Natural Meditation podcast

Self-Denigration is one of the biggest obstacles to bring forth Bodhicitta, the awakened heart. Stephan Pende shares methods to break through the trance of unworthiness and connect with your inner beauty and peace. The teachings and experience of Buddha-Nature are fundamental for us because we are coming from a culture of guilt and shame.

In the end, however, all you have is awareness, the quality of knowing that is present in every moment of experience - indefinable, indescribable, non-conceptual knowing. It seems to be nothing at all, yet it is there - clear and present - and experience just arises, without restriction. Can you trust that knowing? Can you trust that clarity? Can you trust your own experience? - Ken Mcleod

Forget about being good or bad. Bring attention to your life. Experience what is actually happening in you. Know what you are doing and how it affects others. - Ken Mcleod

A guided meditation to help you gently move into a zone of peace and calm in preparation for sleep. Allow yourself to let go of the business of the day and find the silence within.

A guided meditation with nature sounds which helps you to let go of anxiety and restlessness. Stephan Pende leads you into sleep through gentle instructions of letting be and letting go.

Give up your life. Give it all up. Do not base your life on what can be taken away from you - wealth, possessions, health, family, friends, fame, respect, even your own life. If you have those, savor them, knowing that they all must come to an end. But do not base your life on holding on to them. - Ken Mcleod

From birth, and throughout every moment of your life, being is a quiet background presence that’s always with you but that can go unnoticed until it’s directly pointed out. Take a few moments now to feel back through your life and notice how the feeling of being has always been with you. To realize that you are Being is freedom.

Compassion isn't some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we're trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don't even want to look at.

Rely on silence! You become aware of a silence - a silence that is always there, even in your darkest moments, a silence that includes everything and cannot be fathomed, a silence that allows you to listen to your heart, your body and your mind in a way you did not know was possible. Rely on Silence! - Ken Mcleod

Recognize what is going on; Allow the experience to be there, just as it is; Investigate with kindness; Natural awareness, which comes from not identifying with the experience.

Every experience has infinite dimensions. Can you experience all of them without struggling against any of them? If you can, then suffering comes to an end - so obvious, so simple, so deep, and so wonderful. -Ken Mcleod

Awareness has a natural sensitivity and the capacity to express warmth. This responsiveness is what is called tenderness. Our tenderness allows us to respond with compassion, love, and awe to whatever arises, in all its beauty and sorrow.

Stephan Pende invites you to sense the tension or sensations in your body that are present. What happens if you really meet, greet, and welcome sensation without trying to get rid of it?. In natural meditation you are not trying to change. Instead, you learn to welcome yourselves as you are; to be with what is. Let’s start with who we are, as we are, and see who we become when we accept who we are...

According to the Tibetan tradition the emotional patterns that dictate our inner sense of balance or imbalance are functions of the subtle body. The subtle body is a kind of interface between the mind and the physical body, by means which these two aspects of being interact. The Tibetan word for the subtle body is lung, in sanskrit prana and in the chinese tradition it is called chi. Stephan Pende...

When it comes to the true nature of mind, this isn't something that we get from a spiritual tradition or religion. It's not something that we need to seek from a guru or that we need to find by going to a sacred place, but it's a matter of recognizing who we are, whatever that it is. When we see this completely clearly, when who we actually are becomes completely evident and obvious to us, and we...

Bodhisattvas practice 'in the middle of the fire.' This means they enter into the suffering of the world; it also means they stay steady with the fire of their own painful emotions. They neither act them out nor repress them. They are willing to stay 'on the dot' and explore an emotion's ungraspable qualities and fluid energies - and to let that experience link them to the pain and courage of othe...

You already have everything to be complete in this moment. There is nothing to do and nothing to understand for you to relax into the truth of peace. Stephan Pende is guiding you into the place which you never left. Home is here, there is no path.

All Buddhist traditions consider it important to understand the selflessness of the individual in order to gain liberation from suffering. The reason for this is that all suffering comes from believing the self is truly existent. This results in taking the self and everything that affects it very seriously, and we become fixated on pursuing happiness and avoiding suffering. But in fact, the self d...

It is helpful is to become aware of the inner judge. The inner judge is an agency within us that criticizes, judges, compares, condemns, blames and attacks us and others mercilessly and constantly. Stephan Pende share insights and meditations on how to cultivate self-compassion.

Meditation takes us just as we are, with our restlessness and our peace. This radical acceptance of ourselves as we are is called maitri, or unconditional friendliness. It is a simple, direct relationship with the present moment just as it is.

When you attentively look into stillness you find greater stillness. Look clearly into the greater stillness to find greater stillness yet. Continue to easily yet attentively look into greater and greater stillness. If your awareness shifts to thoughts, return again to stillness and greater stillness.

What you’re looking for, is what is doing the looking. That which sees and looks is what is looked for! And that can’t be found. Because it’s not been lost. It’s been looking all along. At the deepest level, you’re holding the answer you’ve been looking for. The answer is in your hands. It’s in your own being. You ARE what you’re looking for. You ARE What you’ve always longed for.

Your physical posture affects your mental state. If you assume a posture that is too relaxed, chances are that your meditation will stray into drowsiness. Too rigid and tense a posture, on the other hand, might lead to mental agitation. Thus it is appropriate to take a balanced posture that is neither too tight nor too loose. Stephan Pende points to the keys of a healthy posture: alignment, relaxa...

All of us are caught up in addictive patterns. Stephan Pende presents how meditation can release us from the grip of negative habits and addictions that block a full and meaningful life. We can learn how to undo our habits and addictions and find true contentment. Stephan Pende also leads two meditations to develop familiarity with states of mind that can release us from addictive patterns.

All of us are caught up in addictive patterns. Stephan Pende presents how meditation can release us from the grip of negative habits and addictions that block a full and meaningful life. We can learn how to undo our habits and addictions and find true contentment. Stephan Pende also leads two meditations to develop familiarity with states of mind that can release us from addictive patterns.