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As we turn toward the final two elements in the Noble Eightfold Path—Wise Mindfulness and Wise Concentration—we arrive at the heart of contemplative practice. These qualities support a deep and steady awareness, allowing us to stay present, respond with clarity, and meet each moment with compassion.
The 8-week online MBCT course invites us to wake up to our lives—moment-by-moment—and to see how much of our experience we miss when we’re caught up in doing, reacting or mentally rehearsing. Through mindfulness practices, we begin to experience what it's like to fully inhabit the moment, as if for the first time. This gradual shift lays the foundation for cultivating presence, curiosity and choice in how we meet our thoughts, emotions, and the world around us.
As we travel the Path with eight elements as allies, we are on our way to living with more grace, ease and goodness. We’ve already traveled through the first three aspects of the Path—wise view, wise intention and wise speech. This month, we delve into wise action and wise livelihood to complete the ethics portion of the Path, and then into wise effort, which is the first of the three strands of the Path related to mindfulness.
Our words hold enormous power, and we are asked to be mindful of both our inner and outer narratives. As passed down through a lineage of teachers, it’s often said, “If you cannot control your mouth, there’s no way you can hope to control your mind.” This is why wise speech is so important in day-to-day practice.
I appreciate the wisdom in the Buddha beginning with wise view, and like to think of it as beginning a journey, having just arrived at a place we want to travel. Let’s say it’s a lovely hillside with a gorgeous view of a valley and a lake beyond. We have the Eightfold Path as our GPS coordinates, only what we really need with us, and we are ready. In this context, being ready means that we understand and accept the truths that we’ll encounter along the way—the dharma of how things truly are.
The theme of this month is the Four Noble Truths, which is seen as the core of Buddhism. These “truths of the noble one” comprise the essence of the Buddha’s teaching, and the simplicity of these four statements belies their depth. While this teaser into the essence of Buddhism leaves much unexplained, the fourth noble truths points us to the Eightfold Path, which we’ll move into over the next few months.connected to whatever it is that NOW is calling on us to notice and be with.
The primary intent of Buddhist psychology is to live within a framework that seeks to reduce suffering for all beings, living with awareness and an intent to choose actions meant to be of benefit for ourselves and others. This is why the Buddha pointed us toward intentional awareness, which requires our attention, and is at the very center of mindfulness.
In its most simple definition, mindfulness means to pay attention on purpose with a kind and interested awareness. We cultivate intentional attention—mindfulness—so that we may nurture a feeling of friendliness, kindness and curiosity AND strengthen our staying power to remain connected to whatever it is that NOW is calling on us to notice and be with.
To get into the fifth hindrance of skeptical doubt, I’ll begin with the infamous story of the Buddha, whose birth name was Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha was born into an extremely wealthy family, which he left to become an ascetic monk, seeking answers to why there is suffering and how to remove it. The story goes that after having lived a history of having too much of everything in wealth and then living a renunciation of all material things, including barely eating anything, he finally felt ready to sit in meditation to encourage—to become—enlightened, awake, and fully present…
In sloth and torpor, we’re moving too slowly to put energy into anything and not awake enough to engage in the present moment; and in restlessness and worry, we are without peace and our energy too excitable and turbulent to allow us to relax into and clearly see what is actually occurring. In more current psychological terminology, sloth and torpor represent many aspects of depression and restlessness and worry are similar to anxiety. In this post, Dr. Karen Walant delves into these hindrances and offers ways to skillfully work with each.
As a hindrance, ill will arises when we don’t like something, or a quality/behavior of someone else or ourselves, and we want it gone. In the throes of this hindrance, we might experience pain, discomfort, disgust and even rage. We fixate on the focus of our ill will, trying to push what we dislike away; however, in ill will, we are like water that is heated to a boil, bubbling over. Filled with heat, the pushing away only creates more boiling bubbles and steam, and we are unable to see with clarity.
Sensual desire, or kāmacchanda, is the first of the five mental obstacles that prevent awakening, freedom and our ability to see clearly that which is actually occuring in the present moment. Psychotherapist and meditation teacher Dr. Karen Walant helps us understand and skillfully work with this hindrance that focuses on fantasy and often manifests as the constant pursuit of pleasure, fuels addictions, and keeps us stuck in habits and “chanda, which literally translates into “wanting.”
With the summer solstice recently passed, we’re now officially in summer, the most yang, high-energy time of the year. During these long days of sunshine and warm summer evenings, we get to enjoy time in and on water, long evening walks, celebrations with family and friends, fresh local fruits and vegetables, and all sorts of play and games. Summer, for most of us, is a time that we associate with fun—even if it’s an idea that we carry from childhood. Yet, as I’ve been thinking a lot about fun, play and pleasure this past month, I wonder, as adults, how many of us are actually having summertime fun?
It is known that the Buddha began his search for enlightenment by giving up all indulgent experience. After living a life of wealth in which he was provided with everything he wanted—and more—he joined a group of ascetic monastics who ate and slept very little. Having renounced all worldly pursuits to fully devote themselves to spiritual work, these monks believed that giving very little to the body would reduce desire. The Buddha, while interested at first, found that this experience did not encourage transcendence any more than did living a life of comfort and pleasure. It was then that the Buddha came to understand the power of the middle path. This path of not too much and not too little is a path of just right-ness. And, it is in that just right-ness that we can find contentment.
The quality of the relationships we have with others begins with the relationship that we have and continue to cultivate with ourselves. In Western culture, the inner critic in most people runs rampant, and our internal dialogues are often downright mean, if not abusive. Rather than talk to ourselves in loving, supportive and compassionate ways, we often focus on our faults, the places that we "failed" and all that is "wrong" with us, believing that this forceful language will motivate us to up-level our experience, accomplish more and live a "better" life. But all this unkind self-talk really does is put us into a perpetual shame cycle, negatively affecting how we feel about ourselves and how we relate to the people and world around us.
The quality of the relationships we have with others begins with the relationship that we have and continue to cultivate with ourselves. In Western culture, the inner critic in most people runs rampant, and our internal dialogues are often downright mean, if not abusive. Rather than talk to ourselves in loving, supportive and compassionate ways, we often focus on our faults, the places that we "failed" and all that is "wrong" with us, believing that this forceful language will motivate us to up-level our experience, accomplish more and live a "better" life. But all this unkind self-talk really does is put us into a perpetual shame cycle, negatively affecting how we feel about ourselves and how we relate to the people and world around us.
I think it’s fair and safe to say that each of us has encountered a person or group of people that we find it difficult to be around, communicate with and find common ground with. And, it’s also likely that each of us have been harmed, perhaps very deeply, by another who we may hold resentment and ill will toward. There are actions and behaviors that are terrible and so very challenging to forgive. And, there may be people who the mere idea of offering compassion and loving kindness is impossible to do right now and feels unjust. This is a very normal reaction, and the idea of offering kindness to someone we feel has harmed us can feel like a very big ask. The invitation is always to start small and work with someone who is far, far less problematic for you.
The blog posts this month, which is Mental Health Awareness month, will focus on how to practice infusing our awareness with a loving presence and offer ideas, tips and practices to help introduce/strengthen the concept and experience of feeling into the loving, internal presence of the inner nurturer. We'll also explore the idea that self-medicating can be life-affirming when the medicine we use is loving kindness rather than poisonous substances or destructive thoughts or actions.
In alignment with this month’s theme of decluttering to create spaciousness, this post is about forgiveness. Mainly, it details how we can embark on a journey of practicing forgiveness to explore any resentments, wounds or mistakes we’ve made that are stuck in our hearts and how we can bring these persistent hurts into present moment awareness and work with them, ideally letting them go to create more presence, spaciousness and freedom in our lives. When we’re aware of what is happening within our internal landscape, we can begin to see that there are ways to re-work what has happened in our lives and gain wisdom from a re-visit and re-view of what we may be still holding too tight to, which can be of great benefit to our day-to-day, moment-to-moment wellbeing.
Dr. Karen Walant is licensed to practice Online Therapy in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Virginia. She also works with clients anywhere in the world as a Mindfulness Meditation Coach, Teacher and Support, as well as facilitates online MBCT courses across the country. To schedule an initial session, please contact Karen directly.
