Deconstructing Yourself

by Michael W. Taft In the long run, meditation is about creating a better life for yourself and for everyone else. Mindfulness has been used for twenty-five centuries because practicing it reliably leads to a deeper, richer, less anxious or depressed experience of being alive. Paradoxically, meditation does this because it is embedded in a [...]

by Jessica Graham I’m a little worried today. The usual stuff: money, relationships, time management. I caught myself biting my nails, which is usually a sign that I’m taking the worries personally. Nothing that I ever worry about is actually occurring in the moment; it’s always something that might happen in the future, or more [...]

by Jessica Graham My teacher Shinzen teaches that mindfulness meditation has three parts: concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity, which all together lead to a reduction in suffering. But sometimes people have “freak-outs.” A freak-out is a state in which you lose the ability to concentrate and maintain sensory clarity. As a result, your equanimity falls [...]