Category Archives: Buddhism

Awareness of Breath by Ajahn Chah

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Here’s a lovely and precise instruction on how to practice breath awareness by Ajahn Chah:

Just be aware at the breath. You don’t have to be aware of anything else. Keep making your awareness more and more refined until it feels very small but extremely awake.

Keep watching the breath get more and more refined until there’s no more breath. There’s just awareness, wide awake.

Let go of everything, leaving just this singular awareness.

Don’t worry about the future; don’t worry about the past.

Stay right here.

– Ajahn Chah

 

Awareness is Your Refuge

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Especially In honor of the people who will take refuge and the five precepts this Thursday, December 20, at One Dharma Nashville, here is a lovely reflection on refuge by Ajahn Sumedho:

Awareness is Your Refuge

Awareness of the changingness of feelings,

of attitudes,  of moods,  of material change

and emotional change:

Stay with that, because it’s a refuge that is

indestructible.

It’s not something that changes.

It’s a refuge you can trust in.

This refuge is not something that you create.

It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal.

It’s very practical and very simple, but

easily overlooked or not noticed.

When you’re mindful,

you’re beginning to notice,

it’s like this.

Our 2013 Mindful Photography Calendars are Now Available

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These calendars were made from photos from our 2012 September Contemplative Photography Retreat. Created by one of our participants, Shelley Davis-Wise, each photo includes a dharma quote or poem. The calendars are for sale during our regular hours and are $15 each. They are a fund raiser for One Dharma. Here are a few sample images:

For more information email onedharmaretreat@gmail.com.

Meditation is Not a Hobby

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Meditation is not a hobby. It is important to address the problems of the world, of our society, to express our understanding through compassionate action. But if the world is truly to be a place of peace then we need to understand our own minds. Because what is happening “out there” is simply a manifestation of what is happening in the mind.

-Joseph Goldstein

Meditation and the Release Valve

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Meditation can be like loosening a valve to release pressure. Sometimes emotions, strong thoughts, and anxiety can build up and create pressure inside. Coming into direct contact with these elements through meditation and mindfulness practice can act as a release valve that lets out pressure. Afterward, we often experience a feeling of lightness and ease.

Coming into direct contact with experience means there’s no filter or barrier (resistance) keeping you separate from what is arising in this moment.