Mindfulness meditation, known in sanskrit as Shamatha, is a foundational practice in the Buddhist tradition.

That being said, the practice itself is completely secular. Shamatha literally translates to calm abiding, or peacefully remaining. When we practice mindfulness meditation, we are simply rehearsing stillness, and we are practicing guiding our attention with intention.

When you practice these ways of being, you can proceed into your life with an enhanced sense of equanimity (calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation).

I see two main reasons why this practice is important for political work.

First, coalition building requires you to get along with people who are obnoxious, opinionated, and stubborn. Getting along with people who are different from you, but are nonetheless in common cause with you, is easier when you have a daily practice that makes you more patient, more open, and more at ease. I view mindfulness as an anti-reactivity exercise.

Second, mindfulness meditation is a practice that helps you notice more of your inner and outer life. Committing to the practice eventually gets you to a place where you are better equipped to notice when you are speaking from a place of wisdom or thoughtfulness, rather than reacting from a place of self-righteousness and self-importance. And I believe this is a useful skill for people doing political work, which has a tendency to elicit feelings of self-righteousness and self-importance. The ego's favorite!

This second one is especially important because we have all been raised in a Capitalist society. There are many reactionary views we may have internalized in our youth, due to being raised in this society. If we have failed to adequately address these reactionary views, and if our self-righteousness encourages us to find nominally "progressive" ways of justifying these reactionary views, we may continue to reinforce aspects of capitalist enculturation without noticing it.

And I don't just mean internalized racism, homophobia, transphobia. I think this applies to our assumptions too. We are raised to assume that the nuclear family is normal, that independence is desirable, that consumption is inevitable, that sacrifice is unnecessary, and that other people's suffering doesn't affect you. When was the last time you caught yourself reinforcing an idea that serves the system?

I also address this concern at length in the Introduction to The Critical Moment.

Picture yourself on a boat in a river...

I'm kidding. Depending on the setting, a session will typically start with a brief introduction or check-in. This is where I talk a little bit about my background, why I teach meditation, or if I'm with an individual/group that I've already been working with, I will take some time at the top to check-in with everyone about how their practice is going.

Afterwards, we transition into meditation instruction (assuming the individual/group needs it) which starts with your posture (basically the same regardless of whether you're on a cushion or in a chair), then goes to your breath (your breath being the "Object" of the meditation), and then goes onto the basic technique of noticing/labeling your thoughts.

The practice usually lasts 20-30 minutes, although this is flexible depending on your needs. Mindfulness meditation is not guided meditation, so after the instructions are given, we sit in silence. After the practice has concluded (which will usually take up the bulk of the session), there will be a dharma talk, a discussion, or another quick check-in depending on the wants and needs of the given individual/group.

My practice is primarily secular, although I do have some spiritual feelings towards the natural world. Even if you're very skeptical of woo-woo stuff, I think you will feel very comfortable with my teaching style.

Meditation instruction is not therapy, nor is it a substitution for therapy, psychiatric care, or medical treatment.

If you are experiencing any sort of mental health crisis or medical emergency, do not try to contact me or any other meditation instructor. Seek professional mental health support or medical care if that is the case.

I am a certified meditation teacher, and nothing more. Think of me like a yoga teacher, but instead of helping you stretch your body, I can help you stretch your mind.

I received my certification to teach Mindfulness Meditation from Dharma Moon and Tibet House US, after completing their 100-hour Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. So, I'm qualified to teach the basic techniques and help people deepen their practice, but I am by no means a zen priest or a master meditator or anything of the sort.

My most important qualification is that I am someone who was so scared of the future that I didn't want to fight for it, until I found a practice that in some ways brought me back to life. And now I've learned how to teach that practice to others.

Absolutely not!

I will teach you everything you need to know about the technique of mindfulness meditation, and if you want to explore dharma more deeply, I'm happy to embark on that journey alongside you.

If the sliding scale doesn't work for your circumstances, reach out anyway. I can help connect you with other meditation resources, or notify you when a free Meditation for Liberation workshop is being offered to the general public.

I want to teach this practice to as many people as possible, so barring logistical constraints, yes.

The main challenges for getting whole organizations to participate would be the limitations of available physical space, or the digital limitations of a Zoom call. But I am more than happy to work with you to get as many people meditating as possible.

For beginners, 20 minutes a day is a great place to start. If 10 minutes is all you can manage, that's still worth doing. Regularity matters more than duration, and being kind to yourself matters more than letting the taskmaster in your mind turn you into the world's best meditator. A short daily practice is more fruitful than a long occasional one. If you miss a day, don't beat yourself up. Just start again.

You're not doing it wrong. Noticing that you're thinking is exactly the point of a meditation practice.

Specifically, the practice is about noticing that you're thinking, and then making the conscious effort to guide your attention back to the object of your meditation (usually the breath). When you do this over and over again—letting your mind wander, noticing that it's wandering, labeling your thoughts "thinking," and then bringing your attention back to your breath—you are rewiring your brain so that you can actually decide where to direct your attention, rather than living at the whims of your anxieties and impulses.

It doesn't matter how many times you wander, it matters that you keep returning.

The goal of meditation is to be more present in the moment, and to pay more attention to the world around you without getting lost in thoughts, symbols, and abstractions.

Keeping your eyes open during meditation makes it better practice for your normal life. Meditation isn't supposed to be an insular practice, it's supposed to be a rehearsal for how you live normally. And for those of us who have the privilege of sight, we tend to live with our eyes open.

You don't need to label emotions away or push them down. Emotions have both a narrative component and a felt, energetic quality in the body. The practice is to feel the emotions without projecting them onto some story you tell about yourself. From there, you can let it go and return to your breath. If an emotion becomes too overwhelming, it's okay to pause the practice.

Mindfulness meditation is not a grim duty. Be kind to yourself. This practice asks for discipline, but not self-torture. If you're in real pain, shift your posture and take a fresh start. You can meditate on a chair, on a cushion, or in a supported kneeling posture, and all of them are perfectly valid postures for meditation. The right posture is the one that lets you feel both relaxed and alert.

Sitting upright is recommended because the posture itself supports the quality of being both relaxed and awake. There is also a walking meditation technique where the sensation of each footstep replaces the breath as the object of the meditation.

That said, you can bring mindfulness to any activity. Mindfulness while sitting in meditation and mindfulness while living your life are two parts of the same practice. Engaging with both reinforces mindfulness in all contexts.

"Before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water. After enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water."
- an oft repeated Zen saying