Understanding the difference, the conditions of your practice, compared to not practicing with the podcast. Also very different than being in a class. Mindfulness of body, often is the place to begin and end, regardless of conditions. What to try, when you have too much energy or perhaps too little energy whist sitting. Awake AND relaxed. Not sleeping. Not hyper alert. Mindfuling...

Practicing outside is different. Especially in the Fall. What is available, obvious? Work with it. Practice every day, not like this but like with what you really have going on. Sound meditation. Awake. Standing is wakeful.

Keywords: Lite, Light, Dressed, Cold, Cool, Sound, 

Can you be mindful while walking the dog? What are you doing? Pretty complicated if you... are trying to do too much. Simplify and pay attention to your companion. Walking the dog is doing something very complicated compared to sitting and you are likely very connected to a very different sort of being with a very different set of interests! Amazing.

Keywords: Canine, coffee, walk, nosey, tension, attention, mindfulness, woof

Prpacticing standing meditation outdoors is just awesome. Real and

potentially confusing. Keeping it relatively still you will see a crazy mind, becalmed over time!  Even

amidst a pandemic there is great flexibility being developed.

Keywords: Insight, Presence, conditions, mindfulness, sound, heartmind

Picking blueberries mindfully and listening to someone pick blueberries in your space/time are very different activities...

Keywords: Mindfulness, insight, outside, blueberry, cultivation, practice, relaxation, wakefulness, sweet

Listening outside, a lot to contact with the shifting weather. Sound is a type of contact and with a podcast we can share this slice but there is more...

Keywords: ambient, rain, sound, feel, object, collecting attention, 

Practicing awareness of sound outside sitting on a bench. Sitting differently than you might usually sit, on a bench, matters. Working  with what actually is and focusing attention. Simple practice, but not easy...

Cultivating ease and awareness from a relatively still body to a body in contact to a body investigating with the same sort or ease and awareness allows a peaceful seeing and perhaps knowing. 

keywords: body, sound, field, bird, contact, movement, conditions and investigation

Working with the pleasant sonic conditions is not the same as just enjoying. Awake and relaxed in a collected moment to moment presence is practiced. 

Keywords: Mindfulness, sound, birds, dinosaurs, distraction, pleasant, noise, rooster, flicker, cardinal

Ambient object. Spring is a doodling. Being outside being with what ya got. Not a listening and flowing more of an active movement to moment hearing and let-go-ing into hearing. Again and again. Quite rich in these New England conditions. Bright red cardinals, deep blue jays, the swoosh of automobiles in the distant wash. Oh, and surprise a canine bell! Standing. Wet wooshes.

Keywords: mindfulness, roosters, loud sounds, unexpected, change, totality, standing, posture

Practicing outside in the snow. A very fluffy marshmallow world is one way of describing these conditions. So, I work with what I got. You? Probably different for you but you do have conditions. Perhaps subtler. A fan. Contact is the object.

Keywords: epidermis, body, mindfulness, clear, intention, crunchy, future, past, ease, wakeful

Walking outside after a snow storm. Formal meditation, under these conditions, the sound of walking is really prominent. We can work with this. Not an exploration, it is a focused easeful practice that is appropriate for these conditions. Listening as a podcast your practice will be a bit different but you can still use sound as an object.

If the timing is right an online retreat opportunity: February 14, 9am - 12pm EST, please go to www.ssimc.org/registration for more info. Perhaps I will see you there!

keywords: mindfulness, meditation, northeast, snow, weather, body, owls, presence

Mindful of a cold, wind-licked body. For a little bit. Easy to notice and to be with, but ya don't have to make yourself ill. If your inside this practice of weather upon the body may be more difficult but less uncomfortable. Inside you can safely stay with the practice. Outside in relative challenging conditions less time can be the wise practice.

Keywords: awareness, foundational, wind, weather, mindfulness, snow, crunch, quick

An edited recording of an online (errr, pandemic still raging) class concerning Wise View offered on the day of the storming of the US Capitol by the profoundly deluded. The Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path and a whole lot of examples of how to get to know discontent and its HUGE range. Guided meditation occurs deep in the recording.

Keywords: Buddha, outrageous, reality, life, conditions, don't like, ssimc, knowing, ignorance, experience, story, dukkha, sukha, sedition, cat, dog