I recently learned that my fair city of Los Angeles has been chosen as the city with the worst traffic in the United States. From a meditation point of view, I immediately felt the challenge to transform this challenge into a beautiful opportunity.

There is no need to...

It was dusty. It was old. It had not been touched in at least two years. Fascinated, I held the old book in my hands. Did I dare to open it? It had once been my daily companion, the focus of much energy. I had found my goal journal.

I...

Is reality what you think it is? Or is your attention habitually drawn exclusively to problems? So, is your reality dominated by that energy?

If you were surrounded by beauty, but you were unable to give it your attention, would the beauty still exist? Yes, of course, but it would...

Does it make a difference where one meditates? Some say yes, and some say no. In my experience, creating a sacred space can be helpful in facilitating inner peace and a meditation practice, especially at first. Those who are sensitive to energies will appreciate the vibration created by making a...

I was ordering a morning beverage at our local cafe, and tears nearly started flowing when I looked over and saw the fire/paramedic uniformed officer ordering at the adjacent register. This sight hasn't moved me so deeply in the past, but after the Aurora, Colorado shooting, my feelings have spontaneously...

Zen walking has evolved into many different forms over its existence of a couple thousand years. You can find it in some monasteries to be extremely slow walking while beating a wooden fish drum, while in others, it is practiced at quite a brisk, nearly-jogging pace.

There is a lot of focus on which foods to consume these days. And rightfully so, with obesity reaching epidemic levels in the U.S., not to mention all of the health complications that may result from carrying excess weight. Eating is an important issue affecting lifestyle, life expectancy,...

As summer approaches, often so does the quest for the perfect summer body. But in your searching, do not forget to find the deeper body perfection: happiness, peace, and a harmonious relationship to your body, no matter its shape, size, color, or texture.

Our very use of language reveals...

Is it possible that you could be surrounded by something but not be aware of it?

Does a fish realize that it is submerged in water? Are fish able to enjoy the sensation of water, or have they become numb to it for being surrounded by it constantly? Do fish...

What are we? Are we bodies? Brains? Pure energy? But then what is pure energy? I was having a stimulating conversation with a friend who is not only a mystic, but a highly-regarded scientist. She told me that physicists had proven that sensual reality is real, but the rest of...

George Harrison was the first meditator I'd ever met. I'd heard about meditation in books, but I had no idea what the word really meant. George asked me if I meditated, and I told him no, bashfully explaining that one day I planned on trying it. He told me it...

What's in it for you? Well, in a recent study, 13 regular practitioners of Zen meditation were not only studied, but had MRIs taken of their brains regularly. What is particularly noteworthy about the findings was that the putamen, the area of our grey matter associated with attentional...

What do we know of love? How often is love thought of and carefully considered? And how important is love? We use the word a lot, but what does love truly mean? "All you need is love." "Love is all there is." It's a powerful word, and easy to plug into many contexts. But from an experiential point of view, what is love? Is love always gentle and kind? Is loving the same as dominating or controlling others? Is love possessive? Is love desire? Is love pleasure? Is love compassion? Is love chemical, or perhaps genetically influenced? Are there different kinds of love?

"Love," only a word, is thrown around by humans in the most amazing ways. It's far too multi-purpose to be clear what one means when they say it in the English language. Just as we have the one word to describe snow while the Sami people of the Arctic have many different words to describe different kinds of snow (bieggagaikkohat, bihci, bulži, deamádat, among a total of about 200 others), it seems that the word "love" is used rather frequently for all types of variable meanings. I feel strongly that the English language could stand to create a few new words for the multitude of different purposes for which the word "love" steps into play. I am hesitant even to use the word, for fear that it may conjure some completely different meaning in you than the one I intend. For that reason, I will clarify my understanding of the word "love."

In meditation, the purest kind of love dwells in your heart, and it seeks neither to dominate nor control. In yoga, the heart chakra is called "anahata," which translates from Sanksrit to mean "unstruck." Imagine how you might feel, or perhaps have felt at some point in your life, if you'd never had to endure the slings and arrows of any variety of hurt. To have never been hurt is to know no fear of being hurt, nor suspicions of your own malice or that in others. It is a very open state of being, like an infant child sleeping safely, arms open, heart open, fully trusting that every need will be met, loving arms waiting at the slightest, softest murmur. Love is "unstruck," and flows most powerfully in a heart that has discovered the openness of loving fearlessly. This kind of love is most clearly described not as a type of "doing," but rather as an "undoing." Because once one has released their negativity, usually from the pain of the past, what is revealed is the natural flow of limitless love, the original condition of the human heart. The onion is a perfect metaphor: The doing aspect of revealing love is the pulling away of layers of stagnant negativity. In the center of an onion is emptiness, and it is from that seemingly empty spaciousness which love invisibly flows in infinite abundance.

I've heard the kind of love which dwells in the heart and wants to flow freely from the heart described as the love one feels for an adorable puppy dog, a kitten or a baby. It is that feeling of tenderness, wanting to give, to nurture, to be gentle, kind and playful. It is a love free from expectation, and it seeks only joy. It is a love that forgives and adores the faults in the other, correcting only to sidestep pains. It is a love in which what is mutual is correct and honored.

The kind of love I'm speaking of here is present in us all of the time, and it doesn't require "another" to flow freely, because we can be our own recipient of this kind of love. However, its natural flow is impeded by resentment, grudges held from the past, old angers -- esentially any kind of negativity that has been held onto. I am not against negative emotions, because they are naturally part of life, an essential part of the balance in duality that gives us the true experience of positive emotions. How could we truly know light without darkness? However, holding onto negativity longer then necessary can be unhealthy and unpleasant for everyone.

An essential skill for a life full of love is to know when to put your baggage down. Releasing one's grip on negative stories and thoughts may not come naturally to you, depending on your origin, and in many cases, it may need to be learned. But there's no better feeling than dropping a heavy load of rocks after carrying them for a lifetime. You can drop your anger, sadness, resentment, judgements and unmet expectations as certainly as you can drop a bat after you've hit a home run or as soon as your three swings are over. You just let it go. And then love flows from the heart effortlessly, abundantly and naturally. Meditation can be your method of dropping hefty passengers of negativity that have found their way into your consciousness. You can let your mediation be a the last bus stop, the end of the line, where the heaviness of mental darkness is dropped off, revealing love.

"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul." -- St. Aurelius Augustine

Please join me in a guided meditation to release the impediments in your heart, revealing the love that is within you and longing to be realized.

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"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

There are as many ways to meditate as there are to prepare an egg -- perhaps even more. I love all of them. Meditation is the way to the peace within you, and sometimes meditation can be the peace itself. Why is it important to cultivate your inner peace? It...

Have you ever questioned your own thoughts? The very fact that it is possible to question one's own thoughts indicates that there is much more to you than just thought. Otherwise, how could thought be questioned?

What is a simple meditative process that can help you stick to the goals...

There are mountains of evidence toward the effectiveness of setting goals, as well as using creative visualization when it comes to attaining goals. [1-9] There is also substantial evidence pointing specifically to the efficacy of writing down your goals. But the powerful alchemy of combining gratitude with goals...

When I first met Eckhart Tolle, nearly 12 years ago now, he spoke very little. His quiet, gentle demeanor could make him seem shy, but later I learned that he is simply careful with words. In those days, very few people had read his newly-finished book, The Power of Now (which has since sold millions of copies, and been translated into more than 30 languages). Back then, he would visit Los Angeles occasionally when asked to speak to groups, and when he did, he would become my guest in the small house I shared with my partner. I'd make him coffee in the morning, and I'd feel quite relieved and thrilled when he'd drink it, because I'd never been a coffee drinker, myself, and I had no idea how to make coffee. At the time, I considered myself spiritual, but what that meant to me involved reading my daily horoscope, being kind and taking an interest in crystals. I was rather new to the idea of meditation. What I didn't understand was how Eckhart could stop thinking without falling asleep, a task I hadn't yet mastered. In fact, it was a task I could barely imagine.

Guests would join us in the living room for an informal satsang (group meditation and teaching), in which Eckhart would begin by taking a few deep breaths in silence. I'd follow his lead, and take a few deep breaths myself. And then he would simply sit in silence, making eye contact with each of us. My mind racing through various problems, worries, panics, memories, speculations and fantasies, it eventually dawned on me that he was not thinking at all. What a mind-blowing revelation. Slowly, I began to understand that at times it is appropriate to pay more attention to the space between thoughts than to the thoughts themselves. But what would happen to my intellectual abilities? If I didn't constantly hash and rehash thoughts, would I lose the ability to think?

In the morning when I brought him coffee, he would be reading the newspaper. Sometimes he remained silent, and other times we would have stimulating conversations about world politics. And still at other times, he would have me doubled over in fits of giggles; his sense of humor could be so spot on. Clearly his ability to stop thinking at will had not dampened his wits.

What I didn't know then -- in fact no one knew it scientifically, as it was only shown in 2007 (although long-time meditators suspected as much) -- was that the state of being he was attempting to share is rejevenating to the mind and can help to rebuild brain tissue, helping to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's, as demonstrated by studies done on Zen meditators. There's even research behind meditation's long claim not only to stress reduction, but to increasing longevity. In my own experience, once I learned to stop thinking, when I did choose to use my mind, it was more useful, creative and clear.

A common fear when it comes to meditating in the silence of the mind is that perhaps one will lose themselves. On the contrary, it seems that meditation is a keen way to find oneself, to be more of oneself than ever before. Most importantly, it can be way to find freedom from the soul's slavery to the mind, putting the mind in its rightful place as a dutiful servant, relieving neurosis, excessive fear and...

Essential to meditation, even for good health and peace of mind, is breath. If you think of your body and mind as an amazing, complex orchestra, everything working together as much as possible to produce the beautiful symphony of you, guess who would be the conductor? Your breathing.

If you take shallow, quick breaths, your body will know that the panic is on, also known as the fight or flight response: stress hormones are released, your appetite may increase to prepare for unknown dangers, your body may arm itself with extra tension in the neck and shoulders, you may hold on to extra belly fat, most emotions will shut down (except fear and anger), and you might even experience a bad taste in your mouth. If you continue to take short, shallow breaths for extended periods of time, or perhaps hold your breath completely while you think, you will be encouraging stress related illnesses, like heart disease, skin problems and even the weakening of the immune system. It is well known that the diseases that aren't directly caused by stress will certainly be aggravated by it.

On the other hand, if your breaths are long and deep, your orchestra will take the cue from its conductor, your breath, that all is well. You may become more aware of your full range of emotions, especially love and tenderness, your body will easily take care of all of its natural functions and organs, your muscles will be ready but relaxed, your circulation may improve, your body may not feel the need to overeat or over store foods and fats -- as all is well in your world, and you may be preventing stress-related illnesses.

Breath is the only function of the body that is both automatic, like digestion, hormone secretion, or any other autonomic function of the nervous system, and also consciously controllable, like movement, speech and other functions of the somatic nervous system. This makes breathing like a magical key to altering your state of being, as it unites every aspect of the nervous system, and so your experience of yourself.

In a study done in Framingham, Mass. by NYU and Boston University, generations of residents were studied over a period of more than 60 years. Eventually, the clinicians were able to accurately predict who would get sick and with what based on breath rate. Taoists and Pantanjali's the Yoga Sutras could have given you some of the wisdom derived from the Framingham study, among other studies recently: they say the ideal breath rate for humans is 6 breaths per minute or less, taking deep, full inhales with slow exhales.

This can equate to inhaling for five seconds, and exhaling for five seconds. You might be surprised to know that there are many who already breathe at this rate. For me, it took a concerted effort to deepen and lengthen my breath, but I did find a deeper state of being, and my asthma is now practically nonexistent.

Try it with me in this guided breathing meditation, and let me know how it goes in the comment section. I am showing a traditional yogic pranayama (breath control) practice, called anuloma. If you find it too easy, try lengthening your exhale until it is twice as long as your inhale.

"There Is A Way A Way Of Breathing That is a Shame And A Suffocation.
There Is
Another Way...
A Love Breath,
That Lets You Open Infinitely."
RUMI, 13th Century Sufi...

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