Everyday Sublime

"Yesterday's insights are like yesterday's fish, unrefrigerated." - Larry Rosenberg The post Back Seat Meditation | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

Within the dream state, unless we're lucid, we tend to be held captive by the content of the dream. But in waking up, we open to the possibility of being captivated by experience. - Josh Summers The post From Captive to Captivated | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"I, Zhuang Zi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuang Zi. Soon, I awakened and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man." - Zhuang Zi The post Zhuang Zi’s Butterfly Dream | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"You must realize that the center of the universe is the pit of your belly." - Harada-roshi The post Mindfulness of Breathing and Beyond | Talk and Guided Meditation with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"You must realize that the center of the universe is the pit of your belly." - Harada-roshi The post From the Pit of the Belly | Short Reflection with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"We can and must, each of us, individually, be a ballast, a reminder of what is good and right, of peace and justice, of supporting the environment, of trusting in individual experiences, voices, choices and stories." - Nadia Colburn The post Ballast in the Storm | Short Reflection from Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"Then, Bahiya, you should train yourself thus: In reference to the seen, there will only be the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself." - Buddha The post Bahiya’s Burning Doubt | Short Reflection with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"Most people are afraid of suffering. But suffering is a kind of mud to help the lotus flower of happiness grow. There can be no lotus flower without the mud." --Thich Nhat Hanh The post The Yin-Yang Heart | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"It is not billionaires or technology that will save us, but instead a 'vitalist mass movement,' driven by human spirit that may actually be magical enough to change hearts and minds across the world." - Amitav Ghosh The post Compassion Amidst Crisis | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"Racial essentialism keeps racism alive. The more entrenched racial categories are in the public mind, the easier it is for white power advocates to use them for their own nefarious purposes--and for the rest of us to slip into old stereotypes and cognitive biases." - Amiel Handelsman The post Deracialization and Antiracism | Amiel Handelsman appeared first on Josh Summers.

"Because, as the first line of the Dhammapada says, 'All that we are is the result of what we have thought,' the transformation of 'sociological and psychological structures' must take place initially in our own minds - and those of others - if we truly hope to address the root cause of social suffering." - Charles Johnson The post Deracializing Consciousness | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"And if he were forcibly dragged up the steep and rugged ascent and not let go till he had been dragged out [of the cave] into the sunlight, the process would be a painful one, to which he would much object, and when he emerged into the light his eyes would be so dazzled by the glare of it that he wouldn't be able to see a single one of the things he was now told were real." - Plato, "The Republic" The post Enlightening Shadows | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

In becoming aware of our conditioning, we can then practice ways of creatively establishing more skillful habits of relationship and engagement. - Josh Summers The post Culture Shock of Self | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"I saw the ancient path, the ancient road traveled by the Perfectly Enlightened Ones of the past. And what is that ancient path, that ancient road? It is just this Noble Eightfold Path; that is: wise view, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness and wise stillness." - The Buddha The post An Ancient City | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

In awakening to our conditioning, just like the Buddha, we can creatively collaborate with new forms of conditioning informed by compassion and wisdom. - Josh Summers The post On self-Fragility | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"We share over 50% of our DNA with fungi. We're more closely related to fungi than plants." - Alex Dorr The post Functional Mushrooms for Functional Health | Alex Door appeared first on Josh Summers.

With time, practice will reveal our unresolved wounds that are still wound within the conditions of original trauma. - Josh Summers The post Seeing and Freeing Patterns | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

The conscientious young monk Meditating three years alone Can no longer be moved By the four worldly winds. - from fictional Zen story told by Ajahn Brahm The post Rooted For Wind | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? - Zen Master Nan-in The post An Empty Cup | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings. - Buddha (from the Metta Sutta) The post Questioning Compassion | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

When we shift from being subject to a racial worldview to looking at it as an object; when we are able to see how it works and work to not racialize ourselves or others... now we're getting to where we can start to actually get off that karmic cycle. - Greg Thomas The post Race, Jazz and Healing | Greg Thomas appeared first on Josh Summers.

The Buddha spoke of sati (mindfulness) and sampajanna (clear comprehension) as the twin aspects of awareness that nurture wisdom and compassion. Mindfulness and clear comprehension suggest the relationship between deep listening and deep understanding. - Josh Summers The post Compassionate Inquiry | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

Real compassion includes wisdom and so it makes judgments of care and concern: it says some things are good, and some things are bad, and I will choose to act only on those things that are informed by wisdom and care. - Ken Wilber The post Compassionate Alignment | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

The three intentions of compassionate RAIN (receptivity, alignment, inquiry, and negotiation): May I create the conditions for this energy or part of me to feel safe, to feel heard, and to feel integrated. - Josh Summers The post Compassionate Receptivity | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

Trauma - any experience that cannot be integrated at the time of its occurrence - causes parts of oneself to freeze, like blocks of ice. These frozen parts evolve to keep us safe, but in their frozen state they alienate us from flowing with life. - Josh Summers The post Listening Like Water | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"More than anything, there is a value placed on listening as closely as possible to the mysterious silence that supports existence, which is both the actual silence of the desert landscape and the silence of the self in contemplation. They listened to this silence with hopes of transforming their identities and reimagining community." - Douglas Christie The post St. Anthony’s Valentine | Dharma Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"As a teacher, you won't be able to address the specific needs of each individual. However, what you can offer is a creative way of working with posture, breath, intention and attention so that student and customize - within their own experience - a way to nudge their particular pattern, whatever it might be, towards homeostasis." - Josh Summers The post A Functional Approach to Harmonizing Qi with Yin Yoga | Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"Qi produces the human body just as water becomes ice. As water freezes into ice, so Qi coagulates to form the human body. When ice melts, it becomes water. When a person dies, they become spirit again. It is called spirit, just as melted ice changes its name to water." - Wang Chong (Taoist philosopher, AD 27-97) The post What is Qi? | Talk with Josh (republished) appeared first on Josh Summers.

Yin Yoga collaborates with the organs of Chinese Medicine to support holistic health. It's not just a matter of stimulating the channels; it's a matter of optimizing organ health through the integration of posture, breath and psycho-spiritual practice. - Josh Summers The post My Take on Yin Yoga and Chinese Medicine | Talk with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"Everything I play is a reaction to everything that I just played and to what everybody else is playing at that moment. Great jazz is played when multiple people play together with that kind of necessity and mindset." - Aaron Goldberg The post The Language of Jazz | Aaron Goldberg appeared first on Josh Summers.

Mindfulness functions like a stone that doesn't stop the flow of the river, rather it comes to a deeper and calmer relationship to the flowing content of the river of experience. - Josh Summers The post Corks and Stones | Guided Meditation with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

"One of the paradoxes about life is that when we're really open to life, the tremendous suffering and the tremendous joy can coexist." - Donna Brooks The post The Yoga of Grief | Donna Brooks appeared first on Josh Summers.

When you dig the well deep enough, you realize we're all drinking from the same source. - Abdullah Ibrahim The post Digging Deep | Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

Listen to the movement of experience and listen to the space within which this occurs. - Josh Summers The post Winter’s Listening | Guided Meditation with Josh appeared first on Josh Summers.

The only job of a yogi is to note the object that is most predominant, moment by moment. - Sayadaw U Pandita The post Yang Vipassana Meditation | Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them. - Robert Wright The post The Divine Algorithm Sutta | Robert Wright appeared first on Josh Summers.

Buddhists, however, saw that karma acts in feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped by both past and by present actions; present actions shape not only the future but also the present. This constant opening for present input into the causal process makes free will possible. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu The post Relaxing the Breathing | Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

The point of a map isn t to be right. The point of a map is to help me with something; it s to be useful. - Bernie Clark The post The Power of Mythos | Bernie Clark appeared first on Josh Summers.

Buddhists, however, saw that karma acts in feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped by both past and by present actions; present actions shape not only the future but also the present. This constant opening for present input into the causal process makes free will possible. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu The post The Karma of Breathing | Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

The kind of attention you rely on, and the kind of attention you let atrophy, ultimately becomes a decision about what you value as worth perceiving. - Howard Axelrod The post Attention Collapse and Inner Climate Change | Howard Axelrod appeared first on Josh Summers.

A person of integrity is grateful and thankful. This gratitude, this thankfulness is advocated by civil people. - Buddha, Katannu Sutta The post Gratitude For Good Karma: Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

If you sit and patiently endure, you find your mind going into a state of calm. That calm occurs because there s no more trying to become something or trying to get rid of something. - Ajahn Sumedho The post From Patience to Peace: Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

Yet, along with sorrow, there is the backdrop of consciousness, the inner atmosphere that holds whatever arises, like the sky holds lightning Through our practice of meditation, access to the backdrop becomes possible. - Narayan Liebenson The post Peace Within Uncertainty (Part 2): Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

Recognition of the Yin Will allows for the creation of the virtue of Wisdom. This Wisdom is not about knowing things. In fact, it is more about being deeply connected to the Unknown... Wisdom is a recognition of a deep knowing that infuses life. - Ted Kaptchuk The post Peace Within Uncertainty (Part 1): Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them. - Robert Wright The post Robert Wright: War, Peace and Cognitive Bias appeared first on Josh Summers.

Within the process of Vipassana meditation, the meditator develops and rests within a capacity to remain calm and clear towards the entire display of visceral, cerebral and environmental content. - Josh Summers The post Vipassana on the Path: Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

Just as sounds arise and cease naturally within the field of awareness, when attending to their body, the meditator begins to perceive the same impersonal display of sensations arising and ceasing within the stillness of the mind. - Josh Summers The post Basic Vipassana Instructions (Part 2): Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

When we shift into a vipassana lens of practice, there are no distractions. Each experience the meditator encounters becomes the practice, itself an experience to see clearly and relate to with compassion. - Josh Summers The post Basic Vipassana Instructions (Part 1): Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss or tranquility, nor is it attempting to become a better person. It is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, and our hidden fears and hopes. - Chogyam Trungpa The post The Key To Stillness (Part 2): Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.

"We do not confront the world; rather, the world confronts itself, temporarily masquerading as each of us." - David Barash The post David Barash: Buddhism and Biology appeared first on Josh Summers.

"This mind of ours is already unmoving and peaceful. Our practice is simply to see the Original Mind." - Ajahn Chah The post The Key To Stillness (Part 1): Dharma Talk appeared first on Josh Summers.