Guided meditation by Michael Taft, lasting approx one hour. Begins with a long session of deep, belly breathing (about 15 min). Then we contact vast, spacious awareness, going very deeply into it. We then center awareness in the heart. Then from here, at the source of awareness, we observe sensory phenomena coming into awareness. The emphasis here is on the …
Just Let Go — Surrender Everything in Meditation
Sometimes the best meditation practice is simply to surrender. This post is about how to let go. For many years, I took my meditation practice very seriously. I dedicated a significant portion of my life to daily sitting and occasionally going on long retreats, which over time proved to be very helpful. This dedication to putting in the time really …
Guided Sleep Meditation – Relaxation
Listen to this guided sleep meditation. It will help you to enjoy relaxed, natural sleep without drugs or medication. Guided by meditation teacher Michael Taft. Here is the audio-only version of the same meditation: Download audio using Right Click here. Duration: 33:53 Play this audio when you want to …
Best Meditation Books 2019
by Michael W. Taft There are zillions of books on meditation, but there are very few I would recommend, especially for somebody just starting out. Below you’ll find just the books I feel are the most helpful and clear; the best meditation books in 2019. Mindfulness Meditation Books Currently, by far the best book for learning to meditate in the …
Three Vehicle Investigation
A Guided Meditation with Michael Taft In this guided meditation, Michael W. Taft investigates experience through the lenses of the Three Vehicles of Buddhist practice. After an opening breath meditation and focusing exercise, we contact vast, spacious awareness (i.e. Mahayana emptiness), proceed to observe the arising of experience (i.e. Theravada vipassana), and then notice experience bursting forth from emptiness with …
Transcript – Culadasa on Meditation and Therapy
Note: you can listen to the original podcast interview here. Michael: Welcome to Deconstructing Yourself, the podcast for modern mutants interested in mindfulness, meditation, awakening, Mahamudra, and much more. My name is Michael Taft, your host on the podcast. And in this episode, I’m speaking with meditation teacher, neuroscientist, and author John Yates, known to the world as Culadasa. Culadasa …
Allowing Vast, Open Awareness to Do Vipassana
Michael Taft leads a guided meditation at the San Francisco Dharma Collective, demonstrating how to contact vast, spacious awareness. Then using that awareness to do vipassana. This technique completely flips around the usual method of doing vipassana, bringing an experience of crisp, clear, bright, vivid, equanimous that is utterly effortless. Meditation lasts one hour, ending at about 1:01:00 Then dharma …
Directly Investigating Awareness
In this guided meditation, Michael Taft leads practitioners at the San Francisco Dharma Collective through a progressive series of shamatha exercises, followed by vipashyana on awareness itself. Often we think of vipashyana (vipassana) as applying to sensations only. For instance we might investigate a body sensations phenomenologically. However, we can also investigate awareness itself. Often this takes the form of …
Awareness Has No Center
Guided meditation (about 55 min) on emptiness by Michael Taft at the San Francisco Dharma Collective. Noticing that awareness has no center, and that every part of awareness is equally aware. From the viewpoint of Mind, all content arises in awareness. Self and world arise in the field of awareness. This means that awareness has no center point, no place …
The World Is Inside You
Guided Meditation with Michael Taft The world of our perceptions is a fabrication of the mind. We do not perceive the external world directly, but rather through the inputs of our sense organs. This input is then assembled (i.e. fabricated) in the brain (based on memory, best-guesses, unconscious biases, etc.) and then projected into the conscious mind. Most nondual meditation …
Discovering Sky-like Mind
Michael Taft leads a 55 minute guided meditation at the San Francisco Dharma Collective. Relaxing attention until awareness is even in all directions, and the mind appears like sky. Interested in nondual meditation? Click here sky photo by Bill Tyne
Let Go of Grasping – Guided Meditation
Michael Taft leads a 50 minute guided meditation on not grasping onto anything (essentially a variation on shikantaza). Followed by Q&A about pain, suffering, grasping, the 4 Noble Truths (actually just the first two), and the importance of being the kind of dog who drops the ball More on Letting go. photo by Ashtyn Warner
Deconstructing the Sense of Self – Feb, 2019
In this program at the San Francisco Dharma Collective, Michael Taft leads a guided meditation (approx 43 min long) on the “focus in” technique (aka “Deconstructing the Sense of Self”) . Then a talk on how to deconstruct the sense of self, followed by a Q&A session. Subscribe to Michael Taft’s Youtube channel to get more great videos as they …