Category: Meditation
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Kumihimo: Japanese Braiding
A Japanese spirit seems to be upon me … Kumihimo is yet another beautiful example of a living-meditation: … and in this video … working with 68 braids … there is a glimpse of what I believe is a key to this art (and any art!?) … the instruction sheet that guides the maker ……
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Japanese Toolmakers
As I stand at the entrance to the space of Japanese Kumiko woodworking, I find myself also getting acquainted with the tools associated with the culture. And one of the fundamental functions in wood-working is cutting … which ultimately involves blades in many forms. A unique feature of many japanese tools is laminated metal ……
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A Seed of Meditation in Distraction?
I was nearing the end of a practice, sitting. I experience subtle flavors of sitting, but for me they are like dreams, hard to hold on to later. One of the prominent indicators is a feeling of being welcome in sitting. This time was like that. Another prominent indicator is an apparent interest to stay…
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Christopher Alexander on Concentration (dharana)
“… thought experiments … There were serveral of us making these judgements, together. That always helped to make our judgments more reliable. With some effort, we could reach agreement of feeling on any given issue. But it is not so easy to do these experiments. Although having several people together helps, because one can then…
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Pranayama Prepares Mind for Meditation
Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to meditate the mind becomes frantic? No matter how soft a meditation practice you have, when you first sit down and observe the mind it’s all over the place. Then when you want to gently help it settle is seems to run around even more. Dropping…
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Mind Friend Heart
This February comes with a special twist. I’ve been gifted with an opportunity to partake in Peter Fernando’s A Month of Mindfulness online meditation course. For the past 12 years I’ve been studying and practicing exlusively under the guidance of my two Yoga teachers. This is the first time I am venturing off my spiritual-treasure-island…
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How to End a Pranayama Practice
Pranayama can lead to a delicate place, one that is easy to disturb and lose. The inherent structure of a Pranayama practice leads to an ending that may disturb the very delicate quality it created. My practices bring me with two such obstalces: (1) lowering my arm from the nostril control position; (2) stopping the…
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Movement after Meditation
Yoga asana (physical postures) practices are very helpful in preparing the body for seated meditations in which the body is usually placed in an unnatural static position in which legs are folded to form a base and the back is held erect. Regardless of preparation, static sitting places certain stresses on the body. Such stresses,…
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Mind to Heart & Beyond
Yoga teachings suggest that the heart is the “seat of knowledge”. In thinking back about the evolution of my practice and of people I have taught – I recognized some milestones which seem to mark a path. I began my journey as most westerner’s do – entrenched in the mind, seeking something more. Early in…
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Meditating on Sabbath
We have new neighbors – they moved into the house next to ours – they are religious Jews. They moved in this week, and from the day they moved in, their house emanated noises of a hectic family: children running & playing, a constant hum of a washing machine, babies crying, children yelling, parents yelling…
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Sitting in Yoga
Having a good seated posture is very useful in Yoga. As your practice develops you may find yourself sitting for breathing and meditation practices. In this article we will work our way through a series of sitting variations – starting from a classic seated pose and then progress through more accessible variations. You may use…