Category
Spirituality
Browse the spirituality library by topic first, then narrow into articles, websites, videos, or events.
Topics
Spirituality Topics
Like the legacy category pages, start with the full topic folder list. The selected lane controls where each topic opens.
Everything39,166Browse the category resource libraryArticles30,061Read expert articles and newslettersWebsites9,102Browse recommended websites and resourcesVideos2Watch category videosEvents1Find upcoming sessions and events
Topic clicks are currently scoped to Everything. Choose Articles, Websites, Videos, or Events to open that resource type for every topic below.
A Course in MiraclesAffirmations and Positive AffirmationsAkashic RecordsAstrologyAuraBeliefChannelingChristianityConsciousness and AwarenessCreativityDowsingEnergy Healing and Energy MedicineEnlightenmentFaithHopeHoroscopesImaginationInner PeaceIntuitionLife BalanceLife PurposeMeditationMiraclesMysticismNew AgeNumerologyPalm ReadingPositive ThinkingPsychic Readings and PsychicsReligionSelf KnowledgeSelf RealizationSpiritual GrowthSpiritual GuidesSpiritual HealingTarotZen and Mindfulness
Everything
Spirituality Resources
Browse a compact directory list below, or use the topic folders above for a focused legacy-style path.
30 resources
ARTArticle***Daily Meditations Beginning Meditators Can DoThose who are just starting out with meditation often try to create a daily meditation practice. People regularly ask me to talk about starting a daily practice in a similar tone to how people talk about losing weight or stopping smoking. The conversation sounds like there is some habit that needs to be overcome or acquired.
Maybe I'm not the best person to ask about this, because besides going to the bathroom and breathing, there isn't really anything I can think of that I do every single day.ARTArticle***Discovering Transcendental Meditation® and Maharishi Mahesh YogiWhile not the first person to teach meditation in the West, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has been one of the more influential meditation teachers of our times. You probably recognize his photo even if you didn't recognize his name. And if his photo isn’t familiar to you, chances are good that you would know him as the person who founded TM® or Transcendental Meditation®.
What you may not know is that he is also the founder of Maharishi International University, a school located in a small town called Fairfield, Iowa.ARTArticle***Discovering Transcendental Meditation® and Maharishi Mahesh YogiWhile not the first person to teach meditation in the West, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has been one of the more influential meditation teachers of our times. You probably recognize his photo even if you didn't recognize his name. And if his photo isn’t familiar to you, chances are good that you would know him as the person who founded TM® or Transcendental Meditation®.
What you may not know is that he is also the founder of Maharishi International University, a school located in a small town called Fairfield, Iowa.ARTArticle***Doing a Vipassana Meditation RetreatI've done more than twenty Vipassana meditation retreats. My first one was in 1983. I had been meditating for more than twelve years at that point, but I had never taken ten days to do nothing except meditate for fourteen hours a day.
Americans interested in practicing Vipassana are likely to encounter two primary lineages for this kind of meditation. One of them was brought from Burma by Mahasi Sayadaw and is taught at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Califo
ia and at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. You will often hear this referred to mindfulness meditation.ARTArticle***Don’t Look Back (Or Forward)"With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now"
Ralph Waldo EmersonARTArticle***Finding a Buddhist Meditation Retreat CenterIf you are looking into Buddhist meditation and you want to really go deeply into it, then the best way to do that is to go on a Buddhist meditation retreat.
You can find Buddhist meditation centers just about anywhere in the world. However, having completed over thirty meditation retreats, I can tell you that there is no need to travel to some distant country to find the best meditation center.
This is true even if you want to do Tibetan meditation. There is no need to go to Tibet or Nepal for a good Tibetan Buddhist retreat.ARTArticle***Finding Meditation Techniques That Are Right For YouWhen you are searching for meditation techniques or want meditation instruction, whether you are looking for relaxation meditation or spiritual meditation techniques, if you are an advanced student or a beginner, if you are searching for anxiety relief or anything else...whatever reason you may want to meditate, it’s important to keep in mind that there are many different kinds of meditation.ARTArticle***Finding Your Perfect Meditation CushionFinding the right meditation supplies, especially the perfect meditation cushion, can feel lot like looking for the Holy Grail.
I started meditating in 1970 and since then, I've tried almost every kind of meditation cushion ever created. I've spent so much time on this I even tried to design the ideal meditation cushion myself, contemplating how to make something that would hold my spine perfectly straight, let my knees be comfortable and my back to be free of pain.ARTArticle***How Not To Live With Regret“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back... Regret is only good for wallowing in." Katherine Mansfield
“I never regret anything. Because every little detail of your life is what made you who you are in the end.” Drew BarrymoreARTArticle***How to be a Meditation TeacherWant to learn how to teach meditation?
It’s simple.
You can turn yourself into a meditation teacher in less than five minutes by following these easy steps.
First, pick a simple meditation technique and practice describing how to do it. You don’t have to be able to do it yourself, just be able to explain to others how it is supposed to be done.
Don’t know any meditation techniques? No problem. Just do a search for free meditation techniques online. Or you can try using this one: Pay attention to your breathing. Be aware of your in-breath; be aware of your out-breath.ARTArticle***How to Learn Buddhist Meditation TechniquesBack when I started doing Buddhist meditation in the ‘70’s, it was hard to find any Buddhist books or Buddhist retreats or Buddhist meditation classes or any information of any kind at all that could help me learn a daily Buddhist meditation practice. If you started talking about the "Dalai Lama," people figured you meant some kind of restaurant featuring sandwiches for pack animals from South America.
It's different now, of course.
In fact, I think people have gotten a bit Buddhist meditation happy these days.ARTArticle***How To Learn Zen MeditationWould you like to learn Zen meditation?
If you do, then you have to make a decision: would you prefer to sit staring at a blank wall, or would you like to have an idea what other meditators in the room look like?
Actually, there’s another decision involved: do you want your progress towards enlightenment to be gradual, or would you prefer to wait a long, long time and then have enlightenment strike instantly?ARTArticle***How To Learn Zen MeditationWould you like to learn Zen meditation?
If you do, then you have to make a decision: would you prefer to sit staring at a blank wall, or would you like to have an idea what other meditators in the room look like?
Actually, there’s another decision involved: do you want your progress towards enlightenment to be gradual, or would you prefer to wait a long, long time and then have enlightenment strike instantly?ARTArticle***How To Meditate"How to Meditate"
In 1970, I saw this title on a small ad in the back of a comic book.
I could learn to meditate for just $1, the ad promised. “Secrets of ancient yogi masters revealed: achieve psychic powers, control the mind!” Learning to meditate like a monk through this step-by-step course was only four quarters away. I could hardly wait.ARTArticle***How to Overcome Problems in Meditation PracticeAfter teaching meditation to thousands of people, when I ask what sorts of problems they encounter with their practice, I hear the same three answers again and again.
The problem I hear the most frequently is that people can't quiet their minds. They refer to having "monkey mind," or tell me, "I can't stop thinking." Sometimes they say they have "negative self-talk," or other unhappy thoughts they can't get rid of.
The second complaint on the list is not having enough time.ARTArticle***Improve Your Daily Zen Meditation PracticeJason Shulman, a friend of mine and Kabbalistic healer, tells one of my very favorite stories about Zen meditation.
He had gone on sesshin, a Zen meditation retreat.
He was at a place in his daily meditation practice where he had come to believe that the goal of Zen meditation was to have no thoughts.
So he sat on his meditation cushion in the lotus position, facing a blank white wall with his hands in the correct mudra.ARTArticle***Integrating Daily Life with Daily MeditationOn one of the meditation courses I did, we sat for fourteen hours a day. During that time, there was one three-hour period when we were supposed to sit in the meditation hall on our meditation cushions without moving in any way.ARTArticle***It’s Always One of Two Answers"For every complex problem there is answer that is clear, simple and wrong."
H.L. Mencken
"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."
William S. Burroughs
Questions and answers.
We spend so much time caught up trying to find answers to questions. Every time a question comes up that requires an answer we put ourselves through a huge series of mental gymnastics.ARTArticle***Learning How to MeditateNot long ago, I did a web search for how to meditate. In each of the top twenty results were nearly identical basic instructions:
Find a quiet spot.
Choose the same time to meditate each day.
Sit upright with your back relaxed and your spine straight.ARTArticle***Learning Meditation Where You LiveIt is easier than ever to get meditation instruction where you live.
You can find meditation classes in almost any American city. I’ve see
YMCA's in the middle of nowhere offer free meditation instruction. At one time, you could have listed all of America’s spiritual and meditation retreat centers in a book you could put in your back pocket. You can now find meditation centers and meditation teachers in every state in the Union, often no more than a few hours away.
Back in 1970, when I started meditating, there weren’t very many books on meditation.ARTArticle***Maturity and MeditationSeveral decades ago, I listened to a talk given by a Western teacher who had become a monk in a Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In order to protect the possibly guilty, I’ll leave out his name. He described how, in the years since he’d become a monk and began formally practicing meditation, he had grown calmer and improved his ability to manage life's ups and downs.
The audience responded with both envy and optimism. They were optimistic because of the possibility that meditation could lead to more happiness.ARTArticle***Meditate - How To?If you’d like to relax, take a mental vacation, gain some spiritual insight, or just clear your mind, a good way to do so is to meditate.
There are many different was to do meditation and there are even more methods to learn how to meditate.
Almost every religion has its own meditation techniques. Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Christian traditions all have some form of contemplative meditation in which you select a teaching from a sacred text and quietly consider it, looking to find the truth in it or to see how it applies to or affects your own life.ARTArticle***Meditate - How To?If you’d like to relax, take a mental vacation, gain some spiritual insight, or just clear your mind, a good way to do so is to meditate.
There are many different was to do meditation and there are even more methods to learn how to meditate.
Almost every religion has its own meditation techniques. Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Christian traditions all have some form of contemplative meditation in which you select a teaching from a sacred text and quietly consider it, looking to find the truth in it or to see how it applies to or affects your own life.ARTArticle***Meditation and DepressionAs I wrote the title of this post, “Meditation and Depression,” I found myself smiling at the concept that meditation could cause depression.ARTArticle***Meditation and Yoga - Pathways to Inner Peace?There must be something wrong with the way I talk.
I decided this must be the case because when I say I teach meditation, people frequently say, "Oh, you do yoga?"
Meditation… yoga… I don’t think they sound like the same words – do you?
Many people, however, seem to think they are the same thing. Yes, Pantanjali's yoga included meditation, and there is yoga in some of the Tibetan Buddhist schools of meditation. But meditation and yoga are not the same things and often not even remotely related.ARTArticle***Meditation in Motion - Yoga MeditationYou could say that yoga & meditation are two sides of a coin. They can be difficult to separate.
Doing both meditation and yoga isn't required, but they do go together well. They each can enhance your practice of the other. If you take meditation to your yoga mat, you may find more ease and flexibility in your postures and perhaps a greater degree of calmness than you used to feel.ARTArticle***Meditation ProblemsOne of my friends is a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He’s an actual Tibetan born in Tibet,
not an American who has converted to Tibetan Buddhism or learned Tibetan Buddhist meditation.
If you’re actively involved with some religious or spiritual tradition, I recommend getting to know a high-ranking leader within that tradition.ARTArticle***Meditation Retreats - 10 Tips to Get You StartedHere are some ideas on how to best prepare for your first meditation retreat:
1) Make sure details are handled before leaving. Pay your bills. Arrange for someone to check your messages and let them know where to reach you in case of emergency. Be sure someone will be checking on your pets and knows how to reach your vet. Record a new outgoing voicemail message so people know you will be unavailable till you get back.
2) You will forget some things… and it will bother you.ARTArticle***Meditation Won’t Help YouMeditation is not going to help you.
Meditation will not make you more peaceful and calm. It’s not going to eliminate your stress. Meditation will not cure your disease. It’s not going to advance you spiritually. Meditation will not help you do better at your job or sport or hobby. Meditation does not give anyone magical powers. It’s not going to assist you in making more money. And you most definitely will not become enlightened from meditating.
Okay, there, I've said it.ARTArticle***Meditation Yoga Techniques You Can LeaWould learning to do meditation yoga techniques create more peace for your body-mind?
Yoga and meditation both demonstrate how the mind and body are interdependent. If you relax the body with yoga, the mind will get the hint, too. If you calm the mind with meditation, then the body can let go as well.
You can find dozens and probably hundreds of yoga and meditation techniques.