Loving-Kindness (or Metta) Practice In loving-kindness practice, you repeat well-being phrases for yourself and then for your loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally all sentient beings. In loving-kindness practice, you repeat the following phrases for yourself and then for your loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally all sentient beings. You can say these phrases either out loud or silently to yourself. Try to keep a steady rhythm going while you’re repeating these words and avoid letting your mind wander. Visualize the person you’re directin ..read more

Knowing What’s Really Happening: Experience vs. Interpretation A crucial skill for minimizing emotional chaos and sustaining clarity in your life is the ability to distinguish between your experience and your interpretation of your experience. A crucial skill for minimizing emotional chaos and sustaining clarity in your life is the ability to distinguish between your experience and your interpretation of your experience. Your experience is simply whatever is happening in the moment—a sound, a taste, a bodily sensation, an emotion, any kind of interaction, etc. Your interpretation is yo ..read more

Patience and Persistence: Two Empowerments from the Paramis Living in this realm brings inevitable stress, physical and mental pain, and disorientation from constant change. This has never been more true than during the Covid-19 pandemic of the past year. The paramis allow us to live with the truth of dukkha (experiencing unsatisfactoriness or disquiet) in a manner that’s empowering. This talk focuses on the paramis of patience and persistence and the endurance, steadfastness, and clarity that can be cultivated in practicing these two qualities. – from Fall Insight Retreat, Spirit Rock Medit ..read more

Arriving Meditation: Establishing Mindfulness and Presence When we fully arrive both internally and externally, we create the conditions for mindfulness to take root and for presence to arise. With mindfulness and presence, we are in a place where we are empowered to be observer/participants of our lives and to make wise choices regarding our thoughts and actions. – from Fall Insight Retreat, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, October 4, 2020 Dharma Wisdom with Phillip Moffitt · Arriving Meditation: Establishing Mindfulness and Presence The post Arriving Meditation: Establishing Mindfuln ..read more

Do We Dare To Create A Blank Page? As we begin this new year, we are coming out of the darkest time of the year and we are starting to notice the return of the light. Our journey towards wisdom follows a similar cycle of light and dark. Can we begin the year on a blank page? It’s not that we don’t have habits or previously formed realities. But we have a choice not to be defined by the past. We have a choice how we relate to this moment, this new chapter, here and now. Dharma Wisdom with Phillip Moffitt · Do We Dare To Create A Blank Page? The post Do We Dare To Create A Blank Page ..read more

Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris Way before Buzzfeed, the Buddha was creating listicles: The Seven Factors of Enlightenment, The Three Jewels, The Eight Worldly Winds… I could go on. He wasn’t using these lists as clickbait, obviously; they were teaching tools — ways to understand how the mind works, and how we can work with the mind. The first and, many believe, most important list promulgated by the Buddha was the Four Noble Truths. And today, we’re going to take a stroll through this list with Phillip Moffitt. The post Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris appeared ..read more

Guided Mindful Movement — Lying on the Floor Find ease and release in this gentle, guided mindful movement sequence led by Phillip Moffitt. All the movements are practiced lying on the floor. Dharma Wisdom with Phillip Moffitt · Guided Mindful Movement The post Guided Mindful Movement — Lying on the Floor appeared first on Dharma Wisdom ..read more

Guided Metta: Forgiveness You practice forgiveness for your own sake, to not be locked in anger, fear, and resentment. Resentment, whether cold fury or smoldering rage, hardens your emotions, narrows your options in responding to life, clouds your judgment, locks you out of experiencing the flow of life, shifts your attention from those who matter to you to those whom you disdain, and deadens your spirit. Why would you choose to live in this manner? Dharma Wisdom with Phillip Moffitt · Guided Metta: Forgiveness The post Guided Metta: Forgiveness appeared first on Dharma Wisdom ..read more

Dharma Talk: Navel Gazing It’s easy to confuse mindfulness and “navel gazing.” Mindfulness is contemplation, inquiry, and self-reflection. When you become obsessive in your contemplation, it leads to navel gazing. Ask yourself: Am I staying in a cycle of suffering? Am I truly present? Am I overthinking something and not letting it go? Dharma Wisdom with Phillip Moffitt · Dharma Talk: Navel Gazing The post Dharma Talk: Navel Gazing appeared first on Dharma Wisdom ..read more