Category: Buddhism
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Try this simple meditation on National Relaxation Day [free MP3]
It’s August 15, which means it’s National Relaxation Day, a day America imported from our British friends, where it’s called National Slacker Day overseas. There’s much ado about all of the different ways you can choose to relax, which ironically creates stress for the indecisive. In the spirit of the day, I’m going to suggest…
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Losing for the win
Last night at the Boston Martial Arts Center I had an interesting experience while coaching one of the green belt students on some avoidance techniques. The drill was simple: I swung at the student with a foam-padded bopper and after avoiding a relatively slow swing, they had to hit a padded target. It’s a drill…
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Transcending pain by doing the work
Much has been written and much more will be written about the events at the Boston Marathon, and I’ll leave the wordsmithing of it to others who are far better writers. All I have to offer at the moment is some simple advice I received for things like this. Once long ago, I asked one…
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The most frequent piece of advice I’m giving lately
Want to know the most frequent piece of advice I’m giving lately? It’s a piece of advice I gave to the staff at a recent internal training. It’s a piece of advice I gave to friends and colleagues who are crumbling under stress. It’s a piece of advice I gave to DJ Waldow and Nick…
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What you find at the end of the path
Over the weekend, I had the privilege to attend the 15th and final New England Warrior Camp, a previously-annual event held by Ken Savage of the Winchendon Martial Arts Center and one of the finest martial arts training opportunities ever to be held. I’ve managed to attend 14 out of the 15 years and it’s…
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Our conditions define us
I was reading with interest last night about the mayor of Phoenix taking the SNAP challenge, in which he lived on the same budget as any family using SNAP (Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program, or food stamps). The challenge is effectively to live on $4.16 per day of food. His comments on Day 4 of the…
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Farewell, Maki
Maki was born in April of 2001, presumably by a breeder trying for a pure Chartreux cat. I got her from the local animal shelter, the victim of a marketing problem – she had a small patch of white fur beneath her chin which made her, for show purposes, a sub-standard member of her breed.…
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Bridges
In this excellent read about why things feel more divided than ever, someone points out a number of important items. If you haven’t read the post yet, go do so. Welcome back. There’s an underlying subtlety that I think is worth pointing out. The nature of our relationships to large groups of people today has…
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The best teachers answer you with better questions
Over the weekend I had the privilege of attending a seminar with Stephen K. Hayes, my teacher’s teacher, at the Boston Martial Arts Center. The weekend’s topics were many and varied, but I took my own advice (as I always do with Mr. Hayes) and brought my list of burning questions. Here’s the sign of…
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Friday reading: Awaken Your Superhero
This time last year, I was out of the country for 10 days visiting Seoul, South Korea. For 10 days, 10 authors took my place and wrote some incredible material. To celebrate their posts, we put them together in a free eBook for you, Awaken Your Superhero: Download in MOBI Format for Amazon Kindle Download…