Charlotte Center For Mindfulness // Podcasts

We think sometimes of compassion as a quality that we “should” be accessing if we are “good.”  There is a totally different way of understanding compassion instead as that quality of being that brings us sanity, strength, courage and even ease in the midst of difficult situations.

There is a radical freedom offered in practice when we learn to open in all conditions. From the book, “Thoreau’s Ecstatic Witness,” comes this account of Henry Thoreau from his sister, Sophia, in his last couple of months before dying of tuberculosis in his early forties: One friend, as if by way of consolation, said to him, “well, Mr. Thoreau, we must all go.” Henry replied, “w...

It is very helpful to feel into how a true open mindfulness or loving awareness doesn’t discriminate or have preferences for what it is knowing in awareness.  In this practice, we explore feeling into the relationship of loving awareness, preference and no-preference.

Join me for this short reflection and meditation on the usefulness of goodwill in challenging times.

In this short meditation, we give time for our eyes to rest and relax into spacious awareness

Compassion arises naturally as the quivering of the heart in the face of pain, ours and another’s. True compassion is not limited by the separateness of pity, nor by the fear of being overwhelmed. When we come to rest in the great heart of compassion, we discover a capacity to bear witness to, suffer with, and hold dear with our own vulnerable heart the sorrows in beauties of the world.  Jack Korn...

Compassion arises naturally as the quivering of the heart in the face of pain, ours and another’s. True compassion is not limited by the separateness of pity, nor by the fear of being overwhelmed. When we come to rest in the great heart of compassion, we discover a capacity to bear witness to, suffer with, and hold dear with our own vulnerable heart the sorrows in beauties of the world.  Jack Korn...

This week’s post is the first of three parts exploring bringing mindfulness into heart of our relationships.

Join us for guided movement practice followed by a short sitting practice.  We explore the intention of goodwill, letting go and compassion through it all.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.  -Maya Angelou To be at home in a world where everything changes means to embrace a radical understanding of home.  Join us for a short teaching and practice

In this sharing, I consider the art of pendulation, i.e. using pleasant and neutral sensations to resource us for meeting our challenges.

In this meditation, we practice the art of using pleasant and neutral sensations to resource us for meeting our challenges.

In this podcast I share a short reading from Jody Green on meeting the challenges of Zen Koan, “Every Day is a Good Day” and the lessons from our new cat, followed by a short meditation.

When things are challenging, we need strong skills to be with ourselves in the midst of the challenge. This is part 2 of last week’s podcast, but I include a small re-cap if you missed last week.  Thanks!

In this body and heart practice, we allow space for our awareness to deeply settle in the body and then explore expanding circles of compassion from this grounded space.

This week we start an exploration of ways to be with ourselves in practice when it is just hard to be with ourselves.   Learning to “track” is a very useful place to start.

Join us for this sitting meditation where we explore grounding in the body with gravity and breath.  Thanks!

“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.” -Kahlil Gibran In this short sharing and practice, we explore the attitudes or qualities of goodwill, compassion and letting go in support of a life well lived.

We need strong refuge points for our awareness in order to support ourselves in the midst of life.  This meditation is about strengthening that knowing of refuge within ourselves.

In mindfulness meditation, we teach how to be aware of the breath as an anchor or refuge, and in our current world, to invite awareness into the breath is to invite again awareness of “I can’t breath…”   That fact needs to be met with a lot of care and compassion.  This week we open to an awareness of George Floyd’s plea for breath and how it can inform us through our practice how to come in...

Join us for this short teaching and sitting practice.  Today we continue the exploration of a quote from Abraham Heschel, “Self-respect is the fruit of discipline. A sense of dignity grows with an ability to say no to oneself.” In particular, we look at how “bite-sizing” the moment helps open a workable choice point for growing this fruit. Also from Rumi (translated by Cole...

I hope you enjoy this 13 minute sitting practice on awakening to and befriending the present moment.

Sometimes we are holding tension in the body that benefits from movement before sitting.  Join us for this combined longer standing and sitting meditation on befriending the present moment.

This week we explore three short Nasruddin stories and how they are useful for understanding our practice.  If you are not familiar with Nasruddin, he is a trickster or wise fool character from the Sufi tradition.  These stories are much loved for the unexpected yet revealing “twist” always present.

For this short morning meditation, we explore the beautiful quote from Abraham Heschel:  “Self-respect is the fruit of discipline.  A sense of dignity grows with an ability to say no to oneself.”