Charlotte Center For Mindfulness // Podcasts

In this meditation, we practice opening to the felt energy in the body, below the storylines of what’s happening, to anchor, open to compassion and anchor back in the refuge of the breath.

In Buddhist psychology, ethical conduct is clearly understood as the path out of suffering, a gift for both for ourselves and others. In this sharing, I explore Wise Speech and its relationship to this gift of freedom.

Wise Speech is a practice that supports all of our relationships. We strengthen the foundation for this practice in our meditation by paying attention to our internal speech patterns going on all the time and noticing the possibility of bringing a compassionate wise response and care to this internal talk– instead of just buying into everything the inner voice says. One note– I had an active cat in part of the meditation. Please forgive the background sounds I wasn’t able to edit out… Thank you.

Today we explore the understanding of “not-self” that opens a natural doorway to compassion. We end with the poem from Thich Nhat Hanh, Please Call Me by my True Names.

In this practice, we explore a samadhi, or concentration practice, using the breath as the object of focus.

Samadhi practice, sometimes translated as concentration practice, has been described as a gathering or unifying of the mind. When cultivated, this kind of practice can bring a deep settling to the mind that is useful in all aspects of life.

Sowing the seed, my hand is one with the earth. Wanting the seed to grow, my mid is one with the light. Hoeing the crop, my hands are one with the rain. Hungry and trusting, my mind is one with the earth. Eating the fruit, my body is one with the earth. -Wendall Berry A wandering holy man is asked what his work in life is. He replies, “I’m a farmer… This body of mine is my field. I sow good thoughts and actions, and in my body I reap the results.”  

In this practice, we start with a short body scan and then move into the breath as an anchor that can “teach us how to be interested in the present moment and how to develop persistence in staying connected to the present moment.” (Mark Nunberg)

Today we explore how simple bare attention of mindfulness to breath helps us gain wisdom into the nature of reality– in particular, wisdom of impermanence.

In this meditation we explore opening with a bare, non-judgmental attention to the present moment just as it is, whether in settling into an anchor or bringing a compassionate wise acknowledgment to distraction

In this sharing, we focus on the simple non-judgmental bare attention of mindfulness within the context of the whole of the 8 Fold Path.

In this meditation, we explore our hands as a primary anchor, including exploring the elements of Earth, water, sun, air making up the substance of our hands.

In this meditation, we again explore what allows a balanced effortless effort and compassionate mindfulness.

In this continuation of the 8 Fold Path, we look further into the ways a wise and balanced effort and mindfulness support us not just in meditation practice, but also in life.

In this sharing, a continuation of the 4th Noble Truth, we begin to explore the meditation factors of the 8 Fold Path, particular how these factors weave together in a very practical usefulness in our lives. Drawing from a panic attack on a high ropes course, it becomes clear that if we practice enough with these factors, they begin to show up spontaneously in skillful ways that are in service of our life.

In this meditation, we explore the interweaving of wise effort (not too tight, not too loose), mindfulness and qualities of the heart. These together are a way of coming into a skillful attunement to the present moment in a way that allows a natural opening.

From Sharon Salzberg’s, “The Kindness Handbook, A Practical Companion”: Spirituality is the movement from our prison of self blame and self preoccupation to an inclusive and open engagement with all of life. In many ways a spiritual path is essentially about connection — a deep connection to our own inherent capacity for wisdom and love no matter what, a connection to a bigger picture of life no matter what. We can easily go from morning until night disconnected, not only from genuine connect contact with others, but also from more fundamental and loving aspects of our own hearts. Spiritual practices of meditation, generosity, service, and lovingkindness not only turn this tendency around towards genuine connection, they also become the manifestation of a free mind.

In this sharing, a continuation of the 4th Noble Truth, we explore the 3 basic aspects of Wise Intention of goodwill, compassion and renunciation or letting go. In particular, we look at how these 3 aspects are interrelated and support each other in offering an energy to work with the immediacy of any moment in our life.

In this meditation, we begin with grounding in the body through the physical elements and then explore the skillful or wise intentions of goodwill, compassion and letting go.

Today we start with the “wisdom” factors of the 8 Fold Path (Fourth Noble Truth), wise view and wise intention. We focus on wise view this week with the understanding that kindness and compassion are an intrinsic part of the wise factors. I draw from a beautiful talk by Jill Shepard which is on Dharmaseed if you want to hear more: Jill Shepard Dharmaseed  

Please join me for a short contemplation and practice with a poem from John Welwood: Forget About Enlightenment Sit down wherever you are And listen to the wind singing in your veins. Feel the love, the longing, the fear in your bones. Open your heart to who you are, right now, Not who you would like to be, Not the saint you are striving to become, But the being right here before you, inside you, around you. All of you is holy. You are already more and less Than whatever you can know. Breathe out, Touch in, Let go. By: John Welwood

The 4th Noble Truth is all about a path that leads out of suffering. At its essence, it is about developing skillful habits, named in the Eightfold Way, that support us in living a life that brings greater well-being, and ultimately has the potential to lead to the end of suffering. Today is an overview perspective, and next week we begin to look into the details.

In this practice, we start with allowing a settling to the system with use of a primary anchor and then move to practicing with a changing moment by moment choiceless awareness.

Today we use the anchor of the breath to explore an expanding stability and continuity of awareness that supports our life.

Today we look at a very practical application of the first 3 Noble Truths. This is through the lens of Judson Brewer’s model of shifting gears for understanding our stress inducing habits.

Join me for a short sharing and meditation from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, True Love: We have to learn the art of transforming compost and flowers. Look at the flower: it is beautiful, it is fragrant, it is pure; but if you look deeply you can already see the compost in the flower. With meditation, you can see that already. If you do not meditate, you will have to wait 10 days to be able to see that. You look deeply at the garbage heap with the eye of a meditator, you can see lettuce, tomatoes, flowers. That is exactly what the gardener sees when he looks at the garbage heap, and that is why he does not throw away his waste materials. A little bit of practice is all you need to be able to transform the garbage heap into compost and the compost into flowers. The same is true of our mental formations, which include flowers like faith, hope, understanding, and love; but there’s also waste material like fear and pain. The flowers on its way to becoming refuse, but the refuse is also on its way to becoming a flower. This is the non-dual duality principle… : There is nothing to throw away.

Please join me for this shorter sharing and meditation recorded from the Monday Mid-day Meditation. Today I draw from Philip Simmon’s book, Learning to Fall: We have all heard poems, songs, and prayers that exhort us to see God in a blade of grass, a drop of dew, a child’s eyes, or the petals of a flower. Now when I hear such things I say that’s too easy. Our greater challenge is to see God not only in the eyes of the suffering child but in the suffering itself. To thank God for the sunset pink clouds over Red Hill — but also for the mosquitoes I must fan from my face while watching the clouds. To thank God for broken bones and broken hearts, for everything that opens us to the mystery of our humanness. The challenge is to stand at the sink with your hands in the dishwater, fuming over a quarrel with your spouse, children at your back clamoring for attention, the radio blatting the bad news from Bosnia, and to say “God is here, now, in this room, here in this dishwater, in this dirty spoon.” Don’t talk to me about flowers and sunshine and waterfalls: this is the ground, here, now, in all that is ordinary and imperfect, this is the ground in which life sows the seeds of our fulfillment. The imperfect is our paradise. Let us pray, then, that we do not shun the struggle. May we attend with mindfulness, generosity, and compassion to all that is broken in our lives. May we live fully in each flawed and too human moment, and thereby gain the victory.

I recently finished a retreat in which every meditation started with the instruction to “get comfortable.” In this practice today, we experientially explore the wisdom and compassion of this teaching in all moments of practice.

In continuing our exploration of the 4 Noble Truths, we move on today to the 3rd Noble Truth– there is a path out of our suffering. Teacher Ajahn Sumedho says this about studying the 3rd Noble Truth: Do not feel as though you have to embrace any particular teacher’s interpretation of [the 3rd Noble Truth]. Instead, let it be an open question, a mystery, and live the question: what is possible in the way of freedom for me, right now, in this moment, just as I am.

We finish our exploration of the 2nd Noble Truth today, a foundational teaching of Buddhist psychology (which is how I relate to these teachings– a beautiful study of the mind that is infinitely practical for learning how we can let go of suffering). In today’s session, I draw again from Phillip Moffit’s book, Dancing with Life.

The Second Noble Truth states that the most proximal cause of our suffering is clinging, craving or greed. In this talk, we look at the importance of orienting ourselves with curiosity and interest in growth as opposed to self-judgment for being “greedy.” Understanding what is underneath the reactivity of greed can allow the natural responsiveness of heart to support the need for growth and change.

In this meditation, we move through the senses and body to ground our awareness in heart and Earth. At one point, I name what is on the exact opposite side of the Earth from where I sit in Charlotte NC, USA. If you are somewhere else and want to know for your location, here is a place you can find out: Antipodes Map

We continue our exploration of the 4 Noble Truths, a foundational teaching of Buddhism. These teachings are a powerful study of the mind– what causes suffering and what relieves suffering. An old story called the Monk and the Samurai makes a great introduction to the 2nd Noble Truth.

The 2nd Noble Truth is that the most proximal cause of suffering is clinging. Sitting meditation is a powerful place to explore ways in which this might be true for you and how to work with the clinging mind.

This week I share a talk I gave for a program from Temple Beth El. The invitation was to talk about healing the mind from religious, spiritual and mindfulness perspectives.

This week we we continue our exploration of the First Noble Truth through a story from Rachel Naomi Remen’s My Grandfather’s Blessing. In this story she draws on 3 useful questions which she suggests short daily contemplation: What surprised me today? What moved me or touched me today? What inspired me today?

From guest leader Colleen Faltus: In this week’s meditation we explore the wisdom of the body. As Valerie Kaur says, “One of the most vigilant spiritual practices is finding the seconds of solitude to get quiet enough to hear the wise person inside us.” Quieting our inner and outer worlds provides the much needed peace and calm to hear the wise words of our bodies. In this session, we explore how to tap into our inner wisdom and listen carefully to what our bodies are telling us.

Today we had a guest speaker, Colleen Faltus, who shared beautiful resources for using our breath, body or movement for tapping into the wisdom of the body.

Today we start our exploration of the Four Noble Truths with the first one– in life, there is suffering. While seemingly simple and straightforward on the surface, learning to reckon with this truth has a radical potential for transforming how we meet life in all of its complexities and realities.

The teacher asked his students, does it hurt more to be shot by one arrow or two? Of course, two. The first is what has already arisen, what is unavoidably already here. The second is the one we shoot into ourselves in reaction to the first. In this meditation, we use an anchor for grounding and support for exploring opening with wisdom and kindness to the first without contracting into a suffering story of the second.

In our continued exploration of Buddhist psychology, today we explore the myth story of the Buddha’s life and how it relates directly to understanding our own personal causes of suffering and the path to our healing.1-13-21

We need to look deeply in order to see our true nature and the true nature of the Earth. We need to look deeply to see that we are the Earth. With this insight, love will be born. Our love and understanding will heal us and heal the Earth. -Thich Nhat Hanh Thich Nhat Hanh offers beautiful “Touching the Earth” meditation practices. This meditation is a modified version.

This meditation offers an invitation to explore 2 of the “Three Marks of Existence”– impermanence and the interrelatedness of impermanent arisings.

In this sharing, we look at the last of the 3 Marks of Existence– the reality of suffering in life. This is so easily misunderstood as pessimistic or a negative view on life. But in practice, when we follow the radical potential in this teaching, we begin to understand how a clear, wise seeing of suffering present is a natural doorway to compassion.

In this talk, we explore what’s referred as one of the three “mark of existence,” the concept of non-self. We look at it through the lens of a translation that I prefer, “nothing exists in and of itself, without dependencies,” and in particular not only on the widened ethics that arise naturally through this understanding, but also a certain quality of joy that opens to us when we understand the world and all that is in it in this way.

In this meditation, using the breath, we explore the quote “nothing exists in and of itself, without dependencies.”

Today we start with a short vignette on dandelions from Anthony de Mello’s book “The Song of the Bird, followed by a sharing by Michael J Fox and how he works with having Parkinson’s. I don’t look at life as a battle or as a fight. I don’t think I’m scrappy. I’m accepting. I say “living with” or “working through” Parkinson’s. Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation — it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it. I look at it like I am a fluid that’s finding the fissures and cracks and flowing through. … Optimism is really rooted in gratitude. Optimism is sustainable when you keep coming back to gratitude, and what follows from there is acceptance. Acceptance that this thing has happened, and you accept it for what it is. It doesn’t mean you can’t endeavor to change. It doesn’t mean you have to accept is a punishment or penance, but just put it in its proper place. Then see how much the rest of your life you have to thrive in, and then you can move on. Michael J Fox

Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation — it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it. I look at it like I am a fluid that’s finding the fissures and the cracks and flowing through. -Michael J Fox

Today we explore the old story of Two Monks and the Lady as a way of deepening our understanding painful ruminating thought and how to cut through that habit.

It is very helpful to begin to see how the unconscious mind categorizes all moments in some version of pleasant, unpleasant or neither pleasant or unpleasant, also called feeling tones. If we are not aware of this process, then the feeling tone can set off a cascade of reactivity. Learning to catch the feeling tone of any given moment opens the possibility of a choice in how to respond to any feeling tone arising. This meditation practices with learning to see into the feeling tone of any moment.