It is not always easy to be quiet with my self or to allow my self to be quiet, though it is always about being a friend to my self. Sitting can be challenging and well as rejuvenating. That being said, the cushion is not always my friend. Informed by the short instruction received in Thailand and a variety of readings, tapes, books and dvd’s - largely Chogyam Trungpa‘s and Pema Chodron‘s work - I have developed a mostly regular practice of mindfulness meditation and awareness meditation which has been helpful and powerful in my life and for moving beyond my self. I’ve meditated without direction or instruction for most of my practice. Rather, it has been a somewhat intuitive practice of sitting developed out of a weekend of small learning at an MCU Buddhist University meditation weekend in Thailand a few years ago. It wasn’t a resurrection of the kind of meditation I learned and practiced in the ’70’s - TM, or Transcendental Meditation, where a secret/sacred word, or mantra, was used in repetition as an energy focus. I started meditating on a regularly sporadic basis a number of years ago.

Shambala meditaton instruction