prisoners, veterans, and those in developing countries. If you’d like to learn more or feel inspired to become a supporter, please visit soundstruefoundation.org. TS: You’re listening to Insights at the Edge. Today, I’m here in the Sounds True studio with Justin Michael Williams. Justin is just turning 32 years old, and he’s the author of a new Sounds True book, Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us. In addition to being an author and a meditation teacher, Justin is a top-20 recording artist. He uses music and meditation to wake up the world. Justin Michael Williams has dedicated himself to bringing the meditation practice that he ca... posted on Feb 17 2020 (6,412 reads)

Interview with Dr. Paul R. Fleischman How would you define meditation? First off, I’d like to clarify that whenever I talk about meditation, I’m really talking specifically about my own experiences with a technique called Vipassana, which I learned in 1974 from Mr. S.N. Goenka, and have been teaching since 1986 under his guidance. Meditation is a form of self observation. In Vipassana meditation, the unique feature is to observe oneself at the level of sensation. Or more specifically, it is to cultivate the capacity for relatively constant, thorough observation of the arising and passing of body sensations. Along with that observation is a concurrent unders... posted on Mar 20 2012 (34,532 reads)

hindrances to practicing, too—fears about how it may change me in maybe not so positive ways. But still…all of that science! I decided that it was time for me to face fears by delving (yet again) into the research on mindfulness and talking with leaders in the field. Here is what I learned about my troubles with mindfulness when I posed some of my biggest questions to the experts. Question #1: Will mindfulness disengage me from world problems? When I went to a mindfulness meditation course some years ago, I remember this concern came up a lot in the class. People would ask, “Isn’t it a cop-out to focus inward when there are so many problems in the world tha... posted on Apr 13 2015 (31,246 reads)

of the human repertoire. It’s part of the human condition. And they’re there for a reason. TS: Let’s talk about “disturb our inner equilibrium.” It takes a lot of inner equilibrium to be with strong emotions that are serving a purpose and not get thrown off as a result. That takes a lot of inner equilibrium. DG: I think this may be why they emphasize doing a lot of practice in meditative traditions because what you’re doing is rewiring your brain in meditation practice. And ideally, your aspiration, it would get to a point where you can keep your equilibrium no matter what emotion floats through, and no matter how strong that emotion is. I think ... posted on Jun 28 2021 (5,308 reads)

Baltimore school has come up with a brilliant way to curb kids from acting out in class. Instead of sending children to detention, they send kids to a Mindful Moment Room for meditation. In partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes wellness, Robert W. Coleman Elementary School introduced a meditation room to help its students “calm down and re-centre.” <br /> The room is unlike any class in the school and is filled with lamps, plush pillows and bean bags. Here, students are taught deep breathing exercises, meditation and mindfulness to calm them, reduce their stress and help them deal with any anger or anxiety.... posted on Nov 10 2017 (33,010 reads)

happening, both to the fact of the belief and also to the feelings going on in the body. TS: Now, interestingly, you’re going to be offering a new online course with Sounds True that’s on Meditation and Psychotherapy, and how these two different approaches can be integrated and can work together. And I’m curious: when we’re looking at something like a feeling of self-blame, any kind of sense that we’re not enough, what do you think the path of meditation can offer, and what do you think the path of psychotherapy offers? How do they come together, maybe where they have different strengths? TB: Yes, one of the kinds of offerings of me... posted on Jan 5 2021 (5,902 reads)

well as The Art of Meditation. With Sounds True, he has released an audio learning program based on his book called Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. In this episode of “Insights at the Edge,” I spoke with Matthieu via Skype quite late at night while he was at his monastery in Nepal. We discussed the skill of happiness, as well as the conditions for happiness. We also discussed the physical and psychological effects of meditation, along with the ways to track the progress you make in your spiritual practice. Here’s my conversation with Matthieu Ricard. Matthieu, you talk and write about happiness as a skill... posted on May 14 2013 (55,456 reads)

May 30, 2017 Your browser does not support the audio element, but you can play it here. Diane Musho Hamilton is a spiritual teacher, mediator, and group facilitator who has been studying mindfulness for more than 30 years. She is a featured presenter for A Year of Mindfulness, Sounds True's yearlong online meditation program. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Diane discuss how her experience with mindfulness has helped her to become an effective group mediator. Diane speaks on how mindfulness skills transfer to interpersonal communication and skillful relationship—especially when it comes to being able to take on someone else's perspecti... posted on Oct 29 2017 (14,866 reads)

the 12 areas of life that we are each called to master. We talked about Dan's definition of "faith" and how its lens that he uses to see life as a school—one that's been designed for our learning. We also talked about the spiritual lessons Dan's learned from physical disciplines such as tai chi and aikido; why it's important to drive like a Zen master; various kenshōs, or enlightenment experiences, in Dan's life; and finally, how to die psychologically in meditation and be a peaceful warrior in the contemporary world. Here's my conversation with Dan Millman: Dan, I want to begin by talking a little bit about your own autobiographical story that ... posted on Jul 13 2018 (13,310 reads)

the growing conversation around mindfulness, we're constantly hearing about meditation in the workplace and tech CEOs who swear by the practice. But less attention is being paid to the quietly growing movement for mindfulness in the family, and the use of meditation to optimize the health, well-being and happiness of children. It's not just adults that can stand to benefit from cultivating a focused awareness on the present moment. Research is beginning to shed light on the power of mindfulness as an intervention for a number of behavioral challenges that children face. We're also starting to recognize that mindfulness practices could be beneficial for children for... posted on Sep 21 2014 (46,574 reads)

I tell people that I teach a class in law and meditation at UC Berkeley’s law school, I often hear snorts of disbelief. “It’s easier to imagine a kindergarten class sitting in silence for half an hour,” a friend said to me, “than two lawyers sitting together in silence for five minutes.” Charles Halpern (left, foreground) leads a Qigong exercise at a retreat for 75 lawyers at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California.Richard Boswell But the class is no joke. In fact, it’s part of a ground-breaking movement that has quietly been taking hold in the legal profession over the past two decades: a movement to bring mindfulness—a medi... posted on Jan 27 2017 (12,337 reads)

is fast becoming a fashionable tool for improving your mind. With mounting scientific evidence that the practice can enhance creativity, memory and scores on standardized intelligence tests, interest in its practical benefits is growing. A number of “mindfulness” training programs, like that developed by the engineer Chade-Meng Tan at Google, and conferences like Wisdom 2.0 for business and tech leaders, promise attendees insight into how meditation can be used to augment individual performance, leadership and productivity. This is all well and good, but if you stop to think about it, there’s a bit of a disconnect between the (perfectly commendab... posted on Jul 7 2013 (39,149 reads)

lawyers? It's no joke. Charles Halpern has been leading a movement to promote empathy and mindfulness in the practice of law. When I tell people that I teach a class in law and meditation at UC Berkeley’s law school, I often hear snorts of disbelief. “It’s easier to imagine a kindergarten class sitting in silence for half an hour,” a friend said to me, “than two lawyers sitting together in silence for five minutes.” Charles Halpern (left, foreground) leads a Qigong exercise at a retreat for 75 lawyers at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California.  But the class is no joke. In fact, it’s part of a ground-breakin... posted on Mar 31 2011 (12,746 reads)

during their day-to-day activities and found that 47 percent of the time, their minds were not focused on what they were currently doing. Even more striking, when people’s minds were wandering, they reported being less happy. This suggests it might be good to find ways to reduce these mental distractions and improve our ability to focus. Ironically, mind-wandering itself can help strengthen our ability to focus, if leveraged properly. This can be achieved using an age-old skill: meditation. Indeed, a new wave of research reveals what happens in our brains when our minds wander—and sheds light on the host of cognitive and emotional benefits that come with increased focus... posted on Apr 18 2015 (151,687 reads)

His work has appeared in more than a hundred literary journals worldwide. He's the author of the books Beamish Boy: A Memoir, Letters to Early Street, and Walking Tooth and Cloud. With Sounds True, Albert Flynn DeSilver has written a new book called Writing as a Path to Awakening: A Year to Becoming an Excellent Writer and Living an Awakened Life, where he invites the reader on a year-long journey of growth and discovery to enhance writing through the practice of meditation while using the creative process to accelerate spiritual evolution. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Albert and I spoke about the difference between the creative pursuit of ... posted on Sep 20 2018 (10,340 reads)

buy iPhones to be universally connected and have a ton of cool functions and features at their fingertips.  But as the wise monk Rev. Heng Sure once said, everything we create in silicon already exists in carbon.  I’d add that the silicon technology is a poor facsimile at best.   So how exactly do you tap into the wonderful carbon technology you carry around with you all the time? Meditation is a phenomenal tool to do just that. Here are five areas where meditation beats an iPhone.   1. Connectivity   The truth is that you can’t really connect to anyone else unless you’re in touch with yourself.  The iPhone allows and enc... posted on Nov 22 2011 (46,382 reads)

recently, meditation was a very fuzzy concept to me. Growing up in a pretty homogenous, East coast suburb, I never knew anyone who meditated. My understanding consisted of abstract and puzzling instructions, like ‘sit, quiet your mind, and think of nothing.’ “Nothing! Why would you think of nothing?! What a waste of time,” I thought. Hence, meditation wasn’t at the top of my list of things to try. But I felt a bit stuck in life. While I had many happy parts of my life, I didn’t feel a baseline of contentment. External things would unglue me more easily than I would like, and negative thoughts and emotions would too often creep into my mind. I ... posted on Feb 3 2012 (26,429 reads)

part of. On the 7th day, my mind was flowing at the speed of sea fog. Or maybe that was the description of my nervous system. I felt so present with a gentle flow — and my mind felt open to whatever arises. Good stuff. I had been camping in solitude in nature — on a hill over the ocean on the coast of California — as I have done twice a year for the past 20+ years. I jokingly call it my “People Fast”, which I have always assumed I needed since, as a meditation teacher and an actress, what I do in the world involves intense and intimate interactions with people, and I figured that we always need an opportunity to “clear out” and refres... posted on Apr 13 2020 (6,808 reads)

virtual retreat I signed up for with her on one of this year’s many bad days. It was called “Shelter for the Heart and Mind.” And she has created some shelter for me, at once grounding and energizing, through all of the highs and lows that have followed. I’ve been in conversation with Sharon since this show began, and I invited her to come back to mull over the matter of being alive in 2020 with me and with you. Sharon Salzberg is one of the most esteemed teachers of meditation in the world. And she’s credited as one of the founding three who introduced Buddhist practices into mainstream Western culture in the 1970s; its psychological acuity, contemplative d... posted on Oct 24 2020 (7,516 reads)

of the Earth to wake up and engage with the great work of our time: to participate in restoring balance and harmony to the web of life. The Earth Treasure Vase Global Healing Project lies at the heart of this community – planting clay vases filled with offerings of protection and healing around the world. The project’s Gaia Mandala Sangha — a spiritual community grounded in Buddhist tradition but open to all — exists as an in-person and online community with regular meditation and retreat offerings, including a monthly full moon meditation and opportunities to participate in stewarding Earth Treasure Vases. Founder Cynthia Jurs, spoke with us to share more about ... posted on Aug 2 2020 (8,217 reads)