When The Village Meditates

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest. - Lao Tzu In this episode, I talk about being named a laureate and spokesperson for the Roundtable on Black History Month here in Montreal and how I hope to shine the spotlight that's on me, on When The Village Meditates. As always, we wil...

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi In this first episode of 2024, I talk about the need to incorporate more of the stuff I was doing on vacation when I'm in work mode. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.” ― Nina Simone In this episode I do something I've never done on this podcast. You'll have to listen to find out. But as always, we'll start with ten minutes of meditation. Enjoy

That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something. - Meredith Monk In this episode, I talk about "keeping it real" and explore what it means to truly live authentically. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

"If knowledge and foresight are too penetrating and deep, unify them with ease and sincerity." Xun Kuang In this episode, I discuss the importance of ease and point out a few practices that may help us to experience more of it. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“What you focus on expands. So focus on what you want, not what you do not want.” ― Esther Jno-Charles In this episode, I talk about how whatever we choose to focus on is what grows and therefore I suggest that we focus more on what we want to see in the world. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“Being thankful is not always experienced as a natural state of existence, we must work at it, akin to a type of strength training for the heart.” - Larissa Gomez In this episode, I discuss the practice of gratitude when our life is filled with challenges and even intolerable situations. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is... to tell the truth.” ― Howard Zinn In this episode, I talk about the powerful practice of truth telling and why it's essential to our well-being. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“There can be no love without justice…abuse and neglect negate love. Care and affirmation, the opposite of abuse and humiliation, are the foundation of love. It is a testimony to the failure of loving practice that abuse is happening in the first place.” - bell hooks In this episode, I'm engaging with love as a spiritual practice rather than strictly a feeling. As always, we will sit and medit...

“Meditation is choosing not to engage in the drama of the mind but elevating the mind to its highest potential.” – Amit Ray In this episode, I talk about how it may often be our attachment to certain thoughts, not the actual situation, that leads to our unease or suffering. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

"Mindfulness is a deceptively simple way of relating to all experience that can reduce suffering and set the stage for positive personal transformation." - Ronald Siegel In this episode, I'm talking about compassion again! I also share a short story that demonstrates how compassion can change a life and a situation. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting i...

“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer In this episode, I discuss the impact compassion had on a participant in a recent meditation circle and propose a way to experience more of it in our daily lives. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy t...

"We have to be militants for kindness, subversive for sweetness and radicals for tenderness." - Dr. Cornel West In this episode, I look back on my experience at the Cornel West talk that happened over the weekend. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." - Rumi In this episode, I reflect on the basics of this meditation practice that we have been settling into. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

The human touch is that little snippet of physical affection that brings a bit of comfort, support, and kindness. It doesn't take much from the one who gives it, but can make a huge difference in the one who receives it. ― Mya Robarts In this episode, I discuss the need to feel supported and how many of us may struggle with receiving the support that we desire. As always, we will sit and medit...

“Do not let the roles you play in life make you forget who you are.”  ― Roy T. Bennett In this episode, I look at the power of the Kasàlà, an African style of poetry that's rooted in remembering who and where we are. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness. Home is where the heart’s tears can dry at their own pace.” – Vernon Baker  In this episode, I discuss the concept of home and look at how it can mean many different things for all of us. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.“ — Masaru Emoto In this episode, I go over challenge that I encountered this past weekend and discuss how staying present and befriended it, helped to get me through it...

“When we’re together, paying attention is the most basic and profound expression of love—in a moment when you offer attention, real listening, real presence—in that moment, the heart naturally opens. This is the most basic training in awakening our hearts: Mindful attention. Just being there.” — Tarah Brach In this episode, I look at the various states of trance that we may get stuck in and I disc...

“When diet is wrong medicine is of no use, when diet is correct medicine is of no need.” – Ayurvedic Proverb In this episode, I talk about the need to adopt healthy habits in order to heal and thrive. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.” ― Eckhart Tolle In this episode, I mark Emancipation Day by reflecting on what true freedom means. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“Our heart is wide enough to embrace the world and hands are long enough to encompass the world.” ― Amit Ray, In this episode, I discuss what it means to embrace life rather than judging it and talking about how things should be. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

"Grace is the love that transcends and heals, that forgives and redeems." - John O'Donohue In this episode, I'm still talking about grace. What can I say, it's just one of those topics. I'm wondering if you agree with me when I say that everyone is worthy of grace. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

You have the power to always lead with grace, even if others don't. - Unknown In this episode, I reflect on grace, not in the religious sense but grace in terms of practicing kindness, compassion and forgiveness with ourselves and others. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!

“Within yourself is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself”  ― Herman Hesse In this episode, I revisit the topic of inner stillness. Hopefully what I share will serve as a powerful reminder for all of to return to stillness. As always, we will sit and meditate for ten minutes before getting into the topic. Enjoy the show!