How important is posture in meditation? What posture’s easiest to sleep in: lying, sitting, standing, walking, or running? Lying, duh. And what do you do if you’ve been working for a few hours and are starting to feel yourself dragging? How would you freshen yourself up? Doomscroll through
How long should I sit for starting out? Depends on where you’re at and what you want. If you’re happy to take your time and slowly reign in your mind, 30 minutes a day is a good starting point. If you’re dead-set on enlightenment, 10+ hours a
This time I’m starting because there’s an important question which I doubt you’ll ask about: what are the key factors of a successful meditation practice. Last time, we discussed the why, what, and how of meditation in broad strokes. However, we didn’t cover how with sufficient
I’ve come across so many meditation techniques - staying with the breath, mantras, chanting, visualizing a lake, etc. I’ve even tried a bunch myself at this point. What’s the Zen way? And how do I make sense of all these options? Before telling you how to meditate,
A few of my friends suffer from depression and, to be honest, it’s heartbreaking to talk to them some days. I’m hit with a wave of darkness that overwhelms me. I grew up with one of them. When we were young, we played football together and he was
I hear all of this talk about enlightenment. Honestly, I’m not interested. My goal is more modest: I want to wake-up feeling good about my life every day. That’s it. Can Zen help? A few years back, mindfulness programs were all the rage. The benefits touted were huge:
Can you do a quick overview of the different traditions for me, an ignorant Zen noob? Sure, but bear in mind it’s broad strokes. There are six main schools: Chan, Soto, Rinzai, Thien, Seon, and Western. Chan: Chinese Zen. Zen started in China some 1,800 years back as
I hear a lot about the different schools of Zen. Rinzai, Soto, Korean Zen, Western Zen. So what’s what? And are the differences important? Very important. Very, very important. Have you ever watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Yea, loved it. Watched it with my dad growing up.
Do I need a teacher? No. One of my own old teachers, Russel Williams, was enlightened by a horse. Seriously. Uhhhh…was he on some wild acid trip? Nope. He was an orphan barely scraping by and took a job looking after horses. He had no background with the animals
Who does a Zen person vote for? Whoever they want to vote for. Religion doesn’t determine political affiliation. Yes, there’s some overlap. If you’re Catholic in the US now, 48% are Republican and 47% Democrat. The same applies to Zen. A lot of folks have this idea
