Charlotte Center For Mindfulness // Podcasts

Medical Sociologist Aaron Antonosvsky studied the relationship between stress, health and well-being focusing on people who had survived extreme stress with an intact sense of coherence. His work provides another beautiful lens into the resiliency building skillful of offering generosity and service in the world.

Working with insight into change as a means of freedom through a human heart.

Learning how to skillfully work with fear, anxiety, worry or any other difficult emotion is fundamental for resilience in challenging times. One way to do this is by exploring compassionate action, or what Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander call “Being a Contribution.“

The Buddha taught the Metta or LovingKindness Meditation as an antidote for fear. In this meditation we explore grounding in the elements of the body to turn with compassion to whatever needs to be met.

Generosity is considered a fundamental practice of mindfulness. How do we practice with a spirit of generosity towards our own selves in our meditation practice itself?       Please note: no accompanying talk for this podcast.

This is a sharing of how mindfulness became an unexpected core part of my own spiritual journey and path into and out of practice as a physician.

This is a meditation on Fredrick Buechner‘s beautiful words. “…Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”  

The Tibetan teacher , Shabkar, said: To meditate without kindness is simply to inflict hardship on yourself. What does this mean for you in this practice, right now?   Please Note: The meditation ends at 18:10 and starting 18:11 is a small talk regarding the quote above.  

The softness of bamboo and water offer interesting teachings on strength and resilience. In this sharing we explore how bamboo houses and water can inform even the intensity of something like anger.

The radical turn of mindfulness meditation is to meet whatever is here, instead of worrying about how to “fix” ourselves to stop whatever is coming up. This practice explores “The Welcoming Prayer.” If “God” language doesn’t work for you, please feel free to substitute as best for you. The Welcoming Prayer Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment because I know it is for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions. I let go of my desire for security. I let go of my desire for approval. I let go of my desire for control. I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself. I open to the love and presence of God and the healing action and grace within. ––– Mary Mrozowski 1925-1993

Gravity is a mysterious connecting force that is always available as an anchor. In this meditation, we open to a contemplation on the relation between time/space/gravity and this moment now.   Please note: there is no accompanying talk for this meditation.

Gratitude is confidence in life itself. In it, we feel how the same force that pushes grass through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life. -Jack Kornfield In this sharing we explore both the openings and challenges of gratitude practice ending with an Inquiry Practice.

Gratitude can be a useful resource, but is not always accessible. In this practice, we start where we are, experimenting and exploring the region of gratitude.  

here are different ways of relating to the “tigers” we encounter in this life. In this sharing we explore two possibilities. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ― Viktor E. Frankl

This is a practice on the sanity of grounding with our inter-relatedness.

This is a practice in noticing how mindfulness naturally arises on its own and how to tap into that arising skillfully.   Please note: no talk this week.

Continuing with last week’s theme based on the short talk and meditation from Yongey Mingur Rinpoche, we explore ways of uncovering insight into our own basic goodness through an Inquiry Practice.

Based on the meditation from Yongey Mingur Rinpoche, this is a practice with seeing into our basic goodness.

his reflection considers the strengthening qualities of joy, love, and happiness in the face of very challenging times. I draw heavily from a beautiful short talk and meditation by one of my favorite teachers, Yongey Mingur Rinpoche, on Insight Timer. From the Dhammapada, translated by Thomas Byron: Live in joy, in love , even among those who hate. Live in joy, in health, even among the afflicted. Live in joy, in peace, even among the troubled. Look within. Be still. Free from fear and attachment, the sweet joy of the way.

This meditation draws heavily from a short talk and guided meditation by Yongey Mingur Rinpoche: “Looking for happiness is love. Looking to not have a problem is compassion. Self love, self compassion are right here right now— please appreciate that.”

“Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot. Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging.” Bob Sharples, from Meditation: Calming the Mind Dipa Ma, the beloved teacher of Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and others summed this very simply: “Meditation is love.” How do we embody this in our practice now?   Please note: no talk this week.

I took five weeks away from CCM for “family need.” What I quickly learned was that I needed the time out of my usual pace of life just as much as anyone in my family. Today’s sharing is reflections on what time and space can open.

There is a normal ebb and flow in all parts of life, including our meditation practice. We can learn to move with the naturalness of opening and closing by allowing body, breath, and senses to be a home anchor as needed.

This talk explores the Buddhist concept of citta and draws heavily from the beautiful talk available on Dharmaseed, Making a Suitable Home for the Heart, by Chas DiCapua.

This meditation uses a phrase for practice from Thich Nhat Hanh: May I have compassion and understanding for myself just as I am.

In this sharing, we explore one of the poems from the beautiful book, The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, by Matty Weingast. When used as practice for examining our own relationship with our mind, life and practice, these poems are powerful possibilities for insight. This sharing involves an inquiry practice with the poem: Victor: When everyone else was meditating, I’d be outside circling in the hall. Finally I went to confess. I’m hopeless, I said. The elder nun smiled. Just keep going, she said. Nothing stays in orbit forever. If this circling is all you have, why not make this circling your home? I did as she told me, and went on circling in the hall. If you find yourself partly in and partly out – if you find yourself drawn to this Path and also drawing away – I can assure you, you’re in good company. Just keep going. Sometimes the most direct path isn’t a straight line.

This meditation includes the poem Victor, from the beautiful book, The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, by Matty Weingast: Victor: When everyone else was meditating, I’d be outside circling in the hall. Finally I went to confess. I’m hopeless, I said. The elder nun smiled. Just keep going, she said. Nothing stays in orbit forever. If this circling is all you have, why not make this circling your home? I did as she told me, and went on circling in the hall. If you find yourself partly in and partly out – if you find yourself drawn to this Path and also drawing away – I can assure you, you’re in good company. Just keep going. Sometimes the most direct path isn’t a straight line.

How mosquitos move through a raindrop is a powerful metaphor for the attunement of mindfulness. The Mosquito Among the Raindrops byTeddy Macker The mosquito among the raindrops… It’s equivalent to getting hit, says the scientist, by a falling school bus. And hit every 20 seconds. And the mosquito lives. In fact she doesn’t even try to avoid the drops. No zigzagging, no ducking. No hiding under the eaves. How does she do it? No resistance to the force. She hitches a ride on the blow, a stowaway on that which brings her down. She becomes “one with the drop,” knowing that to fly again she must fall.

“Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot. Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging.” Bob Sharples, from Meditation: Calming the Mind

Noticing how the mind can confuse a stick for a copperhead can teach much about three basic truths of reality as named by Buddhist psychology.

This is a meditation in using noting practice, skillfully to acknowledge validate and return home again as needed.

When we don’t pause long enough to really know what’s here, the mind will fill in the holes with its own information from its stores– and it often does this with the worst case scenario, or in a way that covers up what we might not want to see… So this is one more reason that practicing moment to moment mindfulness with what’s here is so important in our lives.

This practice explores how noting helps us get more clear as to what’s really here. What one takes in by contemplation, one pours out in love. –Meister Eckhart   The Way It Is, Lynn Ungar One morning you might wake up to realize that the knot in your stomach had loosened itself and slipped away, and that the pit of unfulfilled longing in your heart had gradually, and without your really noticing, been filled in—patched like a pothole, not quite the same as it was, but good enough. And in that moment it might occur to you that your life, though not the way you planned it, and maybe not even entirely the way you wanted it, is nonetheless— persistently, abundantly, miraculously— exactly the way it is.

Once there was a wise old sage, and people would travel a long ways to receive his teachings. He always taught one thing, a mantra to say to everything in life: Thank you, I am grateful for everything. One time a man received this teaching and said it with everything for a year. At the end of the year, he was still irritable, impatient, frustrated and tired. So he traveled back to the wise old sage, shared his story and asked what to do now. The sage said, “Thank you, I am grateful for everything.” The man almost broke down in frustration and then suddenly laughed, saying, “thank you I am grateful for everything,” and left free. What changed? How do you make sense of the shift that happened for this man? Understanding the essence of this shift is how we open in the direction of the true authentic healing of mindfulness.

How we meet the moment of waking back up, makes all the difference in our practice. This city meditation is an opportunity to deeply explore that moment of re-awakening.

Today we continue to look at how re-anchoring in moment to moment awareness is a powerful practice in finding a better way to navigate any day. This talk draws from Tara Brach’s practice of Four Remembrances: Pausing, Yes to Life, Turning toward love, and Resting in Awareness.

This meditation draws from Tara Brach, teaching on four remembrances for practice: Pausing, saying yes to life, turning towards love, resting in awareness. What It Is It is nonsense says reason It is what it is says love It is calamity says calculation It is nothing but pain says fear It is hopeless says insight It is what it is says love It is ludicrous says pride It is foolish says caution It is impossible says experience It is what it is says love Erich Fried

This talk explores how bringing moment to moment mindfulness into daily life has nothing to do with “being good!” and everything instead to do with “being sane”.

in this practice, we explore opening to the wholeness of what’s here, the gratitude and release as well as the contracted and reactionary.

We were grateful this week to have David Viafora and Jessie Raye from Greatwoods Zen Retreat Center guest lead again this week. Unfortunately we were not able to record their first visit, but this week’s sharing works fine as a stand alone. They shared from Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching called the Seven Mantras of Love. These are: Darling, I am here for you. Darling, I know you are there and it makes me happy. Darling, I know you suffer. Darling, I suffer, please help. This is a Happy Moment. Darling, you are partly right. Darling, how may I best love you? Here is also a link to Thich Nhat Hanh sharing about six of these: https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/the-six-mantras Jessie’s poem can be found here: When You Are Old Enough (Meditation: 00:00-25.15, Talk 25.20-End)

How a brutal motorcycle trail race teaches us all about being alive and using our practice to wake up.

This meditation again draws from the Somatics work of Amanda Blake and Embright Organization, and is offers a strong way to use the body as a rooting anchor of support.  

Today’s sharing on safety is an inquiry practice into the qualities that make a friendship a safe place and how these qualities are manifesting, or not, in our mindfulness practice. Note: One quality named was “perspective”. It needs to be acknowledged that a friend offering a larger perspective on an issue can be either helpful or unhelpful— depending on how it is offered…

Opening up to the shared physical nature of our being is an avenue for contemplative experience of safety, connection, and respect.

This time we look at a reliable sense of safety more through the lens of neuroscience/modern psychology as well as introduce the Buddhist practice of lovingkindness– which was originally taught as an antidote to fear.   Discourse on Good Will From teachings of the Buddha, complied by Jack Kornfield May all beings be filled with joy and peace. May all beings everywhere, The strong and the weak, The great and the small, The short and the long, The subtle and the gross: May all beings everywhere, Seen and unseen, Dwelling far off or nearby, Being or waiting to become: May all be filled with lasting joy. Let no one deceive another, Let no one anywhere despise another, Let no one out of anger or resentment Wish suffering on anyone at all. Just as a mother with her own life Protects her child, her only child, from harm, So within yourself let grow So a boundless love for all creatures. Let your love flow outward through the universe, To its height, it’s depth, it’s broad extent, A limitless love, without hatred or enmity. Then, as you stand or walk, Sit or lie down, As long as you are awake, Strive for this with a one-pointed mind; Your life will bring heaven to earth.

How do we learn to meet ourselves, just as we are, in a way that provides an internal sense of safety? Erich Fried, translated by: ANNA KALLIO It is nonsense says reason It is what it is says love It is calamity says calculation It is nothing but pain says fear It is hopeless says insight It is what it is says love It is ludicrous says pride It is foolish says caution It is impossible says experience It is what it is says love

We look again at the necessary nourishment of an internal sense of safety that is not dependent upon having things be the way we want them to be– this time primarily from a spiritual standpoint, drawing from leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, and the writings of Etty Hillesum.   Please note: Bad audio distortion from 13:49-14:10.

This meditation draws heavily from Amanda Blake of Embright Organization and the field of somatics. Much as we would know we can rely on the support of a strong mature tree, this mediation uses the imagery of learning how to lean back and rest upon the tree of our spine.

We come back again to safety, connection and respect this week– this time with inquiry questions to consider these qualities for yourself. Consider a time in your life where you know something about these 3 qualities, some place with a palpable sense of these qualities. What is that felt sense of being met in this way for you? How do these come up in your practice? How are you practicing safety, connection and respect with your own self? How might you cultivate each of these more?   First Lesson- By Philip Booth Lie back, daughter, let your head be tipped back in the cup of my hand. Gently, and I will hold you. Spread your arms wide, lie out on the stream and look high at the gulls. A dead- man’s-float is face down. You will dive and swim soon enough where this tidewater ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe me, when you tire on the long thrash to your island, lie up, and survive. As you float now, where I held you and let go, remember when fear cramps your heart what I told you: lie gently and wide to the light-year stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

Again, drawing from the field of Somatics’ understanding that an inner sense of safety, connection and respect are foundational for our well-being, we use the body as a focus in cultivating these qualities within ourselves.