In Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle writes that one of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called “die before you die.” Of course you know you’re going to die but that remains a mere future possibility until death enters your life through … Read more
Mindfulness of the four elements in Buddhism is designed to remind us that our existence is entirely dependent on the outside world. The division we tend to create between the elements within this body, which we perceive as something ‘I am,’ and the manifestations of the elements outside this body, which we view as something … Read more
Abstaining from sexual misconduct is one of the most important aspects of being a Buddhist. It’s the third of the five precepts that help us cultivate moral virtue, which serves as a foundation for our meditation practice. While Buddhist monks uphold this teaching by maintaining celibacy, lay followers aim to engage in sexual relations only … Read more
Last month, I wrote about mindfulness of bodily postures – a simple Buddhist practice for developing mental clarity. Today, I turn to an extension of that practice called mindfulness of bodily activities. Although they both sound similar, their actual instructions are slightly different. Once mindfulness of the four postures has led to awareness of the … Read more