinctive dorian mode hook in “Eleanor Rigby” — the part where the words are “…picks up the rice in the church…”. It
I let a song go out of my heart: an ear worm gets me thinking about karma Read More »
May the forces of delusion
not take hold, nor
weaken my resolve.
(Sharing of Merit)