bodhi tree swaying

I’ve just finished teaching a three week intermediate meditation course at Aryaloka, which is my home Dharma center. It was a course exploring how to take your meditation deeper in order to cultivate jhana (Sanskrit, dhyana). Jhana is the word used to talk about various meditative states that can arise in meditation (the word itself means “meditation” or “absorption”) when our distraction drops away and we’re in a very positive, joyful, and concentrated state of mind.

The first week (Calmness, Contentment, Concentration: Part 1) focused on the quality of calmness, which is where our more turbulent and distracting emotions have settled down, and the mind is increasingly clear of thought.

I recorded two parts of the second week, Calmness, Contentment, Concentration: Part 2, in which we focused on giving rise to contentment in meditation, which includes both physical aspects (relaxation, energy) and mental aspects (contentment, which includes confidence, patience, …

I’ve just finished teaching a three week intermediate meditation course at Aryaloka, which is my home Dharma center. It was a course exploring how to take your meditation deeper in order to cultivate jhana (Sanskrit, dhyana). Jhana is the word used to talk about various meditative states that can arise in meditation (the word itself means “meditation” or “absorption”) when our distraction drops away and we’re in a very positive, joyful, and concentrated state of mind.

The first week (Calmness, Contentment, Concentration: Part 1) focused on the quality of calmness, which is where our more turbulent and distracting emotions have settles down, and the mind is increasingly clear of thought. This doesn’t mean that the mind is “blank.” In fact when the mind is calm it’s full of an awareness of perception, feeling, and emotion.

I recorded two parts of the second week, where we focused on giving rise to …

I’ve been teaching an intermediate meditation course at Aryaloka Buddhist Center in Newmarket, NH, to 13 very enthusiastic participants.

My approach is to take the traditional “five dhyana factors,” which are usually enumerated pretty much as “what happens when your meditation practice really takes off), and turned them into a course in “how to cultivate dhyana.”

So over three weeks I’m introducing ways to help:

1. Calm the mind (so that we reduce the amount of thinking we do)
2. Develop contentment (so that the practice is enjoyable, even blissful)
3. Develop concentration (in the sense of sustained attention)

In the first week we looked at ways that we could calm the mind, with some guided meditations and an introductory talk. The audio is completely unedited…

You can listen online or download the file.

A few months ago, Sounds True published my guide to the Mindfulness of Breathing meditation practice in the form of a two-CD audiobook, which contains guided meditations as well as more lecture-style material explaining the background and nuances of the practice.

Gloria Chadwick, over at Zen Coffee, just posted a very positive review. Here’s an extract:

I had the pleasure of reviewing Bodhipaksa’s new 2-CD set, Still the Mind: Simple Breathing Practices for Inner Peace, published by Sounds True. Bodhipaksa is a Buddhist teacher and runs the online meditation center, Wildmind, a wonderful website.

I totally loved Still the Mind. I felt as if I was listening to a very kind, gentle teacher who was speaking with me, a teacher who truly wanted to share the peace and joy that meditation brings. Bodhipaksa makes meditation available and easily accessible to everyone who wants to meditate.

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The wonderful people at Sounds True are bringing out a double-CD set of my teachings on the Mindfulness of Breathing practice tomorrow (Jan 1, 2009). It’s called “Still the Mind” and it’s a step-by-step guide to the four stages of the practice, illuminating the principles underlying each stage and explaining the various ways that our awareness of the breath can be used to cultivate calmness, energy, mental integration, and one-pointed concentration.

Here’s a bit of the blurb.

The average person has 12,000 thoughts per day—most of them a recurring handful of unwelcome distractions. On Still the Mind, master meditation teacher Bodhipaksa offers an essential program for anyone looking to move beyond the chatter of a too-busy mind, while laying the foundation for a daily meditation practice. Two CDs of instruction and guided sitting sessions will help you discover the breath as an untapped

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I’ll be doing a little teaching (or meditation-leading, to be more accurate) at Aryaloka’s “Meditate For Peace Day” on January 1, 2009, here in Newmarket, New Hampshire

Here are the details for the whole day:

MEDITATE FOR PEACE DAY

JANUARY 1, 2009
6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sending wishes out to the world for peace for the coming year!

Meditation on the hour (6 a.m., 7 a.m., etc.)
Guided meditations at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m.
Come for one session or stay as long as you like
Lunch break from 12-1 p.m. (please bring your own food)
Light snacks and beverages throughout the day
End at 6 p.m.

More information is available from Aryaloka.