You Can Meditate Blog

The You Can Meditate Blog allows you to follow updates to this website and provides exposure to current news, information and resources in the dynamic and quickly evolving meditation community. By clicking on the orange button, you can have these updates send directly to your RSS reader. See entries below for all of the latest updates.

Jun 17, 2008, Leonard Cohen: Out of the monastery and back on the road

Cohen spent most of the 1990s in retreat at a Zen Buddhist centre in California. Then in 2005, following a return to recording, he discovered that his manager had run off with almost all of his fortune. No wonder that, at the opening ...

Jun 17, 2008, The NBA Finals: Where Zen Buddhism Confronts Ubuntu, Part 2

This time, I wanted to take a more careful look at Phil Jackson's Zen Buddhism and how it affects the Lakers. But first, I must address a concern a few commenters brought up on the last post. To those of ...

May 29, 2008, Yogi, Take Me to a Higher Place

As a dedicated yogi, she wanted to work on meditation and on poses, or asanas, requiring a lot of strength and flexibility and a deep mental focus. ...

May 27, 2008, Lotus Therapy, a New Old Path - New York Times

“I was able to be there, present for the pain,” he said, when the meditation session ended. “To just let it be what it was, without thinking it through. ...

May 14, 2008, Why Meditate? Here Are a Few Reasons Why…

Why meditate? There are many practical benefits you will see in your everyday life, but ultimately meditation is about understanding our true self.

May 12, 2008, A Zen experience

That day I moved into the New Haven Zen center and, basically, became a Zen student and began practicing Zen meditation." This was in 1979. ...

May 12, 2008, Meditation needs neither focus nor concentration

There are different schools of meditation, different methods and systems. There are systems which say: “Watch the movement of your big toe, watch it, ...

May 1, 2008, Has anyone seen any evidence to suggest that management went through with the buyback, or was this just posturing to quell the storm? I haven't seen anything volumewise that would suggest the buyback went ahead. I look to FCFS with envy.

The method of meditation has been practised for hundreds of years and the health and social benefits are doubtless. Buddhist Monk and meditation teacher, ...

Apr 28, 2008, Meditation - A Process of Trust

Zazen (meditation) is really a process of trust. It is through meditation that I can access that sense of trust and reach that inner space where real strength lies. The sort of strength that has been demonstrated by great masters past ...

Apr 19, 2008, Zen retreat offers solace for city souls

Even as someone who is not Buddhist, much less a practitioner of Zen, I found Stücky's responses useful, comforting and nonjudgmental. ...

Apr 17, 2008, Taking Zen meditation 'off the cushion'

By Brittany Benjamin For many students, it may be difficult to envision meditation as anything but the ancient image of a round-stomached Buddha sitting ...

Apr 14, 2008, Studies show meditation beneficial to health

"I have a lot of students with stroke," said Shashi Pottathil, Yoga & Meditation Center. "I've seen the difference in people who have depression, anxiety, ...

Apr 11, 2008, Meditation: It's better than a facelift

In February, she learned to meditate. And it shows. She says she feels better, looks better, and has even lost weight effortlessly, and she attributes it to ...

Apr 8, 2008, Meditation may cause empathy

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have determined that meditation may increase a person's ability to empathize with other individuals. ...

Apr 7, 2008, 12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk

Zen monks have rituals for many things they do, from eating to cleaning to meditation. Ritual gives something a sense of importance — if it’s important enough to have a ritual, it’s important enough to be given your entire attention, ...

Apr 2, 2008, Richard Gere Is 'Always Watching the Mind'

Now he opens up to Beliefnet about his meditation practice, what we should do about the Olympics in China and his heartbreak at seeing the "compassionate, ...

Mar 28, 2008, Meditation can lead to greater compassion: study

For this research, Davidson and Lutz monitored 16 monks who had at least 10000 hours of meditation practice, along with 16 other subjects who were given two ...

Mar 27, 2008, Overcome Your Emotions To Become Stress-free

The first step in preksha meditation is to learn how to control emotions. After a session, in general, people would say that they got peace of mind, ...

Mar 26, 2008, The Science of Meditation?

What was most interesting to me was that her observations are consistent with what many people experience in meditation, and it suggests a left-brain, right-brain explanation for mysticism—and suffering—that could appeal both to mystics ...

Mar 25, 2008, Meditation may lower blood pressure

You may want to try adding meditation to your healthy eating and activity plan to get an extra heart-healthy boost. According to a review study from the ...

Mar 25, 2008, Does the Middle Way really help?

Meditation, for instance, whether it involves relaxation or concentration is almost always silence driven. Researchers who have studied meditation have ...

Mar 18, 2008, As a scientist I used to think meditation was hokum. Not any more!

But having spent the past few months examining the scientific facts about hypnotherapy, reflexology and meditation — three of the fastest growing therapies ...

Mar 16, 2008, Which Is The Best Meditation Technique For You?

Such techniques that people are learning to use when it comes to meditation are as follows:-. Transcendental meditation; Guided meditation; zen meditation; chakra meditation; Mantra meditation; healing Meditation; yoga meditation ...

Mar 16, 2008, The Secret to Understanding Zen Meditation

The key to understanding Zen Buddhism is to understand the phrase “I don’t know.” In this phrase is hidden the secrets of Zen and Zen Meditation. At first glance this may seem counter intuitive or just a play on words, but I assure you ...

Mar 15, 2008, Meditate to Unlock Your Hidden Potential - Part 1

Meditation is commonly seen in many Yoga classes, but it has been practiced by a variety of cultures, including Roman Catholic priests, as well as Japanese Samurai, who practiced a form of zen meditation. I mention this so you can see ...

Mar 14, 2008, Mindful meditation stifles spring stress

Instead, students like Chris Rohrs and Brie Chapman have turned to meditation. "Meditation lets you take a good, hard look at things," Rohrs said. ...

Mar 14, 2008, Book - Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

This section describes the practice of Zazen or meditation. Things I've learned: The book focuses on Shojin, or beginner's mind. To me that means to keep an open mind and a fresh mind. To someone who is a beginner, everything they learn ...

Mar 13, 2008, Zen Yoga Founder Adds Japanese Twist to Ancient Practice

It may sound like the takeaway menu of an over-ambitious Asian fusion restaurant, but Aaron Hoopes, the founder of Zen Yoga, says adapting ancient exercises and meditation practices to modern lives does not erase their deeper spiritual ...

Mar 13, 2008, Neuroscientist To Discuss 'Zen And The Brain'

A practitioner himself of Zen Buddhism, Austin examines such topics as similar states in other disciplines and religions, sleep and dreams, mental illness, ...

Mar 13, 2008, A Stroke of Enlightenment

Is meditation one of the most effective practices that somehow suppress an area in the left hemisphere making the right hemisphere more active? Or is meditation only incidental while the actual "mystical" process is more a product of ...

Mar 12, 2008, Zen - In the Moment

Zen is a type of Buddhism that has been practiced throughout the centuries in many countries, particularly in India, China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea. The practice consists of letting go of self-consciousness and judgmental thinking, ...

Mar 12, 2008, Breath Meditation

When we practice zazen (Zen Meditation) our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless and the outer world is ...

Mar 10, 2008, Radiating Outward

Ta-Mo began teaching them Indian yoga exercises and Chan (Zen) meditation, in order to help them reconnect with the wellsprings of energy and consciousness in their own bodies. At the temple lived a group of eighteen monks who spent ...

Mar 6, 2008, Zen Master Seung Sahn on Zen Meditation

What follows is a talk their founder Master Seung Sahn gave on Zen meditation some years ago. I'm intrigued by his style, his reaching for an American idiom while obviously a native Korean speaker. I'm also caught off guard by some ...