Mindfulness+ with Thomas McConkie

When we get something for free, no matter how valuable it is, we tend to value it less. When, on the other hand, we receive a gift deeply and offer something back in return, we relate to the gift in a whole new way. You’re invited to explore your relationship to the Dharma in this episode, and to donate to Mindfulness+ to support our future programming! Visit mindfulnessplus.org.

Check out this episode for a morsel of timeless wisdom from the Desert Mothers and Fathers. We can spend our whole lives struggling and striving, trying to be good enough; trying to earn love. If we will, however, we can become all flame!

If you are under the impression that the human body has precisely one brain, you are not alone. Modern Western culture has been studiously ignoring our other two brains for hundreds of years. Take a tour through your many brains in this episode and reacquaint yourself with all you forgot you knew!

One of the earliest teachings of Buddhism remains as insightful today as it was thousands of years ago: if we can learn to separate the tangle of sensory experience into organized piles, we gain insight into our true nature, which is Freedom, and Joy.

Our monthly extended meditation: practicing without effort. Enjoy this guided tour of awareness while doing any activity you please. Maybe don’t try to operate any heavy machinery on your first listen!

In this episode Thomas revisits a classic teaching–beginner’s mind–and adds a polarity spin: The more deeply you plunge into the ocean of possibility, the more powerfully you find yourself living an inspired life and engaging in the world.

Generally, we experience life in a linear way unfolding through time–something happens in this moment, it fades into the past and we make our way into the future. But there are moments where the experience of time can fade away altogether in to a richness to full to speak of. Far from an esoteric experience, we humans were made to know Eternity. Listen in on this intimate episode and see if you can’t already taste the timeless.

We all know the familiar dopamine rush of buying some consumer good, or getting into a new relationship. If we’re not paying close attention, we can easily come to believe that new objects and relationships are the very things that make us happy in life. The classic Buddhist teaching of Seeking Mind teaches us otherwise. Ultimately, we can come to a place of No Seeking where Happiness and Love reveal themselves to be the very essence of who we are.

We’re reviving an old tradition at Mindfulness+. Once a month, a lengthier meditation on a germane topic. This month’s meditation is PIE, or, Positions, Interests and Essence. This practice is in learning to love others as your very own Being.

A friend of mine recently emailed from the campaign trail in Texas and said she’d been meditating with her staff to help manage the stress. She wrote, “I’d really like to center our meditations on the idea of approaching the ‘opposition’ humanely and with love.” Ahhhh, full stop. What a very beautiful thing to want. In response, I offered a few classical passages and a meditation to brings us more fully into this experience of other-as-self.

The Gospel of Thomas is a surprisingly mind-jogging text that reads more like a collection of Zen koans than a book from the Christian canon. In this episode, Thomas (not to be mistaken with Thomas) shares a saying from this ancient text and ties it to a classical Buddhist teaching. In this episode, as in life, you are invited to be happy, whole, and complete.

Our seeking mind rejects the present moment outright and says, “not yet”. "One day I will be happy, one day I will wake up. But not yet." Awakened mind, on the other hand, simply says, “Perfect.” Thomas shares a parable from the sands of Venice Beach, California and invites Mindfulness+ listeners in this episode to surf their life.

Language is a tool that can clarify experience and deepen our insight. At worst, it can also pull the wool over our eyes, tricking us into believing that we know much more than we actually do. When we learn to pick language up as a useful tool and put it down when its job is done, we can enter into deeper presence, wonder. We can enter into the immensity of Life.

When we go chasing after extraordinary experience, we block the flow of grace that is always available. Paradoxically, relaxing deeply into the present moment and not seeking anything special is the surest way to invite a special experience. Enjoy storytelling, poetry and eyes-open meditation in this dynamic episode.

Life can feel effortful. Frustrating and effortful at times. The practice of mindfulness is powerful because it can help us learn to ride invisible waves; help us move with the flow of Nature rather than against it. In this episode, Thomas shares a rather shocking story about pig hearts and what that means for living a life of “Doing not Doing.”