bodhidave
@bodhidave.bsky.social
humanistic psychodynamic Buddhist deconstructionist ... and all-round sweet guy
interested in cross-cultural parallels in contemplative practice
.
https://utexas.academia.edu/DavidCollins
[header is the rock garden at Ryōan-ji; avatar is an enso]
interested in cross-cultural parallels in contemplative practice
.
https://utexas.academia.edu/DavidCollins
[header is the rock garden at Ryōan-ji; avatar is an enso]
Pinned
bodhidave
@bodhidave.bsky.social
· Nov 21
Deconstructing Mindfulness
There’s been a marked increase in studies of mindfulness and meditation in recent years.
thesideview.co
1:2
The numbers of followers for this account increased this week. I'll re-post an essay I have online which reflects on the present-day "mindfulness" movement.
In that piece, about half-way through, I mention the experience of practicing the jhānas ... and ...
thesideview.co/journal/deco...
The numbers of followers for this account increased this week. I'll re-post an essay I have online which reflects on the present-day "mindfulness" movement.
In that piece, about half-way through, I mention the experience of practicing the jhānas ... and ...
thesideview.co/journal/deco...
Reposted by bodhidave
When I've given talks on meditation to college classes, I include a little meditation practice session. I tell the students that they're not required to do the meditation — they can just sit there.
But, I let them know, if they really just sit there — they will be doing the meditation.
🙂 🙏
But, I let them know, if they really just sit there — they will be doing the meditation.
🙂 🙏
December 30, 2025 at 5:38 PM
When I've given talks on meditation to college classes, I include a little meditation practice session. I tell the students that they're not required to do the meditation — they can just sit there.
But, I let them know, if they really just sit there — they will be doing the meditation.
🙂 🙏
But, I let them know, if they really just sit there — they will be doing the meditation.
🙂 🙏
The process and practice of tonight's #meditation comes to expression this way:
Allow this moment, as it is, to have itself.
Allow this moment, as it is, to have itself.
December 30, 2025 at 3:35 AM
The process and practice of tonight's #meditation comes to expression this way:
Allow this moment, as it is, to have itself.
Allow this moment, as it is, to have itself.
Pretty day outside #Asheville, but the debris on this fence on my road is an example of still evident effects from hurricane Helene last year (the brush on the right of this picture is the location of one of the many streams which flooded here that day).
December 29, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Pretty day outside #Asheville, but the debris on this fence on my road is an example of still evident effects from hurricane Helene last year (the brush on the right of this picture is the location of one of the many streams which flooded here that day).
I was once walking through Harvard Yard on a nice spring day, and decided to do some meditation. I sat down beneath a large elm tree. I got quiet and touched something that is, as it were, always awake — and I realized I was dreaming that I was in Harvard Yard meditating. 🙂 🙏
Last night I dreamt I gave a very detailed and precise lecture about lucid dreaming. The dream was not lucid.
December 28, 2025 at 10:27 PM
I was once walking through Harvard Yard on a nice spring day, and decided to do some meditation. I sat down beneath a large elm tree. I got quiet and touched something that is, as it were, always awake — and I realized I was dreaming that I was in Harvard Yard meditating. 🙂 🙏
In another sitting tonight, the waking, thinking, egoic sense "this is me" was experienced as...
an event
a process
and a display
an event
a process
and a display
December 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
In another sitting tonight, the waking, thinking, egoic sense "this is me" was experienced as...
an event
a process
and a display
an event
a process
and a display
In tonight's #meditation, the sense was
- we are participants in the present moment
- we are expressions of the present moment
- and "the present moment" is a verb
- we are participants in the present moment
- we are expressions of the present moment
- and "the present moment" is a verb
December 28, 2025 at 2:37 AM
In tonight's #meditation, the sense was
- we are participants in the present moment
- we are expressions of the present moment
- and "the present moment" is a verb
- we are participants in the present moment
- we are expressions of the present moment
- and "the present moment" is a verb
In tonight's #meditation a salient part was the very basic one, that the content of what I'm aware of is rather less the point than is the fact that any awareness is occurring.
... a bit like how what is happening can be less the point than is the fact that anything is.
... a bit like how what is happening can be less the point than is the fact that anything is.
December 27, 2025 at 2:41 AM
In tonight's #meditation a salient part was the very basic one, that the content of what I'm aware of is rather less the point than is the fact that any awareness is occurring.
... a bit like how what is happening can be less the point than is the fact that anything is.
... a bit like how what is happening can be less the point than is the fact that anything is.
next door neighbor Sally taking a morning stroll through her yard just now...
December 26, 2025 at 1:05 PM
next door neighbor Sally taking a morning stroll through her yard just now...
In tonight's #meditation I'm reminded that, to borrow from a Tibetan Buddhist formulation, reasons we're not actually awakened to the miraculous of the present moment include:
- it's too simple
- it's too near
- and it's too wonderful
- it's too simple
- it's too near
- and it's too wonderful
December 26, 2025 at 3:46 AM
In tonight's #meditation I'm reminded that, to borrow from a Tibetan Buddhist formulation, reasons we're not actually awakened to the miraculous of the present moment include:
- it's too simple
- it's too near
- and it's too wonderful
- it's too simple
- it's too near
- and it's too wonderful
happy holiday morning
December 25, 2025 at 1:27 PM
happy holiday morning
For me these days #meditation is a kind of increasingly less.
Less a getting somewhere, and increasingly a participating in the already here.
Less a production, and increasingly an expression.
Less achieving something, and increasingly allowing an embrace from, and as, what's true and living.
Less a getting somewhere, and increasingly a participating in the already here.
Less a production, and increasingly an expression.
Less achieving something, and increasingly allowing an embrace from, and as, what's true and living.
December 25, 2025 at 4:17 AM
For me these days #meditation is a kind of increasingly less.
Less a getting somewhere, and increasingly a participating in the already here.
Less a production, and increasingly an expression.
Less achieving something, and increasingly allowing an embrace from, and as, what's true and living.
Less a getting somewhere, and increasingly a participating in the already here.
Less a production, and increasingly an expression.
Less achieving something, and increasingly allowing an embrace from, and as, what's true and living.
really nice sunset tonight, outside #Asheville
December 24, 2025 at 11:16 PM
really nice sunset tonight, outside #Asheville
1\3
"Altura" has a nice thread today on the "honest vulnerability" from which meditative practice allows an embrace...
bsky.app/profile/bren...
translation:
"Altura" has a nice thread today on the "honest vulnerability" from which meditative practice allows an embrace...
bsky.app/profile/bren...
translation:
December 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM
1\3
"Altura" has a nice thread today on the "honest vulnerability" from which meditative practice allows an embrace...
bsky.app/profile/bren...
translation:
"Altura" has a nice thread today on the "honest vulnerability" from which meditative practice allows an embrace...
bsky.app/profile/bren...
translation:
In tonight's #meditation the sense was the practice is about being honestly.
And, put another way, the practice is about ... this.
And *this* ... is a verb.
.
🙂 🙏
And, put another way, the practice is about ... this.
And *this* ... is a verb.
.
🙂 🙏
December 24, 2025 at 3:14 AM
In tonight's #meditation the sense was the practice is about being honestly.
And, put another way, the practice is about ... this.
And *this* ... is a verb.
.
🙂 🙏
And, put another way, the practice is about ... this.
And *this* ... is a verb.
.
🙂 🙏
tonight's crescent moon (14 sec.)
December 23, 2025 at 10:53 PM
tonight's crescent moon (14 sec.)
tonight's sunset, outside #Asheville
December 23, 2025 at 10:28 PM
tonight's sunset, outside #Asheville
It's also been my direct experience that sitting meditation itself has an effect on those around us. I've had times I could feel it when others were meditating in the next room even when I didn't know they were in there, and times animals that I didn't know came to sit with me when I was meditating.
It is not selfishness to forget about saving others and to concentrate only on developing your own spiritual strength.... The solemn truth is that you can't begin to save anybody until you yourself have become whole through the experience of Self-realization.
—Yasutani-roshi (The 3 Pillars of Zen)
—Yasutani-roshi (The 3 Pillars of Zen)
December 23, 2025 at 1:21 PM
It's also been my direct experience that sitting meditation itself has an effect on those around us. I've had times I could feel it when others were meditating in the next room even when I didn't know they were in there, and times animals that I didn't know came to sit with me when I was meditating.
the crescent moon from my yard at sunset tonight
December 22, 2025 at 11:40 PM
the crescent moon from my yard at sunset tonight
Rose of Sharon this summer ... and today ...
December 21, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Rose of Sharon this summer ... and today ...
It is so easy to forget that thinking comes from somewhere. It is generated. Perhaps such "amnesia" is a built-in feature, along with the corollary tacit sense that it is our starting point.
But when we appreciate its generated character, it can become a poetic wonder—a song of how we see things.
But when we appreciate its generated character, it can become a poetic wonder—a song of how we see things.
December 20, 2025 at 1:33 PM
It is so easy to forget that thinking comes from somewhere. It is generated. Perhaps such "amnesia" is a built-in feature, along with the corollary tacit sense that it is our starting point.
But when we appreciate its generated character, it can become a poetic wonder—a song of how we see things.
But when we appreciate its generated character, it can become a poetic wonder—a song of how we see things.
1/13
Last week, on an intensive meditation retreat, I had what I'm tempted to call an ordinary-and-profound ordinary experience.
It was in a way deeply matter-of-fact, and deeply transformative.
Last week, on an intensive meditation retreat, I had what I'm tempted to call an ordinary-and-profound ordinary experience.
It was in a way deeply matter-of-fact, and deeply transformative.
December 19, 2025 at 11:58 PM
1/13
Last week, on an intensive meditation retreat, I had what I'm tempted to call an ordinary-and-profound ordinary experience.
It was in a way deeply matter-of-fact, and deeply transformative.
Last week, on an intensive meditation retreat, I had what I'm tempted to call an ordinary-and-profound ordinary experience.
It was in a way deeply matter-of-fact, and deeply transformative.
Years ago I was on a meditation retreat and in a state where, while I was effectively "altered," there was very much a sense of direction — a wholesome current moving in a healthy direction. Afterwards I was reminded of an early description of the Gulf Stream: "There is a river in the ocean."
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."
Norman Maclean
#VT365 #NaturePhotography
#Poetry
Norman Maclean
#VT365 #NaturePhotography
#Poetry
December 19, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Years ago I was on a meditation retreat and in a state where, while I was effectively "altered," there was very much a sense of direction — a wholesome current moving in a healthy direction. Afterwards I was reminded of an early description of the Gulf Stream: "There is a river in the ocean."
I had occasion this morning to be reminded of this beautiful version of "Amazing Grace" in Cherokee ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUd6...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUd6...
Walela - Amazing Grace (with translation)
YouTube video by MyMoppet52
www.youtube.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I had occasion this morning to be reminded of this beautiful version of "Amazing Grace" in Cherokee ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUd6...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUd6...