Mindfulness

Doug reflects on five key lessons he wishes he had understood earlier in his Buddhist practice: misconceptions about meditation, the importance of testing teachings rather than accepting them on faith, treating the Dhamma as tools rather…

Mindfulness isn't only about formal meditation, it's meant to be taken into all aspects of our life, even the most mundane. We'll provide practical tips on how this can be achieved, and discuss the advantages of living more mindfully.

How do we practice Right Mindfulness in Buddhism? We'll look at the traditional Four Foundations of Mindfulness, and what the point is of living a mindful life.

One aim of Buddhism is to help us accept our mortality and so come to terms with death. We'll look at how his mortality was the Buddha's concern when he began his search, how coming to terms with mortality functions in various forms of…

Is mindfulness universally wholesome, or not? I'll look at two different viewpoints, one from the Theravāda abhidhamma, and another from a recent monastic scholar.

The word for "mindfulness" in Pāli literally means "memory". Does memory play a role in mindfulness practice? Or is memory unimportant? I'll look at a recent debate between two scholars of the early material, Bryan Levman and Bhikkhu…

Can training in mindfulness help AI to align its values more wisely? I'll look at how honesty requires self-awareness, and how mindfulness can help. I'll also consider how AI systems might use internal feedback loops to monitor their own…

Mindfulness is ordinarily a practice of awareness of what is present to us, right now. But one aspect of such meditation involves being mindful of things that are not present. We will look at this aspect with reference to early suttas and…

The Persian poet Rumi is credited with a poem called "The Guest House" that's often used in the context of Buddhist mindfulness practice. We'll look at that poem and why it isn't really by Rumi. We'll then look at Rumi's original poetry…

Much of Buddhist meditation practice involves a focus on the present moment. We'll look at the history behind such ideas with help from one recent paper by Anālayo that takes a look at mindfulness practices in early Buddhism. Then we'll…

We'll look at one recent article in the Harvard Business Review that claims mindfulness meditation can lead to worse job performance, something that could potentially lose you your job. Why is this and what lessons should we take from it?…

Do you have a meditation practice where you do mindfulness of breathing? We'll go over five tips from a text in the early tradition that outlines five ways we can work to benefit such a practice.

In this video we'll look at the last eight aspects of mindfulness of breathing practice as described in the early texts. This includes practices of mindfulness of breathing related to mind, and to dharmas. We'll also consider how this…

We'll look at the first eight aspects of mindfulness of breathing practice from the early texts, four having to do with the body, and four with feeling tones.

When we begin our meditation practice we often begin with mindfulness of breathing. But it is so much more than an introductory practice. We'll look at its importance in the early suttas with help from a recent book on the topic by…

Is Barbie becoming Buddhist? A recent article in Lion's Roar magazine noted that the popular Mattel Barbie doll had become a mindfulness vlogger, apparently with a Buddhist background. We'll look at some of the videos she produced, and…

In mindfulness meditation it's said we should practice with the internal, the external, and both. But what do these mean? We will take a look at some possible interpretations and how they can aid in mastering our practice.

Mindfulness practice can help us remain healthy in the face of a virus, even the Coronavirus. We'll look at how with the help of a recent article from the New York Times.

What is the history of Buddhist meditation practice? In this video we'll look at some changes that have taken place in mindfulness practice in particular, following some recent research. We'll also look at some other forms of meditation…

Have you heard of "mindfulness" but don't know what it is or why it's important? We'll discuss all that in this video.

We live in a world of increasing information that threatens to overwhelm our attention. We will see how a 1971 paper foresaw the rise of what has come to be called the "attention economy", and how some of its recommendations may point us…

Fourth and last of the foundations of mindfulness is Mindfulness of Dharmas. In this second half of our introduction, we will continue going through the practices involved in this foundation. In particular we will go through mindfulness…

Fourth and last of the foundations of mindfulness is Mindfulness of Dharmas. In this introduction, we will discuss what that means in this context, and begin going through the practices involved in this foundation. In particular we will…

Mindfulness of mind is the third of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. We will look at its importance to ethical thought and action, as well as to locating ourselves along the path. There are lots of important lessons to gain from this…

The second of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness is mindfulness of feelings. While sometimes it is overlooked, this is perhaps the most important foundation, at least in revealing the causal links that produce our worldly discontent. We…

Mindfulness of the body is the heart of much contemporary meditation practice. We'll look at it today with a focus on the original texts, which provide a great array of related practices. We will see ways that the older approach is…

Buddhism and Stoicism are in many ways allied philosophies. However in this video we will look at five ways that they differ. We will be looking in specific at early Buddhism and Stoicism as reflected in its Classical Greek and Roman…

Mindfulness meditation is increasingly popular nowadays, but its roots go back to early Buddhist texts associated with the seventh stage along the Eightfold Path. We will delve a little into these texts and attempt to flesh out the key…

Early Buddhist practice involves two main kinds of formal meditation, which we will discuss.