The following post was partly inspired by Bhante Gunaratana’s book Meditation in Plain English, Wisdom Publications, 2011. The meditation we practice here is called Vipassana or Insight meditation. Vipassana is exercise in attention and awareness. When we practice it, we must toss out everything in our mind except awareness of sitting still and breathing. This is not easy to do. We keep practicing diligently and one day our conscious thought, the ego, moves like a cloud and lets the sun of awareness shine. The pure awareness hides behind our ego which is nothing but our judgement, evaluation and criticism of people and events. Such mental images hide awareness.  Continuous focus on the breath at the tip of your nose, (or chest or belly) takes you deeper and deeper and makes you aware of your sensations, feelings......

In the book titled, The Happiness Project: Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, the bestselling author Gretchen Rubin writes that she had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places – a city bus.  “The days are long, but the years are short,” she thought. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” (Money doesn’t buy happiness!) In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her own happiness. Reading her musings, I remembered how many decades ago it occurred to me that I could not change the world but I could only change myself. But how? I reread the world wisdom books, researched new......

Just as plants have the capacity to bring scented flowers to life, just as black rock can crystalize into a glittering diamond, and just as an egg can grow to become a captivating peacock, you too can transcend into your Authentic Self. When you are fully present in the now, when you are embodied, and grounded, you are at your truest self. Let the intelligence of your body, your mind and your heart inform you, awaken you, and guide your day. How can you actualize this? How can you become your Authentic Self? How can you connect with and experience your inner body? By being self-aware and attentive of your surroundings with the practices of journaling and meditation.   These practices remove the masks and self-protective shields you tend to cover......