C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  No matter who you are or where you are in life, you need tools for "living the good life", as the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers would have put it. First, I believe that you need to be grounded in a religion.  And by "religion", I don't mean the form of fundamentalism that some of you may have in mind.  I mean religion as a living Wisdom Tradition .  The two Wisdom Traditions that have shaped me throughout most of my life are/were Zen and Eastern Christianity. Even once you are "grounded" in a Wisdom Tradition, you still need tools for your daily living.  One of the best tools that I have found comes from the late (and great) Indian philosopher and professor of religion Eknath Easwaran.  Easwaran is most noted for developing what he called "passage meditation" where you memorize an inspirational passage and then use it in meditation to go deep within.  But it's not his passage meditation that I want to discuss in this post.  It

Entering Deeply into Practice Bodhidharma (a.k.a. Da Mo), first patriarch of Zen*       “ While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life.  The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas.  In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture.  Do not think about anything.  Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything.  Then eventually you will resume your own true nature.  That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself. ” Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind      In a past blog entry on Zen, martial arts, and building muscle mass, I made a brief mention of entering deeply into practice .  But what does this mean, to “enter deeply into practice”?  First, and for some odd reason this seems to be a point that practitioners are apt to miss, it means that you must have a daily practice that you

     I have been a little late this week in getting any posts out.  This is because I have been at work on an article for a bodybuilding magazine, and because I have been at work on the following essay.  The following essay is dear and near to me.  I hope that you find solace and support in whatever ways it might offer. Integral Life Practice Simplified Part One: Cultivating Spirit      Ultimately, religion and spirituality should be about practice, not about belief.   One reason that many people in the West turned toward Eastern religions—and then toward Integral philosophy/spirituality—is because they were upset with the way Christianity was/is practiced in our country.   Christianity was/is too often practiced as a way of believing as opposed to a way of being .   (And, of course, it doesn’t have to be this way.   Contemplative Christianity is still one of the best ways in existence.)   However, it seems to me that too many Integral practitioners—because of their interest in

     Enlightenment is nothing more than lifting weights and drinking my protein shake.  Why?  Because life as it is  is utterly perfect.      You can approach life as a way of being , or you can approach life as a way of believing—and sometime your belief might be that "there are no beliefs."  Sorry, that's still a belief.      In an earlier post (see April's posts), I discussed the great Zen master Kosho Uchiyama, and what I called the 4th way.  (For more details, once again, read the post.)  Basically, Uchiyama said that there are three ways that most people live their lives: they search for some kind of philosophical "truth", they put their belief in a deity (what I refer to as "the mythic sky god") that they believe will take care of them like some kind of butler in the sky if they only do as He/She pleases, or they decide that life is meaningless, so why not go ahead and have all the fun you want (or why not go ahead and sleep with all the wom

     For those of us who both meditate seriously and take physical training serious, the below article by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (a Theravadin monk from the Thai Forest Tradition) can be very helpful when trying to establish a disciplined meditation practice.      By the way, I would also recommend spending some time at the website "Access to Insight" (where you can read the complete article) and read some more of Thanissaro's pieces.  They are down to earth, and helpful (especially so?) for us Integral practitioners, reminding us that some of the basics—such as a following the precepts—are as important as ever. Strength Training for the Mind byThanissaro Bhikkhu© 2007–2009      Meditation is the most useful skill you can master. It can bring the mind to the end of suffering, something no other skill can do. But it's also the most subtle and demanding skill there is. It requires all the mental qualities ordinarily involved in mastering a physical skill — mindfulness and a