This study evaluated the effectiveness of a Mahayana Buddhist teaching- and group-based intervention, the Awareness Training Program (ATP), which is textually aligned to a Mahayana Sūtra so that its theory and practice are coherent. The ATP aims to alleviate stress by enhancing participant’s compassion and wisdom of nonattachment. Middle-aged working adults (n = 122) in Hong Kong participated in this randomized waiting-list controlled trial. Self-reported psychological questionnaires were used to assess the participants’ level of stress (PSS), sense of coherence (SOC), psychological well-being (GHQ), and nonattachment (NAS) at pretest, posttest, and 3 months later. The data showed significant improvements in the intervention group over the controls for all outcome measures at posttest and 3 months later. A mediation analysis demonstrated that nonattachment mediated both the treatment and the maintenance effects for all outcome variables.

While mindfulness meditation improves pain and depression symptoms and quality of life, additional well-designed, rigorous, and large-scale RCTs are needed to decisively provide estimates of [its] efficacy

Meditators’ brains responded to the coupling of death and self-stimuli in a manner indicating acceptance rather than denial, corresponding to increased self-reported well-being. Additionally, degree of death acceptance predicted positively valenced meditation-induced self-dissolution experiences, thus shedding light on possible mechanisms underlying wholesome vs pathological disruptions to self-consciousness. The findings provide empirical support for the hypothesis that the neural mechanisms underlying the human tendency to avoid death are not hard-wired but are amenable to mental training, one which is linked with meditating on the experience of the embodied self’s impermanence. The results also highlight the importance of assessing and addressing mortality concerns when implementing psychopharmacological or contemplative interventions with the potential of inducing radical disruptions to self-consciousness.

Despite heterogeneity of outcomes across studies, there is evidence that brief MBIs can impact numerous health-related outcomes after only one session and with interventions as brief as 5 min.

This meta-analysis of 85 meditation interventions shows that even a small amount of meditation is beneficial.

We see all kinds of orientations, where someone’s neck is twisted, you can see their chin is pointing right, the chin is pointing left, the chin is pointing up… I see everybody misaligned in some gross or subtle way. When they get activated and the Qi is flowing in deep meditation, the Qi is going to want to jump that gap, pass through that gate into the brain. And what’s going to happen there?

A scholar and practitioner of Chinese medicine talks about how the psychological problems that can arise in meditation often have their start, or at least early warning signs, in the body, and how a more careful attention to our bones and muscles—as well as our physical and social environments—can prevent many cases of “meditation sickness.”

Our novel findings provide preliminary evidence that self-compassionate people are less likely to engage in bedtime procrastination, due in part to their use of healthy emotion regulation strategies that downregulate negative mood.

Multiple mediation analysis in study 1 revealed the expected indirect effects of self-compassion on less bedtime procrastination through lower negative affect but not higher positive affect. Path analysis in study 2 replicated these findings and further demonstrated that cognitive reappraisal explained the lower negative affect linked to self-compassion. The direct effect of self-compassion on less bedtime procrastination remained significant.

Common difficulties included finding time to practice formally and falling asleep during formal practice. Content analysis revealed “practical resources,” “time/routine,” “support from others,” and “attitudes and beliefs,” which were supportive factors for maintaining mindfulness practice. Informal mindfulness practice was related to positive wellbeing and psychological flexibility. Frequency (but not duration) of formal mindfulness practice was associated with positive wellbeing.

There was a significant improvement on the Digit Letter Substitution Test, the Perceived Stress Scale, and three subscales of the Emotional Competencies Scale. Analysis of non-normal data on the Wilcoxon sign-ranked test revealed significant improvement in the Adequate Depth of Feeling subscale of Emotional Competence and all subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.

We found a large number of different categories that go beyond those identified in previous research. Reasons changed with increasing meditation practice, although spiritual goals tended to become more important only for practitioners with a spiritual background.

MBCT was associated with decreased emotional reactivity to social stress, specifically during the recovery (post-stressor)

正坐端然如泰山、
巍巍不要守空閑。
You should sit properly and uprightly, like Mt. Tai,
Imposing and solitary, without dwelling in vacuous quiescence.

The meditation was followed with the answers to a few questions, including whether “sending metta” to an ill person makes a difference, on having many teachers, and the role of ethics (“sīla”) in meditation.

Historical meditation practice (accumulated lifetime hours) was significantly associated with favorable psychological outcomes.

retrospective cross-sectional design precludes our ability to make causal inferences about the impact of meditation on psychological outcomes. So, while meditation practice may lead to improved psychological outcomes, it is also possible that people with better mental health may be more likely to engage in meditation, and/or sustain a meditation practice over a relatively long time duration

body scan led to the greatest state increase in interoceptive awareness and the greatest decrease in thought content, loving-kindness meditation led to the greatest increase in feelings of warmth and positive thoughts about others, and observing-thought meditation led to the greatest increase in meta-cognitive awareness.

Participants in the concentration condition benefitted more if they had a high motivation to develop certain skills and a low motivation to seek spiritual experiences. Participants practicing humming showed greater treatment gains if they had a motivation to [relax]. In contrast, participants practicing observing thoughts benefitted more if they sought spiritual experiences and less if they aimed for relaxation or reduced stress. Finally, participants in the walking meditation condition experienced significantly better treatment effects if they were motivated to reduce stress, but benefitted less if they wanted to reduce suffering or sought spiritual experiences.

This study of 42 novice meditators also found that the extraverts did best with walking meditation but that walking meditation was not effective for those with a high degree of agreeableness.

We meditate on ordinary mind by recognizing it as ordinary mind. We know it for what it is—empty and luminous.

A wonderful collection of key texts in the Mahāmudrā tradition.

A second volume of even more selections can be found can be found here.

These days, however, if you consult followers of Mahāmudrā, Dzogchen and the like, they will not make even the slightest acknowledgement of instructions that suit people’s actual capacity, such as the way to progress in tranquillity and insight taught in the scriptural approach of the great pioneers.

In this work, Dongak Chökyi Gyatso emphasizes that advanced teachings like Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen are most effective when tailored to an individual’s capacity, distinguishing between general instructions and those suited for exceptional practitioners. He critiques the indiscriminate application of these profound methods, advocating for a gradual approach rooted in scriptural tradition to ensure proper understanding and avoid potential misapplication.

We cannot describe it completely. We call the state “ineffable,” or “dharma,” or “truth,” or “reality.” But even these words are inadequate to describe the simple and original state that we return to in Zazen.

A concise introduction to zazen, the central practice of the Sōtō Zen school, according to the teachings of Gudo Nishijima Roshi.

For most of the history of Buddhism, “devotional” practices like prayer, invocation, and offerings have not been at odds or even very distinctly separated from “contempla- tive” practices such as meditation, sutra copying, and sutra recitation.

a comprehensive list of meditation techniques.

Body-centered techniques stood out in being of exceptional importance to all meditators.

Through the perspective of an elephant, the narrative reflects on the challenges of staying mindful and the impact of ego and attachment, drawing a comparison between the physical act of walking and the deeper lessons of inner peace and letting go of suffering. The author also recounts past memories, including moments of attachment, disappointment, and the eventual realization of the transient nature of these emotions.

This one thing, when developed and cultivated, leads solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace…

Ten themes the Buddha recommends for meditation.

The heart is what is aware. When the current of sound dealing with the Dhamma comes in and makes continual contact with the heart, the heart won’t have any chance to go slipping outside, because the Dhamma is something calming and absorbing.

In this short discourse, Venerable Maha Boowa explains that the Dharma is found in the stilled and purified heart, and this is something to be experienced rather than simply believed.

In an attempt to counterbalance the plethora of data demonstrating the relaxing and hypoarousing effects of Buddhist meditation, this interdisciplinary review aims to provide evidence of meditation’s arousing or wake-promoting effects by drawing both from Buddhist textual sources and from scientific studies, including subjective, behavioral, and neuroimaging studies during wakefulness, meditation, and sleep.

The course of meditative progress suggests a nonlinear multiphasic trajectory, such that early phases that are more effortful may produce more fatigue and sleep propensity, while later stages produce greater wakefulness as a result of neuroplastic changes and more efficient processing.

In a daily study of 80 couples across 14 days ( N = 1,798 observations), people experienced lower life satisfaction, greater negative emotions, and fewer positive emotions on days when they reported lower than their average relationship satisfaction, but this association was attenuated for people high in mindfulness.

… meditation may have salutary effects on telomere length by reducing cognitive stress and stress arousal and increasing positive states of mind and hormonal factors that may promote telomere maintenance. Aspects of this model are currently being tested in ongoing trials of mindfulness meditation.

Regardless of what kind of unhealthy body image you start with, this contemplation is sure to get under your skin—not only in a literal sense but also in an idiomatic one.

What should a practitioner or a teacher of meditation know about basic human anatomy and physiology?

In this paper I outline the physiological knowledge and particular insights I have found useful for enhancing a person’s understanding of how we breathe, how we regulate our heart rate, and how we control our metabolic rate in ‘control’ or non-meditative states and the kinds of changes we might expect in a meditating subject.

When one’s ferverous nature has been laid down…

… analysis showed virtual reality meditation to be significantly more beneficial than video meditation.

A total of 315 participants (26%) reported having had particularly unpleasant meditation-related experiences, which they thought may have been caused by their meditation practice. Logistic regression models indicated that unpleasant meditation-related experiences were less likely to occur in female participants and religious participants. Participants with higher levels of repetitive negative thinking, those who only engaged in deconstructive types of meditation (e.g., vipassana), and those who had attended a meditation retreat were more likely to report unpleasant meditation-related experiences.

Underscoring the importance of engaging in meditation practices in a balanced way.

Consistent with study predictions, mixed effect linear models indicated that the MBSR program reduced loneliness, compared to small increases in loneliness in the control group (treatment condition × time interaction: F(1,35) = 7.86, p = .008). Moreover, at baseline, there was an association between reported loneliness and upregulated pro-inflammatory NF-κB-related gene expression in circulating leukocytes, and MBSR downregulated this NF-κB-associated gene expression profile at post-treatment. Finally, there was a trend for MBSR to reduce C Reactive Protein (treatment condition × time interaction: (F(1,33) = 3.39, p = .075).

Ten weeks after the stay, meditation retreats and vacations including meditation were associated with greater increases in mindfulness, lower levels of fatigue, and higher levels of well-being than an “ordinary” vacation during which meditation was not practiced.

Get up and meditate!
What’s the point in your sleeping?

Don’t let an opportunity for practice pass you by.

Here, with the subsiding of thought and examination, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the second jhana, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. This is called noble silence.

Moggallāna reflects that the second absorption—where thought stops—is the true “noble silence,” and the Buddha encourages him to develop it.

mindfulness training may confer benefits greater than those associated with current standard treatments for smoking cessation.

Whenever anyone bodybuilds, he or she is always trying to understand and control the physical in the face of death. No wonder bodybuilding is centered around failure.

In his quest for awakening, according to the traditional account the Buddha tried and discarded various ancient Indian practices as being not in themselves conducive to awakening. Nevertheless, closer inspection shows that key elements of these practices became part of the Buddhist path, a transformation that involves mindfulness in one way or another.

In this way, fasting transforms into mindful eating, breath control into mindfulness of breathing, and a reformulation of an aspiration for annihilation of the self, apparently held by ancient Indian cultivators of the meditative sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, comes to be conjoined to the cultivation of mindfulness of the body. These transformations shed light on the importance and adaptability of mindfulness in early Buddhist soteriology.

Sixteen patients underwent functional MRI while reacting to negative self-beliefs and while regulating negative emotions using 2 types of attention deployment emotion regulation: breath-focused attention (MBSR) and distraction-focused attention (counting backwards).

Compared with baseline, MBSR completers showed improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms and self-esteem. During the breath-focused attention task (but not the distraction-focused attention task), they also showed (a) decreased negative emotion experience, (b) reduced amygdala activity, and (c) increased activity in brain regions implicated in attentional deployment. MBSR training in patients with SAD may reduce emotional reactivity while enhancing emotion regulation.

In the Velāma Sutta, the Buddha provides us with a vivid outline of the relative degrees of merit that can be acquired by performing different kinds of good actions.

In this translation and introduction to the Velāma Sutta (AN 9.20), the author brings out the salient message of the sutta, which is to perform good deeds. However, it is pointed out that the Buddha sees developing concentration and meditating on loving-kindness and impermenance as the best sources of merit since they lead to liberation.

All in all, mindfulness-based interventions in children and youths hold promise, particularly in relation to improving cognitive performance and resilience to stress. However, the diversity of study samples, variety in implementation and exercises, and wide range of instruments used require a careful and differentiated examination of data. There is great heterogeneity, many studies are underpowered, and measuring effects of Mindfulness in this setting is challenging. The field is nascent and recommendations will be provided as to how interventions and research of these interventions may proceed.

Effects of Mindfulness Based Interventions on primary symptom severity were found for people with a current depressive disorder and it is recommended that MBIs might be considered as an intervention for this population.

The compassionate one, who sees the ending of rebirth,
understands the one-way path.

Just after the Buddha’s awakening, Brahmā Sahampati supports the Buddha’s reflection that the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the way to nibbāna.

Research indicates that core dimensions of psychological well-being can be cultivated through intentional mental training.

The age of haste, its cinematographic succession of point-like presences, has no access to beauty or to truth. Only in lingering contemplation, even ascetic restraint, do things unveil their beauty, their fragrant essence.

A spirited defense of slowing down in a world obsessed with acceleration.

Participation in the program predicted increases in subjective well-being and mindfulness over time compared to the control group. Regardless of condition, frequency of meditation predicted lower psychological inflexibility and higher mindfulness, well-being, and progress toward values. Length of meditation session predicted a greater ability to observe experience, and prior meditation experience predicted greater nonreactivity to experience.

Changes in gray matter concentration were investigated using voxel-based morphometry, and compared with a waiting list control group of 17 individuals. Analyses in a priori regions of interest confirmed increases in gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus. Whole brain analyses identified increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum in the MBSR group compared with the controls. The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.

You will never let go of the things you love. So you don’t have to worry.

In this talk, followed by questions and answers, Yuttadhammo explains the different categories of meditation and their common factors, such as mindfulness and concentration.

Consistent with predictions, Monitor+Accept training reduced daily-life loneliness by 22% and increased social contact by two more interactions and one more person each day, compared with both Monitor Only and control trainings.

Both present moment awareness AND acceptance are critical for effective mindfulness.

suññatā is a term pregnant with meaning and of central significance in all Buddhist traditions.

An introduction to the semantics, philosophy, and soteriology of “emptiness.”

If we can bring all this inwards and investigate it, we will see that the birth of a tree and our own birth are no different. This body of ours is born and exists dependent on conditions, on the elements of earth, water, wind and fire

A selection of ten dhamma talks by Venerable Ajahn Chah that covers various topics, such as meditation, opening the dhamma-eye, and right view.

This meaning, the author holds, might best be characterized as “lucid awareness.” He questions the common explanation of mindfulness as “bare attention,” pointing out problems that lurk behind both words in this expression.

You can also listen to Jonathan Nelson read the paper aloud on YouTube if you prefer.

There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is pleasant now and ripens in the future as pain. There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is painful now and ripens in the future as pain. There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is painful now and ripens in the future as pleasure. There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is pleasant now and ripens in the future as pleasure.

The Buddha explains how taking up different practices can have different results. The memorable simile of the creeper shows how insidious temptations can be.

After reviewing 17,801 citations, we included 47 trials with 3,320 participants. Mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence to improve anxiety at 8 weeks; depression at 8 weeks and 3–6 months and pain, and low evidence to improve stress/distress and mental health-related quality of life.

A large (15-author!) review of the literature on meditation effects shows where meditation is effective and what kinds of evidence the Western academy likes to see.

Stronger study designs are needed to determine the effects of meditation programs in improving the positive dimensions of mental health and stress-related behavior.

The faithful succeed, not the faithless. The ethical succeed, not the unethical. The energetic succeed, not the lazy. The mindful succeed, while the unmindful do not.

Nandiya the Sakiyan moves to Sāvatthī to be near the Buddha. At the end of the rains, he asks the Buddha’s advice on how to live and the Buddha outlines a series of meditations for cultivating Right View.

I want to theorize, broadly, the role of culture in meditative practices. I ask the general question, what role does culture play in meditation?—as well as the more specific question: what role has modern, western, secular, and elite-transnational culture played in its constituting its current forms?

Bhikkhus, suppose there is a guest house. People come from the east, west, north, and south and lodge there; khattiyas, brahmins, vessas…

Compare and contrast this sutta with the famous Rumi poem (translated by Coleman Barks) of the same title. Does the poem illuminate anything about the sutta? How does the sutta go beyond the poem?

These five things, when developed and cultivated, have freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom as their fruit and benefit.

Five meditations that lead to freedom and the Buddha supplies five similes which subtly illustrate five aspects of awakening.

With the present book I return to the Pāli version of the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta. My exploration is entirely dedicated to the actual practice of satipaṭṭhāna, informed by the previously gathered details and overall picture as it emerges from a study of relevant material in the early discourses.

Building on his early work, Bhikkhu Analayo details a mindfulness practise that incorporates all aspects of Buddhist psychology.

I am one of those in the world who sleep well.

The Buddha sleeps well, even on cold, hard ground.

This model proposes four intervals in a cognitive cycle: mind wandering, awareness of mind wandering, shifting of attention, and sustained attention. People who train in this style of meditation cultivate their abilities to monitor cognitive processes related to attention and distraction

Analyses revealed activity in brain regions associated with the default mode during mind wandering, and in salience network regions during awareness of mind wandering. Elements of the executive network were active during shifting and sustained attention. Furthermore, activations during these cognitive phases were modulated by lifetime meditation experience.

… there are these four right strivings. What four?

A definition of Right Effort.

Learn the recitation passage and analysis of One Fine Night, mendicant, memorize it, and remember it. It is beneficial and relates to the fundamentals of the spiritual life.

The verses from MN 131 are explained in a different way by Venerable Mahakaccāna.

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (YMR) is a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and renowned meditation practitioner and teacher who has spent an extraordinary number of hours of his life meditating. The brain-aging profile of this expert meditator in comparison to a control population was examined using a machine learning framework, which estimates “brain-age” from brain imaging. YMR’s brain-aging rate appeared slower than that of controls suggesting early maturation and delayed aging. At 41 years, his brain resembled that of a 33-year-old. Specific regional changes did not differentiate YMR from controls, suggesting that the brain-aging differences may arise from coordinated changes spread throughout the gray matter.

What is the mind’s stand?

Someone without the eightfold path is easily knocked over, like a pot without a stand.

This exploratory study examined the influence of a personal practice of Zen Buddhist meditation on the professional work of clinical social workers.

… near Kallavāḷamutta Village, Venerable Mahāmoggallāna was nodding off while meditating…

Seven methods for overcoming drowsiness in your meditation.

… how is a bhikkhu skilled in the ways of his own mind?

The Buddha teaches that if you can’t read anyone else’s mind, read your own by regular self-reflection.

… a group randomly assigned to 5 days of meditation practice with the integrative body–mind training method shows significantly better attention and control of stress than a similarly chosen control group given relaxation training.

A randomized, controlled trial shows that even just a few days of meditation is effective beyond a simple calming effect.

… when people put clean things, unclean things, excrement, urine, saliva, pus, or blood on the earth, the earth is not bothered, humiliated, or disgusted, in the same way, Rāhula, practice ‘peacefulness of earth’ meditation.

Then Venerable Rāhula, thinking “How could one who has been personally advised by the Blessed One enter a village for alms?” turned back, sat at the base of a tree, crossed his legs, set his body upright, and established mindfulness.

The Buddha tells Rāhula to meditate on not-self, which he immediately puts into practice. Seeing him, Venerable Sāriputta advises him to develop breath meditation, but the Buddha suggests a wide range of different practices first.

… meditation is carried out for the purpose of realising nibbāna and thereby escaping from the ills of life

Even in a confining place they find it,
the Dhamma for the attainment of unbinding.

Pañcālacaṇḍa praises the Buddha for finding the opening amid the confinement of the world. But the Buddha affirms that anyone with mindfulness and stillness may find such an escape.

… the god Kāmada said to the Buddha, “It’s too hard, Blessed One! It’s just too hard!”

The deity Kāmada addresses the Buddha with a series of cryptic statements lamenting the difficulty of spiritual practice. The Buddha agrees, but points out that true practitioners do it even though it’s hard.

… the practicer will become like a dead man who, while following others in their normal activities, does not give rise to the least differentiation or attachment

The extraordinary life and teachings of the modern-day Chan Master “Empty Cloud”.

O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food!

Many of those who practice mindfulness of death don’t do so urgently enough.

We can simply answer, from the Buddhist point of view, that we put ourselves here.

I don’t expect everyone to give up all of these things, but there’s no other way.

… he should put forth extra desire, effort, diligence, endeavor, relentlessness, mindfulness, & alertness for the abandoning of those very same evil, unskillful qualities. Just as when a person whose turban or hair is on fire

A method for recollecting one’s own death that leads to urgency, diligence, and, ultimately, joy.

It’s like a bungalow with a bad roof. The roof peak, rafters, and walls are unprotected. They get soaked, and become rotten.

Protecting your mind is like protecting a house.

I arranged those flowers beautifully while recollecting the great qualities of the Supreme Buddha.

Arahant Moggallana asks what meritorious action a deva did to became so powerful.

What six? Firstly, a noble disciple recollects…

A way to escape from greed.

Luminous, monks, is the mind.

koans are presented along with a poetic introduction and an elaborate commentary. A hua-t’ou however is a stand alone, always short phrase or a part of a koan that can be taken as a subject of meditation and introspection.

… how is the liberation of the mind by lovingkindness developed? What does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal?

Some wanderers tell some Buddhist mendicants that they, too, teach the five hindrances and the four Brahmā meditations, so what is the difference? The Buddha explains the detailed connection between the Brahmā meditations and the awakening factors, which taken together lead to liberation.

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

A classic of the “commencement speech” genre and a powerful defense of the importance of inner freedom.

When we watch the mind in this way, we will see whatever arises as it really is. We will keep seeing the truth of body and mind until we become dispassionate to their constant flux, their insubstantiality, their suffering nature. We will release attachment to them, be liberated and know

A blur in the periphery,
like the mind if the mind
were airborne, a buzz…

Here I am, holding one more
mirror. This time smoke…

What people enjoy about smoking is the mindfulness: taking a moment out of the day to step outside and breath.

And even the alertness of nicotine itself is mostly caused by turning off the Default Mode Network: the same as in meditation.

In, out
Flower, fresh
Mountain, solid
Water, reflecting
Space, free

[A collection of] teachings on meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh for those who are new to the practice, as well as for older students.

… one gains firsthand understanding of the way things are, without reliance on opinions or theories, a direct experience, which has its own vitality. It also gives rise to the sense of deep calm that comes from knowing something for oneself

A basic, introductory meditation booklet.

What is it like when the mind is at rest? Did that happen today? How does it come about?

A short talk on MN 140 and the power of being resolved on relinquishment.

The main themes of the book are the diversity and flexibility of the way that the Buddha taught meditation

Making sure to cover all forty of the traditional meditation subjects and placing them within the context of sense restraint, this anthology is an excellent introduction to the textual foundations of Buddhist meditation.

… most yogis succeed with that method

You can’t get much simpler than the breath.

… the subject indicated extremely high magnitude of reward, [yet] the objective activation of the reward system was not extreme.

When most other cortical activity is reduced, a much smaller reward signal can be detected and will be perceived as more intense than when cortical “noise” from other sources is high, as in normal awareness. Indeed, during normal awareness it takes drug-induced hyperstimulation of the dopamine pathways to generate such extreme subjective reports. If this signal-to-noise view is correct, then jhana’s reduced sense awareness is not incidental to achieving extreme pleasure but is a contributing condition.

Chan transcends knowledge, symbols, and all the apparatus of language. You may call Chan ‘emptiness’ but it is not emptiness in the nihilistic sense.

An introduction to the practice of meditation retreat in the Chan tradition and a selection of Sheng Yen’s retreat talks.

Position your buttocks in the center of the zafu and cross your legs.

Simple, step-by-step instructions for doing Zen meditation, with accompanying illustrations.

Kyeho! All activities within saṃsāra are pointless

It is very important to distinguish between mind and awareness.

Vajrayana Buddhism didn’t lose simple meditation so much as bury it under successive conceptual layers.

The only time we can live is now

Explaining the fundamentals of meditation practice and the Buddhist outlook in accessible and winning prose, Being Nobody, Going Nowhere is a much-beloved, classic introduction.

… among practitioners, Zazen is affectionately known as “just sitting”

A brief introduction to West Coast Zen.

The mind becomes clearer and clearer and you will be delighted.

A conversation on the central role of meditation in Buddhism.

While I disagree with Bhante G’s dismissal of mantras and labeling as techniques, his teachings on the theory of mindfulness are always worth a listen.

Just one

I knew I might be late for the morning talk if I didn’t hurry. Yet I didn’t

A brief invitation to walking with mindfulness.

The task of meditation is to understand the nature of the mind and to use it effectively in daily life.

When confrontation occurs with diligent attention, you directly meet all objects entering your stream of consciousness. You keep the object immovable in your awareness, as if it were a stone penetrating to the bottom of a glass of water, instead of allowing the object to float like a cork

A meandering series of talks on the seven bojjhanga from the perspective of the Mahasi tradition, which should prove interesting and encouraging for beginners and advanced students alike.

… anything that offers success in our unjust society without trying to change it is not revolutionary—it just helps people cope.

A monk endowed with six qualities is capable of realizing the unexcelled cooled state.

For a comparison of different translations, see this table.

Overall, Buddhist practice can be seen as a combination of two processes: the cultivation and growth of wholesome, positive mental states, and the weakening, and final eradication, of mental ‘defilements’.

I have arrived, I am home
In the here, in the now
I am solid, I am free
In the ultimate, I dwell

An invitation and encouragement to stop and heal.

… the time for discovering Buddha directly, you must remain alone

A short poem on overcoming our barriers and sticking to the practice.

On mountaintops, in secluded forests and on islands and the like,
Places which are agreeable to the mind and well suited to the season

We found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do […] and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts.

… a bhikkhu who is without ardour and without fear of wrongdoing is incapable of attaining enlightenment

You might wish to drink the nectar of calm abiding…

Forget you. This is about waiting

A poem which shakes ‘work’ from its masculine frame and recenters it, not on you, on your brother.

Now suppose that in the autumn—when it’s raining in fat, heavy drops—a water bubble were to appear & disappear on the water, and a man with sight were to see it. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a bubble? In the same way, a man with wisdom sees a feeling. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a feeling?

Reverends, all things are rooted in desire. Attention produces them.

The Buddha gives an extraordinary ten-point summary of the path from things to the cessation of things.

Meditation is not a pill.

Meditation is uncovering deeper and deeper messes in the mind, and progressively “letting the dirt out.”

The root of all of these
Is not taking your own mind to be paramount

Your ability to stick with these qualities is what’s going to help them grow. When you notice yourself wandering off, ardency means that you bring the mind right back. If it wanders off again, bring it back again. You don’t give up.

Book number four in Ajahn Geoff’s famous Meditations series, on breath meditation and how to approach the practice.

Here in Dzogpachenpo, we settle, without contriving, in what we call the essence of mind

A simple encouragement to cultivate simplicity of awareness.

There’s a way we want to spend our time, but we don’t do that because we don’t have the sense that time is short, time is precious. And the way to systematically raise the sense of urgency—Buddhism calls it samvega, spiritual urgency—is to bring the scarcity of time front and center in one’s consciousness: I am going to die. This show is not going to go on forever.

A gentle introduction to mindfulness of death.

The book was written in 1990, and Wisdom published an expanded version in 1991 that became a huge success. That version has since undergone several revisions and reprints, the latest being the “20th Anniversary Edition” from 2011.

A shorter version of this book from the 1970s (called Come and See) is available over at the Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation.

It is not always easy to look into one’s own mind. Man generally fights shy of looking too closely into his own mind since the awareness of his own silent evil thinking upsets his good opinion of himself. Continued practice of mindfulness of thoughts will help the disciple to understand that his thoughts are not himself.

An excellent overview of the various kinds of mindfulness meditation practices and why everyone should engage in them.

The life enriched by meditation is three dimensional: it’s not a completely different realm, it’s providing a new and clearer perspective.

In meditation we have this delicious, wonderful experience of being nobody… It’s boring. That’s the point… You can’t expect to feel inspired all the time… [But] remember that all of those great monks and nuns and teachers, they all started off — every one of them — with confused minds. They weren’t pure and peaceful right from the beginning. They got where they are through effort. And there’s no reason why you can’t put forth that same effort.

A dhamma talk at Cittarama (Malaysia) on the purpose of meditation.

… the common interpretation of the jhānas as absorption-concentration attainments [is] incompatible with the teachings of the Pāli Nikāyas. […] one attains the jhānas, not by one-pointed concentration and absorption into a meditation object, but by releasing and letting go of the foothold of the unwholesome mind […] the entrance into the first jhāna is the actualization and embodiment of insight practice.

While I think that Arbel goes too far in saying that jhāna can only be an insight attainment, I think her thesis is broadly correct: the vipassana jhānas, while not at all like their fixed-concentration cousins, do exist, contain all the jhāna factors and, in fact, constitute sammā-samādhi.

The aim of this book is to provide instruction and reflection on Buddhist meditation as taught by Ajahn Sumedho, using material extracted from talks he gave in the early 1980s.

A nice graduated series of talks on meditation, recommended for beginner and intermediate meditators.

Even as I work on eliminating the amplification of suffering, I can also turn to looking to ways I might start to amplify more life-serving experiences. Do I sense, anywhere in my body, a bit of well-being? Or even a bit of pleasure, or joy, appreciation, or love? Am I willing to let my attention rest there?

A short introduction to mindfulness as cognitive therapy.

… there is a place for “bare awareness” or “bare attention” within the early Buddhist scheme of meditation

When I first heard her story, I found myself wondering how on earth I could help a mother to overcome the grief of the loss of a son. Nothing gave Laila hope

A therapist successfully uses secularized Buddhist meditation techniques to help Palestinians living with severe trauma.

… hypnotic response and meditation involve opposite processes

Meditation plunges us into the depths of the (normally) subconscious processes of intentions forming and contending in the mind. As we become more familiar with these processes, we can more quickly and accurately identify when, how and why the mind moves: pushing back the curtain of ignorance on the workings of our subconscious mind and reducing our tendency to be hypnotized and controlled.

And for a more recent study confirming the result, see “The association between mindfulness and hypnotizability” American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. 2018 Jul; 61(1):4–17. doi: 10.1080/00029157.2017.1419458

If you’ve ever heard a Theravāda monk talk about the “forty kammaṭṭhānas” this is the list they are referring to.

This article explores to what degree meditation on the breath in early Buddhist thought involved focused attention. Closer inspection of instructions on this mode of meditation in the form of sixteen steps shows focused attention to be only a secondary aspect of the practice, which for the most part rather involves cultivating breadth of mind.

Transcribed from a series of YouTube videos, this short booklet concisely describes the practice as it’s taught in the Mahasi vipassana tradition.

For those practicing intensively according to this booklet, I encourage you to sign up for one-on-one instruction here.

There is also a sequel to this booklet.

While they won’t end racism, mindfulness and other contemplative practices do support ways of being in the world that reflect less of the biases that each of us holds

A brief introduction to using meditation to confront subconscious racial bias.

It’s interesting to walk through the graveyards of towns, and see that for the first few years after a person dies there may be a head stone, maybe someone remembers, but after twenty, thirty, or forty years, they could bulldoze the graves because the land is so valuable and plant somebody else in there. So even your head stone just crumbles to dust. All record of you living here is gone, because no one remembers who you were or what you did. Isn’t that beautiful? So why not do that right now? Bulldoze this idea of who you are

Meditation can be seen as the ultimate in “[restructuring the] lower-level components” of the mind. We abandon all the higher-level cognition built upon words and concepts and return, as much as possible, to the preverbal experience in order to “re-engage and reshape” our way of being in the world.

[There is] a time for listening to the teaching, a time for discussing the teaching, a time for serenity, and a time for discernment.

During my first weeks with my teacher, Ajaan Fuang, I began to realize that he had psychic powers.

Zen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this

This modern classic of Japanese Buddhism has introduced several generations of Westerners to the simple yet challenging beauty of Zen practice.

… beings are intoxicated with life and engage in misconduct by body, speech, and mind. But when one often reflects upon [death], the intoxication with life is diminished.

Topics that are worth regularly reflecting on, whether as a lay person or a renunciant.

Let them enjoy the filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity.

In this Sutta, The Buddha emphasizes the importance of wilderness and seclusion for a meditator.

All of the monks and nuns who declare in my presence that they have attained perfection, did so by one or other of four paths.

Ways of practicing serenity and discernment.

Bhikkhus, develop concentration. A bhikkhu who is concentrated understands things as they really are.

Bhikkhus, these three kinds of unwholesome thoughts produce blindness, lack of vision, and absence of knowledge; they obstruct wisdom, lead to vexation, and are not conducive to Nibbāna.

Along with three kinds of wholesome thoughts.

Mendicants, there are eight grounds for laziness.

And the corresponding eight grounds for energy.

‘I’ve developed the heart’s release by love… Yet somehow ill will still occupies my mind.’

The Buddha’s teachings are effective, so we can’t claim to have practiced them fully if we’re still afflicted by various forms of suffering.

“It’s incredible, it’s amazing! Who can’t become a stream-enterer these days?”

It’s never too late to practice.

Consistent precedence given to the development of contentment during all activities as well as when settling down for formal meditation goes a long way in preparing the ground for what is, in a way, the direct result of contentment: a mind that is happily settled within and therefore able to gain deep concentration.

Part two of Anālayo’s “excursions,” he continues to explore key Pāli terms, this time exploring Upādāna, Sakkāyadiṭṭhi, Sammādiṭṭhi, Saṅkhārā, Vitakka, Yoniso Manasikāra, Vipassanā, Samatha & Vipassanā, Samādhi, Viveka, Vossagga, and Suññatā.

We have to practice step by step to attain succeeding levels of happiness, starting with the happiness that arises from giving, to the happiness from keeping the precepts, not hurting others, to the happiness from samadhi or mental discipline.

A simple and straightforward but powerful summary of the path to wisdom encouraging us all to strive for real, lasting happiness.

When you are repelled by everything, there is nothing to grasp onto and craving becomes impossible.

Ajahn Brahmali explains how ethics and meditation lead to enlightenment.

When, bhikkhus, a carpenter or a carpenter’s apprentice looks at the handle of his adze, he sees the impressions of his fingers and his thumb, but he does not know: ‘So much of the adze handle has been worn away today, so much yesterday, so much earlier.’ But when it has worn away, the knowledge occurs to him: it has worn away.

Liberation happens naturally as the result of cultivating the Path.

It would be good, lord, if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief

This discourse is one of the few teachings in the canon (along with the teachings on mindfulness) which the Buddha declared as “categorical”: always applicable and useful in any situation. This sutta gives, better than any other, the overall direction of the teachings, and is a helpful rubric to refer back to.

It’s only natural that joy springs up when you have no regrets.

This lovely sutta reassures us that the path to awakening is the natural result of cultivating and perfecting ethics.

… when you understand the nature of your own mind, you’ll be able to control it naturally; you won’t have to push

Some introductory remarks on Buddhism and questions answered by Lama Yeshe, the popular Tibetan master.

We waste our whole lives neglecting our minds. And this is really what our purpose is in being human: it’s to develop our minds.

An end to The Los Angeles Course, Bhante encourages us to use our human life wisely.