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Meditation Practice: 3 Steps into the Sacred

August 21, 2023   |   5 Comments

Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 11:59. Dear Open Heart Project, I know that meditation is counseled as a way to de-stress, develop greater powers of concentration, and get a better night’s sleep. All true! However, it is also a path to true, lasting joy. All we have to do, at least from time to time, is jump... READ MORE

Traits of the Awakened Mind, Part 3: Power

August 14, 2023   |   Leave a reply

Hello wonderful Open Heart Project, We’ve discussed two of the three aspects of the awakened mind—compassion and wisdom. Today I’d like to offer just a few thoughts on the third quality—power. When we think about the quality of power, I’m sure many things come to mind. Some are positive—the certainty of a strong ruler or the beneficence of a saint.... READ MORE

Traits of the Awakened Mind, Part 2: Wisdom

August 7, 2023   |   Leave a reply

Hello Open Heart Project, According to Buddhist thought, the awakened mind has three qualities. The first is compassion. The second quality, wisdom, is the topic of today’s post. When it comes to what it really means to be wise, it’s easy to posit all sorts of definitions from really, really smart to deeply insightful to maybe simply being old and... READ MORE

Traits of the Awakened Mind, Part 1: Compassion

July 31, 2023   |   Leave a reply

Hello Open Heart Project, According to Buddhist thought, the awakened mind has three qualities. Although I’ve said many times that having goals for your practice is a bad idea, I’m now going to suggest that there actually are goals and they are to realize these three qualities. However, the path is not accomplished by conventional means. Interestingly, these qualities arise... READ MORE

On attention

June 26, 2023   |   1 Comment

Hello Open Heart Project, Seth Godin, the marketing genius, writer, teacher, and all-around awesome person is one of my idols. I receive his blog posts every day and, although our topics are different, in many ways I model my work on his for its clarity, usefulness, and soulfulness. He wrote a wonderful post about how empathy is the most important... READ MORE

Meditation and Fearlessness

June 5, 2023   |   1 Comment

In the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, we say that meditation trains us to be warriors in our lives—fearless, open hearted, and genuine. Today I want to talk about fearlessness and its connection to meditation practice and I’ll start out by relating a story I heard Pema Chödrön tell in one of her books. It is about her teacher, the founder of... READ MORE

The Spiritual Path: Part Three

May 29, 2023   |   1 Comment

Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 17:44. Dear Open Heart Project, Hello and welcome to video #3 in this series on the three steps, or yanas, of the spiritual path. Today we discuss the third step. (If you missed the first two or would like a refresher, the first video is here and the second video is here. While... READ MORE

The Spiritual Path: Part Two

May 22, 2023   |   3 Comments

Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 26:21. Dear Open Heart Project, Hello and welcome to the second video in this series on the three steps of the spiritual journey. Today we discuss the second step. While the first step focused on stabilizing your personal situation (and practice), the second step is about the heart opening that ensues organically.... READ MORE

The Spiritual Path: Part One

May 15, 2023   |   5 Comments

Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 22:23. Dear Open Heart Project, When it comes to our spiritual practices (whatever they may be), both uncertainty and possibility are always present so in some sense, we are in the perfect training ground for awakening. In the Buddhist view (and no one has to be a Buddhist to make this information... READ MORE

In-person retreats coming up in 2023

April 24, 2023   |   Leave a reply

Audio only version here. Dear Open Heart Project, Many years ago, I asked my meditation teacher what I could do to deepen my practice. I mean, I tried to practice most days but at a certain point, I started to wonder: what the hell am I doing? Sitting here doing nothing but thinking about this and that? I think I... READ MORE

The most helpful (and confounding) view of the spiritual journey

April 17, 2023   |   18 Comments

Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 11:27. Dear Open Heart Project, Hello, I hope you are well! Also, I cut all my hair off! On purpose! In this video, I share some thoughts with you about something I’ve been thinking about in relation so my own spiritual journey, what in Buddhism is called “the middle way”. What is... READ MORE

Cultivating a Compassionate Mind: Step 4

April 10, 2023   |   6 Comments

Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 18:06. Dear Open Heart Project, Welcome to the final video in this series on Cultivating a Compassionate Mind. Week 1: Affection for the World Week 2: Faith in the Right Situations Week 3: Compassion for Sentient Beings Now we come to Bravery, the fourth quality. In this view, bravery begins with developing... READ MORE

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