Deconstructing Yourself

By Jessica Graham I’ve recently become of big fan of lovingkindness meditation, or as Shinzen Young calls it, “Focus on Positive.” From the beginning of my practice I have been pretty hard-core about going in to the most challenging material and deconstructing it using mindfulness. This technique has served me well; I have been able [...]

By Jessica Graham In this series, I have been exploring my relationship with my dad and the experience of caring for him in his final months. It’s been an amazing process of revisiting that time and sharing the stories with others. I’ve received moving emails and phone calls from people who are going though a [...]

By Jessica Graham Last month my dad would have been 55 years old. With his birthday coming up I thought it was high time I got back to my Dying with Dad series. It’s been challenging to write about my dad’s death and relationship with him. It such a personal thing to throw out into [...]

Welcome to the second installment of Mike Zittel’s amazing graphic mindfulness instruction series. In this part he starts right up where he left off in Part One, talking about various ways of meditating on sensory experience in the body. (In case you missed it,here’s a link to Part One.)

I first encountered the work of Mike Zittel through his cartoons in an early instruction manual by Shinzen Young. Later I met him and his beautiful wife Marta at a Shinzen retreat, sitting with them many times over the years. When I discovered that Mike had created these fabulous illustrated mindfulness meditation pages, I begged [...]

By Jessica Graham The seven-day retreat had just ended and I was sitting with my boyfriend and a small group of fellow meditators. We were eating lunch and speaking our first words since coming out of silence. In an attempt to start a little friendly conversation, one woman asked if we would all go around [...]

or Pleasure the Overlooked Vehicle By Stephanie Nash Most people are motivated to check out meditation or delve into a regular practice by wanting to work skillfully with (or get some relief from) some unpleasant experience – like physical pain, negative emotions, spinning mind, lack of concentration, or unhealthy behaviors. Rarely does someone come to [...]

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 [...]

We’ve been discussing concentration lately on the blog. Here, meditation teacher Shinzen Young shares his views on concentration. Fascinating and helpful. Part one of a three part series.