Charlotte Center For Mindfulness // Podcasts

Just as sunlight, water and soil are basic nutrients for plant life well-being, safety, connection and respect are basic nutrients for our own human well-being. In this sharing we explore how we might offer this kind of nourishment towards our own selves in order to be more available for meeting these needs in our world.

This meditation considers how opening in the direction of safety, connection and respect is useful in our formal practice.

This week we explore inquiries around the challenges that arise in practice and what skillful ways we might be learning to work with them.

Your hand opens and closes, and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings. -Rumi

Chenoos are Native American mythological angry monsters. Looking at a Chenoo story from Joseph Bruchac is a beautiful lesson in how we might use mindfulness to meet both our anger and fear.

From the Tao Te Ching, translated by Ursula LeGuin: …Hard and easy complete each other long and short shape each other high and low depend on each other note invoice make the music together before and after follow each other… The things of this world exist, they are; you can’t refuse them.

Today was an opportunity for an inquiry exercise to explore the intersection of mindfulness practice, spirituality and prayer. This includes how Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem, Call Me By My True Name, might be considered as a prayer.

Today’s sitting practice includes a body scan Informed deeply by wisdom and kindness for what’s here.

We continue our exploration“connection with spirit,” which Polyvagal Theory names of as one of the 4 foundational connections needed for human well-being. Today we look at this through the lens of prayer. Where might these words, prayer, devotion, sacred get hung up for you? Where might they be useful in pointing to an aspect of mindfulness practice worthy of your cultivation? How might you invite this into your practice? Helpful Resource: Thich Nhat Hanh, The Energy of Prayer

This practice is about greeting what is here, not trying to force ourselves into what we think should be here instead. What does that look like for you?

Drawing from Suleika Jaouad, Jon Batiste and Rumi, we look at how we can be wise and compassionate with the challenges that arise.

Bringing curiosity to whatever happens: Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery 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. -Frederick Buechner

Drawing from a sharing from Byron Katie about doing the dishes, we look at learning to love whatever we need “to do.” We can use this to skillfully navigate the joys, the sorrows, the challenges and the mundane in a way that life becomes a practice of care.

This is an opportunity to practice being receptive to your own being. Koshin Paley Ellison: Being receptive is essentially being open to learning from everything. Some people hear this and are frightened. Others hear it and are excited … But true receptivity is a lot harder than it seems. And yet, if you can stay open to the lessons that are the most difficult to grasp, you can learn to swim, not drown, in the ocean of life.  

This sharing draws from Sheryl Chard’s practice, Constellation of Belonging, from grateful.org You belong. Everywhere. Yes, you—with all your history, anxiety, pain. Yes, everywhere—in every culture, community and circumstance, you belong in this body. You belong in this very moment. You belong in this breath…and in this one. You have always belonged. -Sebene Selassie That we belong is a given fact. -Br David Steindl-Rast If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. -Carl Sagan Independence is a political term, not a scientific one. -Evolutionary Biologist, Lynn Margolis

In this sit, we open to exploring all of what’s here in this moment, not just the often very small story of “who we are vs who should be…”

This session explores how a meditation on a “triggering” children’s movie helped me see how the compassion in the term “compassion fatigue” is probably not compassion at all…     Please note: slight distortion from 00:00-03:00 and briefly around 15:00

We can learn to use a practice of skillful pendulation in our sitting practice, and in the whole our life as a means of grounding with challenge. This is a practice of flowing with a natural movement of coming and going, contraction and release, breathing in and breathing out, tides moving in and out, day moving to night and back to day, movement of seasons, and the up and down of bird wings. Rumi, translator-Coleman Banks The Essential Rumi: Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.

This sharing explores the congruency between refuge in the Dharma and modern behavioral medicine, particularly drawing from Judson Brewer’s gears model for habit change. If you want more information on Judson Brewer, please see this Ted Talk.

Revisiting the poem, “What It Is“ is an opportunity to explore even deeper opening into what is here with compassion and wisdom.

This talk again explores the Buddhist practice of taking refuge in the Dharma. Dharma refers to an inherent knowable wholeness in all things— a concept that is palpable and useful in everyday life when we look for it. Note: there is a background static sound in the first 2 minutes of the talk and again for around a minute starting at 10:30. This is not present for the majority of the talk.

What It Is (English translation of Was es ist) Written by: 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.

In this sharing, we look at the Buddhist concept of “Taking Refuge.” This can be understood in many ways, one of which is through a deep examination of feedback pointing to wholeness in the natural world as well as within our own bodies. No need to be Buddhist to appreciate the beauty and usefulness of this understanding of the way of things. For the video How Wolves Change Rivers, see here.

A meditation to help remind us that home is always already here and available in each moment now. Tasting Mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn Have you ever had the experience of stopping so completely, of being in your body so completely, of being in your life so completely, that what you knew and what you didn’t know that what had been and what was yet to come, and the way things are right now no longer held even the slightest hint of anxiety or discord? It would be a moment of complete presence, beyond striving, beyond mere acceptance, beyond the desire to escape or fix anything or plunge ahead, a moment of pure being, no longer in time, a moment of pure seeing, pure feeling, a moment in which life simply is, and that “is-ness” grabs you by all your senses, all your memories, by your very genes, by your loves, and welcomes you home.

This sharing looks at specific practices for integrating our practice into daily life– even when daily life is 5 failed attempts to get your car towed… Click here for the handout. If you want to learn more about polyvagal exercises, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection, written by Deb Dana is a good place to start. There are also numerous YouTube videos available demonstrating these exercises. If you are unfamiliar with the “Flipped Lid” concept, this comes from a brilliant “Brain/Hand Model” from Daniel Siegal, MD. Here he describes it to parents, but the concept is useful for all of us: Daniel Siegal Hand/Brain Model.    

The word yoga has a definition of “to yoke“. In this sitting meditation, we are practicing a kind of yoga, or yoking, of body, mind and heart.

There is a tradition beautiful Buddhist practice of taking refuge. In this practice I expand on that practice with a broadened understanding of taking refuge.

Join me for a sharing of an old Zen story about a head cook and his unexpected soup and how this story is so useful for being skillful with our mistakes, including those involving racial bias awareness.

There are many different flavors to “efforting” — some useful and some not so useful. What is it like to intention explore a balanced soft effort that allows you to stay engaged with your practice, without over-efforting and contracting.

A dream about engaging the right kind of effort inspired this exploration of different kinds of “efforting” — everything from not enough effort, to punishing grunt work effort, to a soft, open, trusting effortless effort.

So often we burden our meditation practice with loaded expectations of what it should look like and what should happen if I am a good meditator. But in reality every meditation is an open invitation to lay down those expectations and meet what is here. Just as it is. Without needed it to be any different. Without needing to change or fix anything. Maybe even with a sense of wonder and awe that we can even perceive what is here…

I share how our beloved cat, Ana, who has been in “hospice” care for a while, died sometime during the night, and how a serendipitous find of Licity Collins and her beautiful music and writing spoke to the tenor of my day and the mystery of letting go into the current of the universe. Here is the link to read her story and listen to her 22 min musical meditation called “Currents.” Note her generosity in freely offering this beautiful sharing and her link to donate in support of her work if you wish.

In this meditation we explore a formal practice for strengthening a resource of “taking in the good.”

As our continuation of resourcing for challenging times, we examine “Taking in the Good” primarily through the teaching of Rick Hanson, PhD.

In this meditation we explore using an anchor of self-kindness for opening to what is here and now.

Watching my cats this week was a lesson in the practical grace of taking in the good. We explore this and end with the ABC Gratitude practice of Br. David Steindl-Rast.

We are often taught that we should follow an ethical code in order to “be good.” But there is a completely different way of approaching ethics, not as a “should,” but rather as a resource, a foundational strength for living in challenging times.

We start with a short body scan and then move into an exploration of life’s unfolding energy moment by moment

Today we continue an exploration of strengths and resources for meeting challenging times with a look at developing a compassionate way of understanding all behaviors, our own and others, in this world. Note: I’m working to improve the audio with our new set up. Thanks!

In this podcast, we look at when to let go through the lens of the 8 Worldy Winds, and how to let go through a radical re-framing of welcoming.

This meditation explores the interplay between goodwill, compassion, letting go and welcoming the moment just as it is.

Let go a little, get a little peace. Let go a lot, get a lot of peace. Let go completely, get complete peace. A. Chah Sounds good, but how do we really let go?

We explore how intentional small acts of kindness begin to add up to change the quality of our day and tenor of our life.

This week concludes our study of the foundational teaching of Buddhist psychology in the Four Noble Truths, as we study Wise Action– meaning learning to take a step, whether large or small, whether directed towards care for others or self-care, that is aligned with our deepest values and with what gives our lives a keen sense of meaning and purpose.

“Wise livelihood” has no easy answers, but that in no way means we give up. There is a moral complexity that is important that we wrestle with. We do this with a clear intention to do the best we can while knowing we won’t ever find perfect answers.

In this meditation we explore what is it like to when tension is present in the body/mind/heart and open in skillful ways right with what is here. Note: there are more than usual background sounds in this recording. I edited out as much as I could and apologize for the bits that remain… Thanks!

Meditation can be a respite, a place we can lay down our loads for a bit and offer a healing hospitality to our own beings.

One framing of mindfulness that I have always appreciated is mindfulness as a spiritual re-parenting of our own selves. Drawing from a talk on parenting by Chris McKenna at Google, we explore how a foundational base for parenting is as important as a foundational base in our relationship with our own being.

In this Body Scan meditation, we explore how waking up to the present moment sensations in the body is a a compassionate act of care.

In this sharing, we explore traditional teachings from the Buddha 2,600 years ago on wise speech.