Adventures in Meditating: Recent Episodes
Jessica Morey and Jon Roberts
What in the world is the world we want to live in—and how are we going to get there? Jessica Morey and Jonathan Roberts bring you no-drama dhamma for meditating moderns, wherein we contemplate the Big Ideas gifted us by life through a Buddhist lens, and then take an even deeper dive, in discussion with amazing mindfulness instructors.
Jessica Morey returns, just in time to keep Cara Lai and I from burning this disco down. In honor of her re-emergence, we dive butt first into the big work. Is letting your child “cry it out” good medicine, or is that just what our robot overlords have programmed us to believe? How do we… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Seven: “I Walk the Spiral; You Walk the Line: Owning Your Path So As Not to Get Owned By It.”
Jessica Morey offers us a meditation on identifying, being with, and caring for our needs, starting from the fundament–our own bodies. What cues and clues may hide in flesh and bone waiting to be known; waiting to guide us towards exploring which of our needs have been met, and which remain unmet?
In today’s episode, we begin our series on when—if ever—is the appropriate time to try to make your baby Buddhist. But first, we discuss the joys and travails of traveling with the infant set. Next we ask, Are the deepest aspects of dhamma practice really available to anyone, or is there a platinum tier for… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Six: “When, How and Whether to Foist the Dharma Upon Your Children, Part I: ‘Sometimes Daddy Needs to Kill.'”
In this guided practice, Cara recognizes that the normal out of their mind, out of their breath, and out of their depth parent might not have time for what we think of as a formal sitting meditation practice. So what if, Cara asks, we could scrape the very gunk of life off the surface of… Continue reading Meditation: Who even has time to meditate?
In today’s episode, we begin by discussing the subtle art of preparing dhamma talks for meditation retreats. Later, we ask, Do humans have an instinctual orientation towards compassion, kindness, and love—or do we only get there by pushing past our darker impulses? Still later, we explore exactly how much we should trust our children, and… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Five: “Resting Buddha Face.”
Jess leads us in a riff on “metta” or “loving-kindness” practice, in which we are invited to imagine an ideal mother figure, as a way of calling forth the ideal maternal qualities that may be hiding in our own minds and hearts. Then, we use those qualities to establish a secure base for how we… Continue reading Meditation: An especially safe space.
In today’s episode, I seem to have no idea what I’m getting myself into when I ask Jess and Cara to comment on whether my son’s insistence that I speak to him through a monkey-shaped hand-puppet is a peculiarity capable of revealing any dhamma-adjacent truths. Before long, we’ve delved into a doctrinal debate about whether or… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Four: “Talk, Monkey!”
Jess gifts us with a meditation especially designed for parents, who may already feel like they’re figure-skating on the edge of a razor blade, and don’t need their meditation practice to be one more veldt they have to hack through. Hell, this meditation is one you can even do in bed, or wherever you happen… Continue reading Meditation: A place to rest the mind.
Today’s episode is a conversational free-for-all; or maybe a conversation in freefall? Jess and I crack open a veritable candy-sack of topics related to the dhamma of parenting. How do our children alert us when we’re not being mindful enough? What are the things we’re letting ourselves let go of, in hopes of becoming better parents?… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Three: “The Toilet-Mat Tantra.”
Jess offers a meditation on learning to love this giant impermanent thing called parenting.
Today’s episode is a sonic rocket ride to the past. Back, in fact, to a series of conversations which Jess and Jon recorded in the final few weeks before Jess’s son was born. This is a snapshot view of how a dhamma teacher in the throes of the pregnant condition deals with the realization that the… Continue reading Season 2, Episode Two: “Whose Body is This?”
Jess offers a guided equanimity meditation that riffs on the dialogue we were having during Episode Two of Season 2, specifically, how sensations of anxiety, even terror, that might crop up around aspects of one’s own pregnancy; over the state of the world; over our knowledge that we have so little control over what happens… Continue reading Meditation: “This wild, raw, and magnificent world.”
We’re back, baby! Now that Jess has joined Jon on his long walk down the long pier of parenting, we’ll be taking a different angle on the discussions this season: What does it mean to bring dhamma practice into parenting, and parenting into dhamma practice? Our super special guest: Cara Lai, a dhamma teacher teetering… Continue reading Season 2, Episode One:“Finding the Chanda in the Tanha.”
Cara leads us in a meditation on the care and feeding of the present moment. “Slowly, we develop a taste for being present for our lives. We give our attention the opportunity to see for itself what it really wants to be with. What else is happening in the real, tangible, here and now world that… Continue reading Meditation: Cara Lai.
Today’s topic: RELATIONSHIPS! As late celebrity monk Ajahn Chah once said, “The most convenient way to practice meditation is as a monastic, because monastics are celibate.” But I guess human relationships must be pretty good, because we just keep coming back for more. So if we can’t stop ourselves from such holy foolishness in this… Continue reading Episode 6: “Tongue-Kissing the Void.” (Or, “I Only Date Buddhists.”)
The heart of the mindfulness-adjacent paradigm known as non-violent communication explores the following: how underlying needs and values cause a person to perceive another person’s behavior in a certain light, particularly during difficult exchanges. This exploration is a way to lead both parties back to a state of empathy and compassion.
Today’s topic: NATURE! As machete-voiced beatnik philosopher Tom Waits is wont to remind us, “We’re chained to the world, and we’ve all got to pull.” Some of us our able to make the best of our embedment in the natural world, but others will never stop being freaked out by it. Jess helps Jon see… Continue reading Episode Five: “A Very Advanced Practice.”
Jess offers a meditation intended to help one gain comfort with discomfort—whether they be in nature, or anywhere else.
Today’s topic: PARENTING! You know what they say: raising a child is a little bit like tap-dancing, backwards, while wearing high heels, and covered in fire ants. Meanwhile, trying to achieve even a shred of enlightenment is challenging enough without, at the same time, attempting to keep an entire extra human alive. Jess tries to… Continue reading Episode Four: “Our Children’s Children’s Clones.”
Jess offers a meditation in which loving-kindness is interwoven with equanimity, to create a veritable brahmavihara spice mix, with which any of us might generously season our experiences.
Today’s topic: RETREATS! Sitting a silent meditation retreat is a virtual rite of passage for mindfulness people. But let’s be frank—sitting in silence for a number of days with only your mind for company is not necessarily a bucket full of gumdrops. Jess and I will talk about all the snakes and ladders one encounters… Continue reading Episode Three: “Rollercoaster Explosion.”
Jess leads a meditation on digesting and transforming challenging emotions—either while on retreat, or in everyday life.
Today’s topic: COMMUNITY! Asian communities have been practicing Buddhism in the United States since the 1800s, with the idea of “sangha” always front and center. Yet, when the thing we think of today as mindfulness practice was brought over by white Buddhist teachers in the 20th century—from such Buddhist-leaning countries as Thailand, India, and what was… Continue reading Episode Two: “Buddhas Don’t Play Tambourines.”
Jess leads a reflective meditation from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, affirming the commitment to attend to the well-being of all those with whom we share our communities…and the world.