Blue and yellow beads of light travel through space to signify transcendence
The Five Attainments of Meditation Practice

The Five Attainments of Meditation Practice

Occasionally I come across a piece of writing so pure and resonant that I simply want to share it—and say as little as possible. This is one such case. Written in China during the Han Dynasty, it’s one of the most straightforward guides I’ve found on training the mind—an aim of meditation—and on how this training manifests in everyday life. Enjoy. Therefore, when the mind is not worried or overjoyed, virtue is attained.When it is fluid and does not waver,…

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A happy boy with red hair lies on his back in a green meadow, breathing in the fresh air all around him.
The Three Vital Breaths Meditation

The Three Vital Breaths Meditation

The Three Vital Breaths are a cornerstone of Taoist and Qigong meditation practice. I like to teach this breath-based practice to new meditation students because it helps to restore natural breathing, not to be confused with normal breathing You also may encounter variations of this practice in yogic traditions. Essentially it retrains your torso’s respiratory muscles to expand and contract with greater fluidity. Such optimal muscle relaxation and coordination induces a more complete inhalation and exhalation, the crux of meditative…

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A diverse group of people, old and young, men and women, are viewed from behind while taking a yoga class
The Most Effective Medical Treatment Ever Devised

The Most Effective Medical Treatment Ever Devised

Look far and wide and you won’t find more effective medicines for preventing and treating disease than physical activity and exercise. Some people watch the Super Bowl each year just to see the entertaining commercials. I never watch the game live, because I can’t stand what those “creative” commercials are selling. First in line are the fast food giants, selling the saltiest, greasiest, fat-loaded industrial-processed substitutes for real food on the planet. Next come the factory-made salt-fat snack bombs, containing…

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A toddler blows a large group of soap bubbles in the sunshine beneath some trees
An Introduction to Breath-Based Meditation Practice

An Introduction to Breath-Based Meditation Practice

Breath-based meditation is foundational in many meditation systems including ones from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, and various yogic schools. The reason the breath makes such a good meditation object is that it’s ever-present, immediate, vital, and links the unconscious and conscious mind. In other words, you can breathe automatically without even thinking about it; and yet, you can also consciously control your breath whenever you choose to. Breath-based meditation is also handy because you can perform it in different…

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A porthole in a rock outcropping suggests seeing something faraway, as in the future
The Three Mindfulness Adjustments

The Three Mindfulness Adjustments

As a practitioner of mindfulness meditation for 46 years, and a teacher of it for 25, I’ve followed the rise of the mindfulness movement over past two decades with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s been refreshing to see something I so value getting some airtime. On the other hand, its popularization, a.k.a. McMindfulness, has trivialized the practice beyond recognition, depicting it as a faddish skill you can pick up over a weekend. Mindfulness isn’t a new way to…

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