A colleague and I have been corresponding about meditation research and our personal experiences of meditation. He recently wrote me that it’s a widespread belief that in meditation, a person can observe their own thoughts. That idea didn’t make sense in his personal experience, as for him, thoughts were a process, not an “object” you [...]
Continue reading about Meditating on Thoughts or Observing Thoughts
I have been discussing with colleagues how the models we have, explicit or implicit, of what is possible and desirable, can affect how we function, even if we don’t know we have such models. With respect to “meditation,” I thought it might be interesting to share one of the communications I have sent to my [...]
Continue reading about Models of Meditation and How They Might Affect Us
I am fortunate to have Shinzen Young as both friend and meditation “coach,” as I think he’s one of the best meditation teachers around, as well as a great guy. You can get info on the way he’s adapted traditional meditation teachings to work better for us moderns at his websites and numerous teaching videos [...]
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 3, Part 4 of 13 parts. To start class from beginning, click here. Student: I have a question. CTT: Yes. Good. Ask a question. Student: Well not a question, I guess an observation about the relaxing. I find it really difficult not to fall asleep [...]
Continue reading about How I gained enlightenment by being tired?
My friend, colleague, and meditation teacher extraordinaire, Shinzen Young, after paraphrasing a long comment and question of mine that some in the back couldn’t hear, kidded me, in our group process session this morning, that I would be writing an article about my experience next week. Since I feel I need a break from 10 [...]