This morning in meditation, I was doing deep restorative yoga. I breathed in compassion to myself. Kindness toward the light, lovable parts of me as well as the darker, self-loathing parts of me. As I envisioned a warm yellow sunlight enveloping my middle, I heard the words, "Yoga... is a hug." Hug me. I went [...]
Bodhisattva. For the non-Buddhist, it is almost certainly a foreign term. Maybe you recall the name of an old Steely Dan album, at best. Put simply, bodhisattva is “a Sanskrit term for anyone or anything motivated by great compassion.” It is a combination of two separate Sanskrit concepts: Bodhi—meaning awakening or enlightenment Sattva—meaning existence, reality [...]
We rarely acknowledge the pelvic floor...It's like a dark room no one wants to talk about...and yet, it is a foundational element of the body. Pelvic floor meditation is meant to bring you emotionally, physically and spiritually into this oft overlooked area. Imagine Jizo, the Earth Womb Bodhisattva, holding this part of your body with kindness and patience, [...]
Ever get into a huff that things are not going your way? Are you hurt when you don’t feel understood, and then think that there is either a) something wrong with you or b) something wrong with the person who hurt or insulted you? We toss the term narcissistic around like a ball. We insult [...]
I feel as if I need to explain that without having encountered Jizo on the hillsides of Kyoto in 2006, the stuff I write about would be more grounded in knowledge than experience. I had no idea how much I lived in my intellect, in my mind, and how little I resided within my body. [...]
I have a theory about intimate relationships that is not very popular. I think they often bring out the darkest, worst parts of ourselves. It is as if a ghost child, comprised of both partner’s inner kids, grows up between them. Not everyone encounters this, but many do, and statistics report that couples get to [...]
As I contemplate new and more effective ways to travel the path of the Jizo Bodhisattva, I find myself encountering more and more astonishing suggestions for “How To Live.” I found a Sufi teaching that goes something like this: […]
Enlightenment is to be awake. When we sit in meditation, we begin to hear our thoughts, feel our feelings with greater clarity. As we observe our minds with compassion, we are able to distinguish between what is our personal ego and what is the ineffable part of us that is connected to all sentient beings. [...]
This took me a long, long, long time to learn and will surely take only a moment to say here. Tension causes a huge number of physical ailments and confronting yucky feelings can help release tension. How do we do that? The mind wants a quick trick, a fast way to be better. But this [...]
A dear friend asked me about social anxiety today and as I wrote back, I thanked her for giving me my next blog: Social anxiety is so sad. I have had it, too, at times. I remember a time when I felt I literally had grown three dress sizes in an hour. I felt so [...]
