Adventures in Meditating

Jessica Morey returns, just in time to keep Cara Lai and I from burning this disco down.

Jessica Morey will offer us a meditation on identifying, being with, and caring for our needs, starting from the fundament--our own bodies.

Welcome to the first episode in our series on when—if ever—is the appropriate time to try to make your baby Buddhist. It's probably a terrible idea, but who knows?

In this guided practice, Cara asks, What if we could scrape the very gunk of life off the surface of the present moment and dump it straight into our practice?

In today’s episode, we ask, Do humans have an instinctual orientation towards compassion, kindness, and love—or do we only get there by pushing past our darker impulses?

Jess leads us in a riff on “metta” or “loving-kindness” practice, in which we are invited to imagine an ideal mother figure, as a way of calling forth the ideal maternal qualities that may be hiding in our own minds and hearts.

In today’s episode, I seem to have no idea what I’m getting myself into when I ask Jess and Cara to comment on whether my son’s insistence that I speak to him through a monkey-shaped hand-puppet is a peculiarity capable of  revealing any dhamma-adjacent truths.

Jess gifts us with a meditation especially designed for parents, who may already feel like they’re figure-skating on the edge of a razor blade, and don’t need their meditation practice to be one more veldt they have to hack through.

In this episode's conversational free-for-all, Jess and I crack open a veritable candy-sack of topics related to the dhamma of parenting.

Jess offers a meditation on learning to love this giant impermanent thing called parenting.

On this episode, we’ll be taking a sonic rocket ride to the past, back to a series of conversations which Jess and I recorded in the final few weeks before her son was born. Our super special guest is Annie Sussman!

Jess offers a guided equanimity meditation that riffs on the dialogue we were having during Episode Two of Season 2.

Now that Jess has joined Jon on his long walk down the long pier of parenting, we’ll be taking a different angle on the discussions this season: What does it mean to bring dhamma practice into parenting, and parenting into dhamma practice? Our super special guest is Cara Lai.

Cara leads us in a meditation on the care and feeding of the present moment. “Slowly, we develop a taste for being present for our lives. We give our attention the opportunity to see for itself what it really wants to be with. What else is happening in the real, tangible, here and now world that I’m missing out on, if I’m lost in thought? We start to develop a refined taste for the mundane.”

Today’s topic: RELATIONSHIPS! As late celebrity monk Ajahn Chah once said, “The most convenient way to practice meditation is as a monastic, because monastics are celibate.” But I guess human relationships must be pretty good, because we just keep coming back for more. So if we can’t stop ourselves from such holy foolishness in this lifetime, maybe mindfulness can offer our hearts a leg-up? Our su...

The heart of the mindfulness-adjacent paradigm known as non-violent communication explores the following: how underlying needs and values cause a person to perceive another person’s behavior in a certain light, particularly during difficult exchanges. This exploration is a way to lead both parties back to a state of empathy and compassion. 

As machete-voiced beatnik philosopher Tom Waits is wont to remind us, “We’re chained to the world, and we’ve all got to pull.” Some of us our able to make the best of our embedment in the natural world, but others will never stop being freaked out by it. Jess helps Jon see a little bit of the loving presence in nature, while also instructing him in how to properly get eaten by bears. Our super spe...

Jess offers a meditation intended to help one gain comfort with discomfort—whether they be in nature, or anywhere else.

Today’s topic: PARENTING! Trying to achieve even a shred of enlightenment is challenging enough without, at the same time, attempting to keep an entire extra human alive. Jess tries to prove to Jon using tricky Buddhist math that it may, in fact, be possible to achieve spiritual fulfillment not in spite of being a parent, but perhaps even because of it. Our super special guest is Kaira Jewel Lingo...

Jess offers a meditation in which loving-kindness is interwoven with equanimity, to create a veritable brahmavihara spice mix, with which any of us might generously season our experiences.

Today’s topic: RETREATS! Sitting a silent meditation retreat is a virtual rite of passage for mindfulness people. But let’s be frank—sitting in silence for a number of days with only your mind for company is not necessarily a bucket full of gumdrops. Jess and I will talk about all the snakes and ladders one encounters on any given meditation retreat. Our super special guest is Roxanne Dault, of Tr...

Jess leads a meditation on digesting and transforming challenging emotions—either while on retreat, or in everyday life.

Today’s topic: COMMUNITY! Asian communities have been practicing Buddhism in the United States since the 1800s, with the idea of “sangha” always front and center. Yet, when the thing we think of today as mindfulness practice was brought over by white Buddhist teachers in the 20th century—from such Buddhist-leaning countries as Thailand, India, and what was then known as Burma—it’s arguable that a...

Jess leads a reflective meditation from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, affirming the commitment to attend to the well-being of all those with whom we share our communities…and the world.

Jess leads a meditation towards the skillful contemplation of regret.