How to meditate wrong: Zen

(ECHOES OF LOST KNOWLEDGE) The Zen teaching that tells us to stop "trying" | Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of Zen (Chan). 

What more could there possibly be than just this?

Why doesn't Zen Buddhism teach a path to enlightenment like the historical Buddha did? They are of the opinion that we are "already enlightened," so there's no need to speed up the process of realizing or remembering that, as in Hindu teachings of lila ("divine play," awakening to itself). It seems the Buddha would have mentioned that if he agreed with the Brahmin priests and their Vedas; yet, he took an adversarial position and presented a superior vision of what "awakening" (bodhi) and "nirvana" (moksha, "liberation," vimutti, "freedom") are. Below are the remainder of the instructions for those not content to believe they are already awakened beings who sit shikantaza just to sit because that's what sitters (zazen practitioners) do.

• The Bloodstream Sermon of Patriarch Bodhidharma
• Bodhidharma's glare: meditation, tea, and a fierce gaze (ShunSpirit)

What is the way to enlightenment after effortlessly settling into the "zen" state of serenity and stillness?

• What is right "mindfulness" defined? (Ven. Analayo)
• Radical acceptance in dialectical behavior therapy
• Book review: Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

Path of calm and insight

The eight spokes of the Dharma wheel

If Buddhism is the marriage of wisdom and compassion, then the historical Buddha's path-of-practice is calm and insight. To gain calm, let go (no effort required). To gain insight, practice vipassana ("clear seeing") by the fourfold setting up of mindfulness (sati), a practice called satipatthana.

Insight into what? Mind-and-body to see three personally verifiable marks of existence

The historical Buddha Gautama

In Early Buddhism, the Pali term dhamma vicaya (Sanskrit धर्मविचय-) has been variously translated as "keen investigation of things" (Wisdom Quarterly), the "analysis of [various] qualities" [1], "discrimination of dhammas [phenomena]" [2, Note 1], "discrimination of states" [3], "investigation of [the] doctrine [the Dharma]," [4, Note 2], and "searching [for] the [ultimate] Truth" [5].

• The Three Universal Marks (Characteristics) of Existence

The meaning, which may seem tricky to translate, is clear and not ambivalent in context. In the two Four Foundations of Mindfulness sutras (MN 10, DN 22). It is the systematic investigation of physical-and-mental phenomena (dhamma, "things") -- "body and mind" in terms of their ultimate constituents, which are "form particles" (rupa kalapas) and "mind moments" (cittas).

Pa Auk student, American Shaila Catherine

• It would be wonderful if scholars stop disputing and practiced instead. Why? Practitioners who read and follow the two sutras can see the meaning very easily; however, in real practice, it is far better to seek out a competent teacher who has known-and-seen these things. In that way, there is no speculation, interpretation, or arguing. The path is already known and handed down, not in books, but in meditation halls.

• 

  Meditation Master at Pa Auk

  The scholar-monk and master practitioner Pa Auk Sayadaw (Ven. Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa) is all about the practical: How will one ever be able to "see" a particle (kalapa)? By purifying (visuddhi) the heart/mind, one is suddenly able to make use of all its powers. But particles move far too fast and live far too briefly to ever be discerned or analyzed by the mind's eye because the mind/heart has a speed limit due to the number of impulsions (javanas) in a mind-moment.
• So here's the trick. Locate the "mind door," which is a green light near the physical heart. This door is a mirror of sorts reflecting everything in consciousness. It records. And the recording can be played back in slow-motion so as to see the life of the kalapa (form particle, which has three distinct phases that can be observed directly: arising, turning, passing). It does not stand even for a single moment, but rather passes through these three submoments.

• 

  Practical instructions, not theory

  How can anything composed of form (materiality, the mahabhuta or Four Great Elements, which are actually four qualities of matter, not matter itself, which come in pairs as outlined in Pa Auk Sayadaw's book Four Elements Meditation) be real if everything "form" is made up of is particulate matter, countless particles that are constantly arising, changing, and passing away -- always hurtling towards destruction? This is not a belief; for it to be effective, one must directly and literally know-and-see it happening all the time, everywhere, but particularly in this fathom-long body many call my "self." Most people can quickly comprehend that the body is, of course, not the "self." But nearly everyone gets stuck believing that the "self" must therefore be the mind (the watcher, the doer, the knower) or consciousness (awareness through the six senses, the interplay of cittas and cetasikas or mind-moments and mental concomitants, which is an impersonal process, not a thing in and of itself).
• The "Four Elements"? At a Pa Auk Meditation Center, in Burma, California, Georgia, or elsewhere, discern in this very body: 1. The "earth element" as hardness, softness, roughness, smoothness, and heaviness, lightness; 2. the "water element" as flowing (saliva), cohesion (stickiness); 3. the "fire element" as heat, cold (relative temperature variations, including the burning chemical "digestive fire" of the stomach or coolness of the outbreath); 4. the "air element" as pushing, supporting (dhammawheel.com).

• 

  Pa Auk student Beth Upton as nun, Burma

  The Buddha searched for a self that was not be found and went into very great detail to catalogue that process masquerading as a "self" (soul, atman, atta, ego, personality, true self, higher self), which is recorded in the very dense collection of sacred texts, the Abhidhamma, and Buddhaghosa's meditation manual The Path of Purification. See A Guide Through the Abhidhamma for a comprehensive introduction to the details. It will be impossible to ever believe there is, ultimately speaking, no self until one does a systematic search of mind, of which consciousness is but one component.
• Wait, why would anyone in his, her, or their right mind ever want to find out that there's no self? Surely that would mean annihilation, oblivion, falling into the void, the vast emptiness, utter destruction, the loss of everything?!

• 

  Knowing and Seeing (Pa Auk)

  One would want to because that is the entrance into the stream that leads inevitably to full awakening, enlightenment, and liberation from all suffering here and now in this very life. It is on account of not seeing this, not comprehending Dependent Origination, that we have all been lost and wandering, life after life, through this interminable and miserable (unfulfilling) samsara, seeking for pleasure now here, now there, existence after existence, state after state, world after world until there's nothing new that we have not already experienced many times over only to be disappointed and misled yet again.

Samatha, Jhana, Vipassana: Practice

This, of course, will be impossible...until the meditative absorptions (jhanas) purify and intensify the heart/mind to make that investigation, discrimination, analysis.

In the meantime, the practice of Four Elements Meditation and the application of discernment (by wise reflection or yoniso manasikara, which includes seeing things as they really are, including their repulsive aspect or patikula-manasikara that we normally work so hard to ignore) to body-mind phenomena in the application of right effort, so as to gain entry into the first absorption (jhana, the first "meditation") if "mindfulness of in-and-out breathing meditation" (which is the first practice in the setting up of the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness) has failed to bring one there.

Pa Auk students on jhanas

ETYMOLOGY: According to Rupert Gethin, "Dhamma-vicaya means either the 'discrimination of dhammas' or the 'discernment of dhamma'; to discriminate dhammas is precisely to discern dhamma"[6].

But, again, this is the confusion of something very simple and straightforward. One does NOT study Dharma (capital D Dhamma) during mindfulness meditation. What one DOES do is analyze, discern, and discriminate the "things" (phenomena, dhammas) the sutra specifies:

• 2. feelings (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, whether corporeal or spiritual);
• 3. mind states (lustful or free of lust, angry or free of aversion, deluded or free of delusion, contracted or expansive, exalted or mundane, surpassable or unsurpassable, samādhi or not-samādhi [still and coherent or not], released or bound);
• 4. mind-objects (the [presence or absence of] the Five Hindrances and the Seven Factors of Enlightenment). See Lists of the Fourfold Setting up of Mindfulness or satipatthana here.
• 1. The first foundation is the body, and the body is usually known through parts of the body or more deeply by knowing the Four Great Elements in their tangible expressions as hard, soft, wet, dry, hot, cold, smooth or rough, heavy or light, and so on. (See Four Elements Meditation for details). More: dhamma vicaya (Wikipedia)

Yeah, I thought I made that pretty clear.

Rest assured, Bodhidharma has an excellent point to make. Striving, struggling, muscling, forcing, pushing, thirstily struggling is NOT the way. Let go of all that [waste]. Just be. Just observe the becoming that is going on all by itself. There is nothing to do or change for the heart/mind to come to the first absorption. It's just that we needed to stop caging ourselves in "trying" or "needing" it to be this way or that. It is far better to practice allowing and accepting, wakefulness and dispassionate mindfulness.

• ECHOES OF LOST KNOWLEDGE (video); Dhr. Seven, Ani Kalyani, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY Wiki edit

Awakening means seeing through illusion

(ECHOES OF LOST KNOWLEDGE) Bodhidharma: "Awakening" means seeing through illusions (cleansing the heart/mind of the Three Poisons) | First Zen Patriarch from India

Buddhism vs. Taoism: when Zen was born

Every ordinary moment is pointing to our true Buddha nature | Zen Master Bodhidharma

(Daily Tao Wisdom) Buddhism versus Taoism: The Night Zen was Born: Bodhidharma

The Buddhist Dark Night of the 'Soul'

(Buddha's Wisdom) Breakdown or breakthrough.

• Catholic/Christian mystics understand, “To get your breakthrough, sometimes God needs to break you.”
• Dark Night of the Soul: What it is and how to move through it

Dark Night of the Soul

The Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish La noche oscura del alma) is a phase of passive purification in the mystical development of an individual's spirit, according to the 16th-century Spanish mystic and Catholic poet St. John of the Cross.

St. John describes the concept in his treatise Dark Night (Noche Oscura), commenting on his poem of the same name.

John of the Cross, 1656

It follows after the second phase, the illumination in which God's presence is felt, but this presence is not yet stable.

The author himself did not give any title to his poem, which together with this commentary and the Ascent of Mount Carmel (Subida del Monte Carmelo) forms a treatise on the active and passive purification of the senses and the spirit, leading to mystical union [1] or "yoga" through samadhi.

El Greco "View of Toledo" (Google Art Project)

In modern times, the phrase "dark night of the soul" has become a popular phrase to describe a crisis of faith or a difficult and painful period in one's life.

The poem

Dating and subject: The poem of St. John of the Cross, in eight stanzas of five lines each, narrates the journey of the individual (soul, personality, persona, ego, self, spirit) to mystical union with God or the Godhead (Brahman). More

The Dark Night of the Soul

By St. John of the Cross

Dark Night of the Soul (by ogipavkovic on DeviantArt)

I. In a dark night,

With anxious love inflamed,

O, happy lot!

Forth unobserved I went,

My house being now at rest.

II. In darkness and in safety,

By the secret ladder, disguised,

O, happy lot!

In darkness and concealment,

My house being now at rest.

III. In that happy night,

In secret, seen of none,

Seeing nought myself,

Without other light or guide

Save that which in my heart was burning.

IV. That light guided me

More surely than the noonday sun

To the place where He was waiting for me,

Whom I knew well,

And where none appeared.

V. O, guiding night;

O, night more lovely than the dawn;

O, night that hast united

The lover with His beloved,

And changed her into her love.

VI. On my flowery bosom,

Kept whole for Him alone,

There He reposed and slept;

And I cherished Him, and the waving

Of the cedars fanned Him.

VII. As His hair floated in the breeze

That from the turret blew,

He struck me on the neck

With His gentle hand,

And all sensation left me.

VIII. I continued in oblivion lost,

My head was resting on my love;

Lost to all things and myself,

And, amid the lilies forgotten,

Threw all my cares away. Source

• The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Douglas Adams)

Journey or Addiction? Harvard's Ram Dass

(After Skool) The Freedom of Being Nobody: Ram Dass

What is root cause of ADDICTION?

(After Skool) Break the Cycle of Addiction: Ram Dass

• Love Serve Remember Foundation (RamDass.org)

The Spiritual Journey

(Baba Ram Dass) The Spiritual Journey: Ram Dass full lecture 1986

How'd Buddhism get so 'way out'? (funny)

(exurb1a) Buddhism is kinda out there, Man a whimsical survey of the various Buddhisms (major Buddhist schools), repeating many popular misconceptions but in a very entertaining way.

(Dropout) Facebook Quote Buddha | College Humor original video

The Sickest Buddhist (rapper)

(ARJ Barker) Comedian Arj Barker gets real

Who's my true SELF, false self? (Alan Watts)

Duncan Trussell deleted himself (ego death) from existence on 5-MeO-DMT (Tales From the Trip)

(Occaro Wisdom) The Hidden Cost of Esoteric Knowledge

• WARNING: "A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring: There shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain" - the Great Alexander Pope (reddit)

O, those Greeks of Macedonia were something

This is in reference to the spring in the Pierian Mountains in Macedonia, sacred to the Muses. The first line of this couplet is often misquoted as "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

In Greek mythology, the "Pierian Spring" of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia was sacred to the mythological Pierides and the Muses. As the metaphorical source of knowledge of art and science, it was popularized by a couplet in Pope's 1711 poem An Essay on Criticism:

Alexander Pope "high" on his Muse

A little learning is a dang'rous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

There shallow draughts [sips] intoxicate the brain,

And drinking [more medicine] largely sobers us again.

Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,

In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts;

While from the bounded level of our mind

Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,

But, more advanced, behold with strange surprise

New distant scenes of endless science rise!

So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,

Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread the sky;

The eternal snows appear already past,

And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;

But those attained, we tremble to survey

The growing labors of the lengthened way;

The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,

Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

(After Skool)

I don't know what I'm supposed to think.

Alan Watts, what is The Self (Ego), the True Self, False Self, Higher Self, Eternal Atman, Soul, Invisible Spirit (Prana, the Pneuma, Holy Spirit), Immortal Essence, Sine Qua Non of Me, Myself, and I?

Who am "I"?

• Wisdom Quarterly says there is "NO self."
• WQ says no such thing. What we say is that, in an ultimate sense, "self" (soul, ego, atman, atta, spirit) is impersonal.
• So there IS a "self"?
• In a conventional sense, of course there is! How else would we live in a squiggly universe without a sense of our boundaries demarcating where we end and others start?
• Oh, so I don't have to give everything away, join a commune, and do whatevers my Guru tells me to?
• Ugh, no, you do not. Be yourself. Think. Practice. Buddhism only makes sense for those who practice the Dhamma, not the debaters or scholars of it.

Joe Rogan: some "drugs" are not drugs

Catholic Joe Rogan's epic rant on psychedelics (After Skool animation)

Been Dazed 'n Confused for so long it's not true

Led Zeppelin "Dazed and Confused" live on tour in USA (The Song Remains the Same)

DMT on LSD: Reptilian transformation

(Animated) Psyched Substance smoked DMT while on LSD

(Acid) and found his "True Self" | Tales From the Trip

Ego death is good?

Wait, then, so I'm as "real" as this chair? - Yes.

EGO DEATH is a "complete loss of subjective self-identity" [1]. The term is used in various contexts, with related meanings.

The 19th-century psychologist and philosopher William James uses the synonymous term "self-surrender." Jungian psychology uses the synonymous term "psychic death," referring to a fundamental transformation of the psyche (soul) [2].

So I can be responsible with a career? - Yes.

In death and rebirth explanations, ego death is a phase of self-surrender and transition [3, 4, 5, 6] as described by mythologist Joseph Campbell in his research on the "Hero's Journey" [3].

It is a recurrent theme in world mythology and is also used as a metaphor in some strands of contemporary Western thinking [6].

• The Default Mode Network: Ego Death and Psychedelic States | Neural Ego – Nicole's ritual universe

What if I can't get it to stop?

In descriptions of drugs, the term is used synonymously with "ego loss" [7, 8, 1, 9] to refer to temporary loss of one's sense of having a self due to the use or abuse of drugs [10, 11, 1], be they negative (deluded) hallucinogens or positive (pro-realization) entheogens.

The term was used as such by Harvard Dr. Timothy Leary and others [1] to describe the death of the ego [12] in the first phase of an LSD trip, in which a "complete transcendence" of the self [Note 1] occurs.

Did the Grateful Dead know about this?

The concept is also used in contemporary New Age spirituality and in the modern understanding of ancient Eastern religions (such as Nondualism/Advaita/Oneness) to describe a permanent loss of "attachment to a separate sense of self" [Web 1] and self-centeredness [13] (egoism, egotism, selfishness, conceit).

This kind of conception is a part of Eckhart Tolle's Buddhist-like teachings, where Ego is presented as an accumulation of thoughts and emotions, continuously identified with [and clung to], which creates the idea and feeling of being a separate entity from one's self, and only by disidentifying one's consciousness from it can one truly be free from suffering [14]. More

Life: break us to wake us? DRUNK

(T&H Inspiration & Motivation) I was disgusted, busted, and not to be trusted. I was a drunkard, an alcoholic. I wasted 33 years of my life in my head before Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins explained this

I'm going to go divinely mad: LOVE

Is this song real? First reaction to Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused"

Alan Watts: DIVINE MADNESS love, surrender, and sanity of insanity

The incessant chatter of the Self

(Alan Watts Echoes) The one idea that ends anxiety forever

Arroyo Secodelic Fest, Open Mic Poetry LA

Arroyo Secodelic Festival 2026, Los Angeles | KCRW FM

Welcome to the first unofficial day of summer, which runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day in LA

How can I start to awaken in a big city?

What is a psychedelic? It is a "mind manifesting" compound, like an entheogen that brings out the divine from within. What is an Arroyo Seco? It is a dry river bed. What is an Arroyo Secodelic?

ARROYO SECODELIC FESTIVAL (arroyosecodelic.com) May 22–25, 2026: Highland Park, Los Angeles, all ages with 60+ bands across six walkable venues along famous Figueroa Street with FREE and paid admission shows. See arroyosecodelic.com for details. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (Memorial Day weekend). Tickets are available as 4-Day Passes to all shows in all venues. See individual schedule for full lineup by day, appearing mostly at the Lodge Room, De La Playa Records, Oblivion Indoor, and Highland Park Ebell, all orbiting Kinship Yoga on Fig.

• The Fest on KXLU 88.9 FM (blog), KCRW 89.9 FM
• Love it live! A group for fans of live music | The Lodge Room

WHAT HAPPENED?

(Doom Haze) Psychedelic stoner rock session | dark room groove compilation

Adolescents live at the House of Blues way back; still alive in 2025 playing with the Circle Jerks

Meanwhile, before the Fest, in nearby Hollywood, DEICIDE takes over the Palladium

One day ASF may bet as big as Brokecella

KXLU and KCRW were on top of it. In addition to a mixed bag of indie artists, there were three or four punk giants: FEAR, Adolescents, Alice Bag (now Juanita), and Mike Watt (now without Minutemen)...what, no Exene Cervenka's X? But exciting acts like Death Valley Girls, Cameron Romance, and the Silverados were on hand to keep things lively. Now it's Monday, aka Bad Memory Day, and everyone is converging on the Lodge to catch Adolescents on a rare foray beyond the Orange Curtain to Competition City L.A. Why?

Highland Park is rock 'n roll paradise. Arroyo Secodelic Festival is a 4-day music fest in Highland Park, May 22-25, 2026, featuring a frenetic and fuzzy array of rock 'n roll artists spanning generations — including three of Southern California's finest first wave punk bands: Lee Ving's FEAR, OC royalty Adolescents, and pioneering punk bassist Mike Watt as well as San Francisco power pop icons Flamin' Groovies and LA rockers Strawberry Fuzz, Levitation Room, The Warlocks, and Death Valley Girls.

What's the big deal about these punks?

Adolescents Adolescents (first full album)

• Forget "Amoeba." WELCOME TO REALITY: Blood so deep the horse must hold his head up high/ In the valley of decision one third of the world will die/ Beat your hoes and plows into axes and spears/ As the armies meet in a battle they predicted for years// (CHORUS) Let the weak say I'm a warrior/ Bring down the warriors/ Let the faithless regain faith/ Your faith is hopeless// The prophets and the psychics and the military agree/ Continual crisis leads us straight to World War III/ Roll out the red carpet let the Angel of Death ride in/ To the valley of decision let the mayhem begin// (CHORUS)// Apocalyptic madness two thirds of the world in sadness/ The other third is gone but sadness lingers on/ Crumbled cities and an aftermath of hate/ No way to stop them 'cause now its too late/ The Antichrist's mission's done/ The dead are the only lucky ones/ Are you ready?/ The picture's painted/ For the valley - the scene is set/ Of decision - make your decision/ For the valley it's too late/ Welcome welcome to reality/ Welcome welcome to reality/ Make a decision cause you've got no choice

The Festival takes place across multiple venues on Figueroa St. and beyond — The Lodge Room, Oblivion, Highland Park Ebell, Cheerio Collective, De La Playa Records, Blind Barber, North Figueroa Books, and a few pop ups and buskers. All Arroyo Secodelic shows are ALL AGES. 

Free poetry pre-show at Eagle Rock Library

(Daytime T.V. Lizards) BLISS at the 2026 ARROYO SECODELIC FESTIVAL pre-party

Enter the Gateless Gate of Heightened Awareness into the magic Doors of Perception.

Blended (Mestizo) to Synthesis

Share original poems, songs, lyrics, spoken word, or just come listen. Each open mic performer will get 5 minutes for an original work. Sign up on arrival. Our FEATURED PERFORMER for National Poetry Month is Seven, who performs in Buddhist Sanskrit, Gaelic, English, and pre-Spanish (Nahuatl). An urban shaman and yogi with Native American roots (Kizh/Tongva), he won the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival chapbook and broadside contests,  among many other honors, and has been published in several anthologies and journals, including the library's very own The Stone Bird: Anthology. He was also a featured poet at L.A. Shakespeare Fest and LitFest Pasadena with the word troupe Poets in Distress. Open Mic Poetry | Los Angeles Public Library

(Pondwater Society) Train 45 "Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton"

(Pondwater Society) Rick Lupert duet with Brandon Constantine

RELATED ARTS EVENTS

Eagle Rock Branch - Los Angeles Public Library | Los Angeles CA | Facebook

• Friday, May 22, Arroyo Secodelic Festival (runs until Monday, May 24) Arroyo Secodelic Festival — May 22–24, 2026 · Highland Park
• Saturday, May 23 2:00 pm Miriam's Garden Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library
• JBLZE (The Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Evening) Greek Theatre, LA
• May 28, 4:00 pm REAB Traveling Symphony Series Presents: Symphony of Shared Stories Van Nuys Branch Library
• May 29, 10:30 am REAB Traveling Symphony Presents: Collaborative Poetry with DSTL ARTS Fairfax Branch Library
• May 30, 12 noon REAB Traveling Symphony Presents: Collaborative Poetry with DSTL ARTS Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library
• May 30, 2:30 p.m. REAB Traveling Symphony Presents: Collaborative Poetry with DSTL ARTS Baldwin Hills Branch Library
• June 9, 6:00 pm Poetry Open Mic Westwood Branch Library
• ADA accommodations: (213) 228-7430 at least 72 hours prior to event. Para ajustes razonables según la ley de ADA, llama (213) 228-7430 al menos 72 horas antes del evento.

AwareProject.org for rethinking psychedelics (The Aware Project, Los Angeles)

(No Ads) Get rid of all bad energy, whole body cleansing, chakra healing | claim inner peace #1

Microdosing at the Psychedelic Institute, LA

Featuring punk legends FEAR ● Flamin' Groovies ● Adolescents ● Levitation Room ● Strawberry Fuzz ● Mike Watt & The Secondmen ● Juanita & Juan ● Untitled ● The Warlocks ● Death Valley Girls ● Flat Worms ● Valgur ● Toys That Kill ● Buckets ● Cinnamon ● The Darts ● Windows ● Cissi TV ● Op Ed ● Sun Atoms ● Baus ● Cameron Romance ● The Flamenco Souls ● Axxident ● Wave Decay ● and more...

• Arroyo Secodelic Festival — Friday to Monday, May 22–24, 2026 · Highland Park, Hipsterville, LA County

Death of anti-Folk indie darling Beck

(Guitar Meets Science) The 14 days that destroyed Beck's career

Mike Watt + The Minutemen Missingmen - live at the Echo, 11/2/19

The Silverados "The Public Opinion" (official video)

Juan and Juanita "Fuego" (Alice Bag & Kid Congo Powers) Cobra Lounge July 2, 2025

Death Valley Girls - full performance (live on KEXP)

The Flamin' Groovies "Shake Some Action" (TV)

Bear Awareness: Questions and Answers on Taming Your Wild Mind

Bear Awareness: Taming Mind

British Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm (trained in the Thai Forest Tradition and abbot of Buddhist Society of Western Australia) has 4.6 out of 5 stars (with 85 reviews) for this book.

He is the bestselling author of Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? and one of the world’s most beloved Theravada Buddhist monks because of his sense of humor.

In Bear Awareness, Ajahn Brahm answers meditators’ questions, actual questions from students of meditation––questions readers may have wondered about as well.

Hi, y'all! Feed your head like Grace says.

While most sati or mindfulness meditation teachers praise the benefits of "bare awareness," Ajahn Brahm teaches bear awareness.

 

He helps us make friends with the scary things that come up on the cushion, and he shows how to lift the mood with a well-placed stuffed teddy or a well-timed pun.

 

The intimacy of the question-and-answer format provides a fresh experience of learning from a Western master meditator who studied with the awakened Thai master Ajahn Chah.

Author: British Abbot Ajahn Brahm (BSWA)

Whether he is urging readers to fly Buddha Air (as we sit back and relax on our way to nirvana), giving tips for dealing with panic attacks or depression, or extolling the bliss (piti) of meditation that is better than sex, he gives us permission to enjoy our lives and our practice. More

• Dancing in the Rain at Cruel World Festival (KXLU)
• Second Nature: Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World
• CAMERON 🖤 ROMANCE (@cameron.romance) • IG
• ArroyoSecoDelic.com; Ajahn Brahm (Bear Awareness, BSWA.org); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly