dharma Archives - The Open Heart Project

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The time my meditation practice made me laugh out loud

July 6, 2026   |   3 Comments

Audio only version is here
Meditation practice begins at 6:40

Hello, wonderful Open Heart Project meditator. This week’s email is a chance to meditate together once again. We just moved to a new house and this is my first video from a brand new place. It was exciting to feel connected to you here. Before we sit, I share an experience I had during a recent meditation practice. Instruction was... READ MORE

Feelings are not problems, they are breadcrumbs to the truth

June 29, 2026   |   3 Comments

Audio only version is here
Meditation practice begins at 11:46

Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project, There is a great deal happening in the world that can leave us angry, heartbroken, and overwhelmed. Meditation is not about getting rid of those feelings. It is about learning to work with them without hardening our hearts or losing touch with our shared humanity. One of the most important lessons of practice is to... READ MORE

Inexplicable Magic

June 22, 2026   |   Leave a reply

Hello, Open Heart Project. Wanted to pop in to let you know I have a new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics. It came out a few weeks ago and  was written to explore meditation practice as a spiritual practice.  The book outlines seven principles for keeping your practice in the realm of the spiritual rather than some kind of strategy... READ MORE

Info Session on Inexplicable Magic, June 11, 2026

June 12, 2026   |   Leave a reply

Thank you for joining me and Crystal for this info session on my new book and the upcoming program. You can purchase or learn more about Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics here. May it be of benefit to your practice. There’s still a little time to sign up for the Seven Days of Inexplicable Magic program here. We hope to... READ MORE

Heartbreak is a Gateway

June 8, 2026   |   Leave a reply

Audio only version is here
Meditation practice begins at 13:05

Hello, wonderful Open Heart Project. I hope you are finding joy and ease as much as possible. Before today’s sit, I continue sharing key points from my new book, Inexplicable Magic: Meditation for Mystics. It describes 7 principles of spiritual practice.The first point was We Engage in Daily Ritual. The second was We Live as Mystics (Hiding in Plain Sight).... READ MORE

The unmeasurable results of meditation practice

May 25, 2026   |   5 Comments

Audio only version is here
Meditation practice begins at 13:40

Hello, wonderful Open Heart Project. I hope you are finding moments of ease and steadiness wherever you are. Before today’s sit, I continue our conversation about some of the less obvious but deeply felt impacts of meditation practice. Last week we talked about ritual and the way it reminds us that practice is not only about self-improvement. This week I... READ MORE

There’s more to meditation than feeling better

May 11, 2026   |   Leave a reply

Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project, I heard something the other day in the morning meditation at The Open Heart Project sangha: a thoughtful, well-done study confirms that meditation improves your brain and can make you happier. That’s meaningful and encouraging. It also reminded me that there’s another kind of understanding of meditation, one that comes from thousands of years of... READ MORE

Do Buddhists pray?

May 4, 2026   |   3 Comments

Audio only version here.
​​​​​​​Meditation practice begins at 9:01.

Hello, wonderful Open Heart Project meditator. We moved to a new house recently and the effort to make a relationship to a new space has been front of mind. How do you connect with unseen energies? How do you fill a space with unseen goodness? Alleviate unseen obstacles?  When an Open Heart Project sangha member asked if Buddhists pray, I... READ MORE

Unsettled, but not alone

April 27, 2026   |   1 Comment

Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project, I wrote to you recently about not feeling settled, about living among boxes and in-between spaces, about that strangely tender mix of disorientation and possibility. I had a feeling many of you would understand, but, I didn’t quite anticipate the depth, honesty, and humanity of what you shared in return. A special thanks to all... READ MORE

Not settled, still practicing

April 20, 2026   |   1 Comment

Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project, I’m writing to you from a new home. Moving, as you may know, has a way of revealing everything at once. There is the thrill of beginning again, of opening a door and not quite knowing how the light will fall in the afternoon. And there is also the compression of it all, the boxes,... READ MORE

Meditation is not for self-help. It’s for mystics.

April 13, 2026   |   9 Comments

Hello Wonderful Open Heart Project, I am thrilled and nauseated and delighted to say that I’ve finished the manuscript for my next book. Thrilled, because it was created to honor my extraordinary teachers of the last three decades. Nauseated, because what writer isn’t. Delighted because it’s done. It should be out in the next few months. It will be self-published... READ MORE

Ancient Wisdom for Difficult Times: The Eighth Step of the Eightfold Path

April 6, 2026   |   6 Comments

Audio only version is here
Meditation practice begins at 13:58

Hello wonderful Open Heart Project, So far in our exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path, we have been laying a foundation for how we see, how we act, and how we meet our lives. We began with Right View and Right Intention, then moved into Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, and most recently, Right Mindfulness, returning to the placement of attention and... READ MORE

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