John T. Kesler, founder of Integral Polarity Practice and longtime mentor of Thomas joins us in season 3 for an exploration of still point practice. In this conversation, John and Thomas explore the practice of Trust and its role in living an inspired and contemplative life. You won’t want to miss this! Listen to a previous interview with John from Season 1, Living an Inspired Life
It is a fact of human life that often, maybe even many times a day, we’ll experience significant disturbance that starts as a spark that sets off a wild blaze. In this episode Thomas offers practical advice and guidance for not letting these sparks connect to tinder. As we deepen this practice, we realize that living in a state of happiness beyond conditions is a real possibility in this very life.
Until we start paying attention on purpose, we usually don’t realize how much of our awareness is tied up in seeing and thinking. In this longer guided meditation, you can learn to gently balance your awareness across the senses. The result is a state of enlivening and joyful Presence.
Mindfulness is a counter-instinctual practice–it gives us strength to turn toward the aspects of our lives that we would prefer to avoid. Like sunshine disinfecting a musty cellar, the light of awareness purifies those parts of our mental/emotional lives that fester. It’s time to spring clean!
Welcome to season 3 of Mindfulness+! Thomas opens the new season in the afterglow of a soul-stirring gathering in Spring City, Utah. He shares a poem from Adi Al-Riga that has informed his practice and soul work over the last 20 years. May this episode remind you of your own passion.
Starting February 6th, you can join a live call with Thomas and Mindfulness+ listeners from all over the world. Thomas will guide meditations, offer insights on different techniques and approaches, as well as discuss questions with participants. Come get your Zen on with a new online community. Register at http://mindfulnessplus.org
It’s such a human thing to wait for the right conditions and suppose that once things are finally the way we like them, we’ll be happy. In this final episode of season 2, Thomas invites the “Kingdom of Heaven” to be now, and for the Zendo to always be open.
The present moment often seems rather dull and unremarkable to the ego. But when we learn to pay attention, to taste the flavor of all that is passing in order to give rise to this moment, then life presents itself as extraordinary. Donate at www.minfulnessplus.org .
What can the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, teach us about mindfulness practice? Quite a bit, actually. Thomas describes two critical dimensions of practice in this episode: liberation and virtue. Like Arnold, you can learn to exercise different muscles for that perfectly symmetrical build.
In this episode Thomas whisks us back to early 19th century Japan for an aesthetic feast in the form of a haiku. This is a poem that captured his imagination as a teenager when he was starting out on the path. Perhaps it will capture yours too.
The three natural states are described metaphorically in Hinduism as waking, dreaming and deep sleep. But what is the practical value of becoming familiar with these states, even proficient? One possible answer that Thomas suggests is Freedom and Love. Join this guided tour and see for yourself.
Our monthly, extended guided meditation to help you get in your groove for Thanksgiving. At the deepest level, we’re not grateful for things so much as we are gratitude itself; always thanks-giving through our very being.
It seems almost common sense to believe that our happiness depends on what kinds of experiences we’re having in life. “Not so!” say a number of prominent researchers in the field of positive psychology. It turns out that how focused we are on the task at hand is the real predictor of how happy we feel. Learn the concepts, exercise your happiness muscles in this show. And please support us at www.minfulnessplus.org .
I’m so happy to introduce Dr. Lynn Bauman to the Mindfulness+ community. Lynn is a renowned scholar and seasoned spiritual practitioner in his own right. In our conversation, I ask him about his conversion experience to Wisdom when he was young as well as some of his feelings about the Gospel of Thomas, for which he is widely known as a preeminent translator. Get his book here .
We have a deeply ingrained habit of being glued to every single little thing that pops up in our environment. This is a good survival pattern, but crazy-making for the modern mind bombarded by pop-up ads and spammy thoughts. Learn to un-glue your attention from all this fluff and rest in the source of attention. You’ll feel freer, lighter, and have more love to offer the world if you do. Donate to support our nonprofit show at mindfulnessplus.org !
A longer, more luxurious meditation this month for all you Mindfulness Plussers. What happens when we don’t assume that life is one problem after another to be solved? What do we become aware of when there’s nothing to complain about, no problem to be found? Find out in this episode. And please support this nonprofit podcast by donating at mindfulnessplus.org !
When we get something for free, no matter how valuable it is, we tend to value it less. When, on the other hand, we receive a gift deeply and offer something back in return, we relate to the gift in a whole new way. You’re invited to explore your relationship to the Dharma in this episode, and to donate to Mindfulness+ to support our future programming! Visit mindfulnessplus.org .
Check out this episode for a morsel of timeless wisdom from the Desert Mothers and Fathers. We can spend our whole lives struggling and striving, trying to be good enough; trying to earn love. If we will, however, we can become all flame!
If you are under the impression that the human body has precisely one brain, you are not alone. Modern Western culture has been studiously ignoring our other two brains for hundreds of years. Take a tour through your many brains in this episode and reacquaint yourself with all you forgot you knew!
One of the earliest teachings of Buddhism remains as insightful today as it was thousands of years ago: if we can learn to separate the tangle of sensory experience into organized piles, we gain insight into our true nature, which is Freedom, and Joy.
Our monthly extended meditation: practicing without effort. Enjoy this guided tour of awareness while doing any activity you please. Maybe don’t try to operate any heavy machinery on your first listen!
In this episode Thomas revisits a classic teaching–beginner’s mind–and adds a polarity spin: The more deeply you plunge into the ocean of possibility, the more powerfully you find yourself living an inspired life and engaging in the world.
Generally, we experience life in a linear way unfolding through time–something happens in this moment, it fades into the past and we make our way into the future. But there are moments where the experience of time can fade away altogether in to a richness to full to speak of. Far from an esoteric experience, we humans were made to know Eternity. Listen in on this intimate episode and see if you can’t already taste the timeless.
We all know the familiar dopamine rush of buying some consumer good, or getting into a new relationship. If we’re not paying close attention, we can easily come to believe that new objects and relationships are the very things that make us happy in life. The classic Buddhist teaching of Seeking Mind teaches us otherwise. Ultimately, we can come to a place of No Seeking where Happiness and Love reveal themselves to be the very essence of who we are.
We’re reviving an old tradition at Mindfulness+. Once a month, a lengthier meditation on a germane topic. This month’s meditation is PIE, or, Positions, Interests and Essence. This practice is in learning to love others as your very own Being.
A friend of mine recently emailed from the campaign trail in Texas and said she’d been meditating with her staff to help manage the stress. She wrote, “I’d really like to center our meditations on the idea of approaching the ‘opposition’ humanely and with love.” Ahhhh, full stop. What a very beautiful thing to want. In response, I offered a few classical passages and a meditation to brings us more fully into this experience of other-as-self.
The Gospel of Thomas is a surprisingly mind-jogging text that reads more like a collection of Zen koans than a book from the Christian canon. In this episode, Thomas (not to be mistaken with Thomas) shares a saying from this ancient text and ties it to a classical Buddhist teaching. In this episode, as in life, you are invited to be happy, whole, and complete.
Our seeking mind rejects the present moment outright and says, “not yet”. "One day I will be happy, one day I will wake up. But not yet." Awakened mind, on the other hand, simply says, “Perfect.” Thomas shares a parable from the sands of Venice Beach, California and invites Mindfulness+ listeners in this episode to surf their life .
Language is a tool that can clarify experience and deepen our insight. At worst, it can also pull the wool over our eyes, tricking us into believing that we know much more than we actually do. When we learn to pick language up as a useful tool and put it down when its job is done, we can enter into deeper presence, wonder. We can enter into the immensity of Life.
When we go chasing after extraordinary experience, we block the flow of grace that is always available. Paradoxically, relaxing deeply into the present moment and not seeking anything special is the surest way to invite a special experience. Enjoy storytelling, poetry and eyes-open meditation in this dynamic episode.
