I recently picked up — and couldn’t stop reading — Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, because I reside with three of his so-called “R(ight brain)-directed” thinkers, and as a scientist I’ve lived most of my professional life in a “L(eft brain)-directed” world. So, though I was motivated by personal [...]
By Jill S. Schneiderman
Dr. Francisco Varela (1946-2001), a neuroscientist and Buddhist practitioner involved intimately in the initiative to foster dialogue and collaboration between modern scientists and Buddhist contemplatives, commented that Buddhism, as an outstanding source of observations concerning human mind and experience accumulated over centuries with great theoretical rigor, is an uncanny complement to science.
Appreciating [...]
After President Obama’s address to the nation last night, Shambhala Sun “Earth Dharma” blogger Jill S. Schneiderman had mixed feelings: “As much as I was glad to hear him assert that we must pay attention in this moment and move forward on alternative energy initiatives, I was sorry to hear the commander-in-chief’s [...]
By Jill S. Schneiderman
The U.S. government and reporters have gone from calling the BP/Transocean calamity an accident to referring to it as an environmental crime. In my opinion, that’s an improvement in verbal accuracy but it misses an even larger and vastly important point. We are now witnessing in the Gulf of [...]
By Jill S. Schneiderman
“What counts is not the enormity of the task, but the size of the courage,” says Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk and confidant of the Dalai Lama who was dubbed “Mr. Happy” after U.S. neuroscientists declared him the most content man they ever tested. Ricard’s statement resonated for me in light of [...]
In his recent book, The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology (2008), the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh asserts that Buddhism, as a robust type of humanism, allows people to learn how to live on our planet not only responsibly, but with compassion and lovingkindness. Every Buddhist [...]
April 18, 2010 – 11:14 am
With the earth functioning for me as an object on which to meditate, or at least as a source of teachings that resonate with Buddhadharma, doubt is the hindrance that shakes my ability to use earthdharma to cultivate equanimity in light of the April 13 earthquake in Qinghai Province, China. Scientific understanding of earth processes [...]
Yesterday I stepped onto the volcanic terra firma of St. Vincent, though I hesitate to call it that given the spate of earthquakes in the first quarter of 2010, after having sailed down the Grenadine islands with my partner, our two kids, and their grandparents. Chris, the skipper of our Barefoot Charter, was a forty-something [...]
When I turned as part of my daily practice to today’s page of Offerings, a compilation of Buddhist quotations, I read a comment by Lama Anagarika Govinda that registered as particularly meaningful in light of the recent earthquake in Chile:
“A bridge is revealed which connects the everyday world of sense perceptions to the realm of [...]
February 25, 2010 – 12:52 pm
Anyone who’s ever done a lot of meditation might think at first, God, does this hurt! It’s true: when you first get into sitting, especially if you’re sitting in a cross-legged position, it can really do a number on your knees. Sure, you should sit with the pain, observing it and noticing it — and [...]
February 18, 2010 – 1:20 pm
Given all of our coverage of the mindfulness movement — in our current “Mindful Guide” issue, and on ShambhalaSun.com and here on Shambhala SunSpace, we’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you about the coming event, “Investigating and Integrating Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society: The 8th Annual International Scientific Conference for Clinicians, Researchers [...]
February 17, 2010 – 11:07 am
Sure, “mindfulness” sounds like a nice enough thing. But are its benefits real? We’ve compiled some of the latest scientific findings. For instance, did you know that office workers who practiced Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for twenty minutes a day reported an average 11% reduction in perceived stress.
Good stuff. And there’s more after the jump. [...]
January 28, 2010 – 12:32 pm
Jack Kornfield has commented that Suzuki Roshi captured the essence of Buddhism with the words: “not always so.”
Reports of earthquakes and tsunamis in the Caribbean region continue to shake my world in Barbados and remind me of Suzuki Roshi’s wisdom.
January 26, 2010 – 10:35 am
Our March 2010 “Mindful Living” issue features “Did You Get the Message?”, an article about mindful living in the “wired world” by our redoubtable online ally (and frequent Shambhala Sun contributor) Steve Silberman.
In this new Shambhala Sun Audio clip, Steve talks with me about the hows and whys of bringing mindfulness with us as we [...]
January 5, 2010 – 3:24 pm
Breaking from across the pond, via ITN News:
Elsewhere, FOX News, despite the Brit Hume/Buddhism hubbub, is suggesting that “the next time you have an extra ten minutes, consider stealing it for meditation … it could do wonders for your health and longevity.”
To explore meditation’s benefits for your mental health, see these articles from the Shambhala [...]
