Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 11:30. Hello Open Heart Project, I hope you are well and safe. This hardly needs saying, but we seem to be a particularly intense point in the pandemic cycle. For many, the world is beginning to open back up. This may feel great, frightening, or both. There are a lot of theories... READ MORE
Audio-only version is here. Meditation practice begins at 12:56 Dear Open Heart Project, Hello, I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well. I’m delighted to send you a new meditation video. Before we sit, I offer you two ancient “slogans” meant to invoke the best of your wisdom and compassion (without turning you into a wuss). Please... READ MORE
Audio only version is here Meditation begins at 9:20 Dear Open Heart Project, I hope you and your loved ones are well. Please let me hear how you are doing? What is difficult? What is helping? I’d love to know. I once had the chance to interview the wonderful vipassana meditation teacher Tara Brach about compassion. I asked her what... READ MORE
With Practice the five strengths, the condensed heart instructions, we bodhisattvas-in-training are settling into a sense of meditation practice permeating our entire lives. Distinctions between meditation and non-meditation begin to blur and we see that there is only awareness available to us all the time, no matter how heightened our state of feeling. We are nourished by this and find... READ MORE
I hope you are well and healthy and the same is so for all your loved ones. When I was thinking about this week’s slogan in light of all the coronavirus anxiety, I thought for a moment to offer something more immediately relevant than a thousand-year old slogan. Until I realized that this week’s slogan is exactly that. I realize... READ MORE
The main reason I find to be hopeful is the beauty and profundity of the dharma. The more I turn my mind toward it, the more empowered I feel. The more empowered I feel, the more energy I have to be of benefit. The more I turn my mind toward chaos, the less I have. . Obviously, no one has... READ MORE
Over in the Open Heart Project sangha, we are studying the 59 slogans of Atisha which is a thousand-year old practice for training the mind for loving-kindness and wisdom. This week, our seemingly elliptical slogan is “In all activities, train with slogans.” . In other words, slogans are good. The truth is, you are already following this instruction. However, the... READ MORE
In 2020, the Open Heart Project sangha is exploring the 59 slogans of Atisha, one per week. These slogans are also called lojong (or mind training) practice. They are exceptionally dense. So much meaning is packed into each slogan. Their meaning is not understood through the intellect. Rather, it is arrived at through contemplation. . How is contemplation different than... READ MORE
Hello, I hope you are well and feeling happy. Or happy-ish. Or happiest. . At the Open Heart Project, we are studying the 59 slogans of Atisha, a thousand-year old practice also known as lojong. The slogans are incredibly pithy and dense. They are like objects that expand in water only, here, the water is your awareness. All you have... READ MORE
Over in the Open Heart Project sangha, we are engaged in an ancient practice called lojong or mind training. In this practice, we train our minds through the contemplation of slogans. There are 59. This week, we are on slogan #6: . “In post-meditation, be a child of illusion.” . Two questions arise immediately. . First, what is post-meditation? One... READ MORE
In the Open Heart Project sangha, we are contemplating one slogan per week from the 59 lojong (mind-training) slogans of Atisha. They date back over one thousand years. . There are 59 “slogans” which range from the obvious (First, train in the preliminaries) to the inspirational (Thank everyone) to the fascinatingly inscrutable (Three objects, three poisons, three seeds of virtue).... READ MORE
This week at the Open Heart Project, we are contemplating the 4th of the 59 slogans of Atisha: “Self-liberate even the antidote.” . This slogan is saying something like: If you think you’ve understood emptiness or enlightenment or any other so-called spiritual concept, that’s not it. It’s telling us that to arrive at a conclusion is to miss the... READ MORE