Why Meditate?

Carrie Grossman (Dayashila) is a devotional singer, composer, and lifelong student of the mystical traditions. For over 20 years, she has studied the art of sacred sound, guiding people into the sublime realms of the heart through her concerts, workshops, and retreats.

Mitra Manesh, (the founder of Innermap) is a mindfulness educator with over 3 decades of experience and practice. She blends Western methods and Eastern traditions in a synthesis that cultivates intelligence and wisdom. A student of Rumi’s philosophy, a former Human Rights Commissioner, Mitra has a private practice in Beverly Hills, CA and teaches at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center in the School of Neuroscience/Semel Institute.

Over the last 6 months, I have been busy with all things meditation. We have a great season ahead and I am looking forward to new types of interviews and digging deeper into why we meditate. I am also interested in how we bring mindfulness into our daily life. And, no I am not talking about going around like a zombie all day. As Shinzen Young put it. "If you are mindful you don't need to do anything, just live" But how do we know if we are mindful?

Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA Semel Institute’s Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) and the co-author, with Susan Smalley PhD, of Fully Present, the Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness (DaCapo, 2010). She teaches mindful awareness practices to the general public to promote health and well-being.

New Camaldoli Hermitage is a community of Roman Catholic monks whose life is dedicated to contemplation and prayer. They are a worshiping community, celebrating with their friends and guests the Liturgy of the Hours and the Holy Eucharist. Their monastic fellowship extends beyond the walls of this hermitage and embraces a large and inclusive community of oblates, persons of different walks of life who live the grace of their baptism in spiritual communion with the monks.

Well, it has been a few months.  I have done interviews with Meditation Teachers, Rabbis, and Priests.  If you have been listening along you had heard that while they are all talking about meditation they look at it a little different.   Yet when we review these interviews we find that they are seeing differently but with the same goal or result.

New Camaldoli Hermitage is a community of Roman Catholic monks whose life is dedicated to contemplation and prayer. We are a worshiping community, celebrating with our friends and guests the Liturgy of the Hours and the Holy Eucharist. Our monastic fellowship extends beyond the walls of this hermitage and embraces a large and inclusive community of oblates, persons of different walks of life who live the grace of their baptism in spiritual communion with the monks. This page offers a brief history of the monastic men and women whose life and teachings have inspired the Camaldolese Benedictines to this day.

This reenactment was inspired by a Native American story. Enjoy, at the end of the story take a few minutes to reflect on the battle going on in your own life. Seek to find in yourself the power to overcome greed, hatred, and animus. End your own suffering, you have to power to do it.

Gloria Kamler, MA, is a holistic educator and stress relief expert, who has taught mindfulness meditation for the past 20 years. She facilitates all levels of the Mindful Awareness Practices or MAP classes at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC). In addition to teaching at UCLA, Gloria leads mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) classes and retreats in Los Angeles as well as other U.S. cities and internationally.

Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant. His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation, known as Unified Mindfulness, has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Vermont in the bourgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience.

Marc Bachrach is, or has been Marc Bachrach is, or has been, a:   Cantor   Comedy Hypnotist   Clinical Hypnotherapist   Musician and Singer   Wedding and Funeral officiant