Sitting, singing, and sharing stories around a bonfire is how humans connect with each other for millenniums. In this winter, build a fire in your yard or a camp ground. Invite your friends and neighbors over to join you in taking in the warmth and light. To begin the practice: Take in the gratitude into our heart.  The warmth of friendship. Let’s first close our eyes and tune into our senses.   Can we hear the fire? The crackle of sparks.   Can we smell the fire?  The burning wood, the smoke. Can we feel the fire?  Can you put your hands or feet near the fire? The warmth, the flickering flame that goes here and there. After a few minutes, when you are ready, you can open your eyes.  Notice how bright the fire is.  How ephemeral are the flames, how the smoke swirled.   Notice the bright red wood coming through the blackness, shimmering. Contemplate that what we think of being burned and destruction of the wood, is actually the release of the …

“All transformation comes after you come into contact with your body.” – Jonathan Foust Emotions stay in our body if we don’t process and release them.  Yet if we can develop the capacity to be with them intimately, we can release them once we allow them the space to be fully experienced for a minute or two.  When we work with difficult emotions, we want to listen to and respect our body’s intuitive intelligence, and let it be the guide to navigate the emotional territory.   Thich Haht Hahn said that we need to hold our emotions like a newborn baby – with the same kind of gentleness, tenderness, and care. Usually we feel pain in particular areas of our body, not all of the body.  In this meditation, we will establish areas of body that are the pain zones, and areas of body that feel a sense of ease, which we call the non-pain zones.  And we will shift our attention between the pain zones and non-pain zones depending on our emotional capacity and where we …

In a technology-oriented world we live today, we rarely get the opportunity to have an intimate and deep connection with the natural world and learn from it.  This practice of standing in front of and interacting with a single tree, will help us cultivate the sensitivities and attunement to a living being.  And we can find a tree even in an urban environment. 1) Be Called to a Tree Instead of picking a tree in our mind before the practice, notice where you are standing in your environment, tune into the body first, and sense if there is a tree at and its energy at this moment that you find interesting to connect with.  Follow your curiosity and felt sense. 2) Take in the Whole Tree from Afar As you approach the tree from afar, take in the whole tree from a distance first.  Take in the height, the shape, and how this tree fits into the its environment as whole. 3) Sense the Tree Upclose Feel into the environment of the tree as it has a …