Mokugyo Fish Drum: The Zen of Drumming for a Wakeful Mind and Mindfulness with the Wooden Fish Drum’s Unique Sound
Buddhist Practices, Mahayana, Meditation, Zen • Chan • Seon
Chanting and disciplined ritual is still important in many schools of Zen. Here, Zen students chant with the famous "fish drum." Mokugyo are instantly recognizable by their entirely unique and pleasant penetrating sound that almost seems to ...
Does Meditation Really Impact Heart Health? What Research Shows
Meditation
Several studies indicate that meditation helps various conditions. Doctors often recommend guided meditation for heart health as a supportive treatment. Although meditation is renowned for its stress-reducing benefits, some experts suggest it can also impact heart health. By ...
Are Somatic Experiencing and Mindulness meditation the same? No — but they are complimentary…
Meditation, Mindfulness, Scientific Buddhist
Meditation and mindfulness have been practiced worldwide for centuries. Today, nearly 14.2% of American adults meditate [Note 1] or incorporate another spiritual or mantra-focused practice — about 5.4% of children do the same. Science-backed evidence has shown that ...
Riding the breath: exploring chakras, meridians, and the subtle body; the quality of “I” and releasing the shackles of mind
Meditation
Chakras, meridians, the central channel, kundalini, and the subtle or energy body. All of these terms, ideas, and words swirl around our current culture like never before. The historical significance and understanding of these differ greatly from our ...
The mindfulness paradox: why meditation can help relieve pain
Meditation, Mindfulness
Living with chronic pain can be a struggle. Even with medication, it can seem like nothing helps. It’s not only the spot in pain that feels hurt — the mind is suffering just as much dealing with it ...
The Hero’s Journey — is imagination the path to Enlightenment? Can truth be discerned with creativity? Why visionary Buddhism is about “practice” rather than “study”
Meditation, Vajrayana
Buddha taught abhutaparikalpo’sti, which translates as something like “unreal imagination exists.”[1] Buddha said, "All teachings are preceded by imagination." This is why both Buddha and Jesus taught in parables — bridging imagination with intellect. It is also why ...
Transform your life with the four protective meditations taught in Buddhism
Meditation
Today’s modern world can leave you spinning. Finding time to look inward is challenging with all the external stimuli demanding your attention. However, the human soul cries out for the deeper understanding and peace that only contemplative practices ...
Mahamudra, vast like space and beyond mind; polluted by nothing with nothing to obscure openness
Buddhist Practices, Meditation
Mahamudra is the ultimate practice in Tibetan Buddhism in many ways — yet it is profoundly simple. Maitripa, Tilopa's great Mahasiddha student, described Mahāmudrā as: "Mahāmudrā, that which is unified and beyond the mind, is clear yet thoughtless, ...
Arya Supreme White Tara, ultimate Tara is more than a “long life” Tara — she is the ultimate of the Taras
Bodhisattvas, Buddha, Buddhist Practices, Dakini, Dakini Wisdom, Deities, Dharma, Mahayana, Mantra, Meditation, Tantra, Tara
Vajrayana Buddhist teachers are universal in their enthusiasm for White Tara. Almost every teacher has real-life stories of people close to them who have been helped by White Tara, especially for health and auspiciousness. In fact, when we ...
Shabkar’s Song of Practice: the entire path, from refuge to generation to completion in one song by one of the great sages of Tibet
Buddhist Practices, Deities, Dharma, Meditation, Tantra, Teachers, Vajrayana
Only a true visionary Yogi could distill a path that fills lifetimes and books into a single song. Such a Yogi is the great Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol, an emanation of the great Milarepa. Both were famous for their ...
Six ways to focus the mind: Metta, mindfulness, breath, progressive, transcendental, or Zazen
Meditation, Zen • Chan • Seon
Our society is rife with stress, competition, fear, and commercialism – yet we're at a time when spirituality has become a buzzword. On one hand, there’s definitely an increased need for spiritualism in a stressful environment, but there ...
Settling the Mind or Activating the Mind — which meditation works, why and how? One’s good for health, the other for mind, and…
Meditation
Meditation is an important practice in virtually all schools of Buddhist thought, and in one form or another, most Buddhists practice it. But did you know there are two main types of meditation? From formal Chan practice, such ...