Meditation

I probably first heard music before I was even born. My parents were singers who met while studying with the same voice teacher. My sisters and...

Several years ago, I spent a long weekend at Green Gulch Farm in Northern California. Green Gulch is a lovely, green valley in the hills above...

2020 is the “gift” that keeps on giving. It started with the rise of COVID in March. Even if you have stayed healthy, chances are the...

Every July since 2014, my life partner and I have attended an 18-day metta/insight meditation retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. We signed up again last...

Meditation ain’t easy. It’s arguable that it’s a whole lot harder than yoga asana practice. When you’re practicing asana, your mind has plenty of sensations to...

In recent years, our lives seem to have gotten harsher. Our culture has factionalized. No one wants to listen to anyone with whom they disagree. Dialog...

Mindfulness is trending these days. Since 2014, mindfulness has made the cover of TIME twice. The practice even has its very own magazine, Mindful, with articles...

In 1988, I attended my first silent mindfulness meditation retreat. Since then, I’ve attended more than 20 such multi-day—or multi-week—retreats. Often when I tell people I’m...

In 1996, I attended one of a series of 30-day silent mindfulness meditation retreats. As with many retreat centers, the cabin where we practiced was designed...

I recently posted a blog about practicing outdoor yoga. In it, I shared a favorite quote about the natural world: “The earth is the guru of...

There are lots of things to love about spring—the freshness of new life, the invitation to shed layers of clothing, and the opportunity to spend more...

When we think of meditation, we usually think of someone sitting cross-legged on a zafu or other type of meditation cushion. Indeed, sitting meditation is the...

Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga provide a scaffolding for the comprehensive practice of yoga. As the third and fourth of Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga, asana...

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? How do they usually pan out for you? The new year seems like a good time to start with a...

It’s 3:00 am. You’re wide awake, mind racing. You might be worried about paying your mortgage. You might be puzzling over something someone said to you...

In the early 1990s, when I was just a few years into vipassana meditation practice, I sat a 10-day silent retreat. It was my fourth such...

Some traditions of yoga recognize the “seasons” of people’s lives. These traditions advocate for allowing your practice to evolve according to your season. Here’s how it...

Images of meditation have become ubiquitous. In the past, meditation was depicted as something that was confined to monks in the East. You know the images—...