Category Archives: Meditation

Upasika Renewal at Abhayagiri

Sunday, while many are celebrating Father’s Day, I will be at Abhayagiri Monastery participating in the annual Upasika Renewal Day. I’ll be traveling there tomorrow with several others from Portland Friends of the Dhamma. It will be my first visit to Abhayagiri. We plan to arrive by 5:30, in time to share tea and conversation with [...]
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The 32-Parts Project

The phrase “contemplating his navel” is a common euphemism for meditation. It evokes an image of an overweight, bare-chested man sitting cross legged, head drooped in a meditative stupor. Someone who’s lost in thought must be wasting time. Another phrase is “navel-gazing.” Answers.com defines navel-gazing as “excessive introspection, self-absorption, or concentration on a single issue.” [...]
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Insight into Pain and Fear

To sit in meditation means to sit still and be with what arises – both physically and mentally. The idea, or one of them, is to resist the urge to move the body when discomfort arises. We’re always moving away from what is unpleasant toward what is pleasant. It’s an unconscious response that occurs all [...]
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Mindfulness of Dull Mind

It is November. There is more to knowing this than looking at the calendar, seeing the changes in scenery, and feeling the changes in the atmosphere. My brain knows it on a deep physiological level. My doctor tells me it?s the pineal gland. Shaped like a tiny pine cone, it lies near the center [...]
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