Smile and know

Smile and know

I’ve been guiding the “inner smile” practice a lot in the last few months, both in yoga classes and in guided meditations. It’s an easy practice to turn to many times each day…

Feeling is like a bubble

Feeling is like a bubble

The Buddha used the analogy of “feeling is like a bubble” to convey the impermanence and transient nature of sensations. Just like a bubble that appears for a brief moment and then pops, feelings come and go. Feeling is “completely void, hollow, and insubstantial.”

Abandon hope

Abandon hope

Abandoning hope of fruition is not despair but a deep release and untangling of our confusion about reality.

Slow down

Slow down

It’s the small things, done with care and consideration, that make our lives peaceful.

Observe these two

Observe these two

Almost as soon as we start to practice meditation, to look inward, we see just how wild and untrained are the states of our mind. We are helplessly taken for a ride over and over and over again in endless patterns of reactivity.

The general instruction of ‘observe these two’ is to first take responsibility for our own self and sanity and, second, to be of service to others, helping them to do the same.