FAQs

Do I have to be able to sit on a little cushion all day? What if I have physical pain?

No way! Part of learning to meditate is learning what posture works for our body. We can meditate on a chair, lying down, standing up, and in all kinds of different variations of posture on different kinds of cushions. Part of Learn to Meditate events will be figuring out together what works best for you. We never sit more than 10 - 15 minutes at a time, then do some walking meditation, and you can also move at any point when you’re uncomfortable and we’ll go over some little easy “resting postures” to use at any time..

What kind of meditation will I learn? Do I have to be interested in Buddhism?

Everyone is very warmly welcome whether or not we have any interest in Buddhism. The kind of meditation we’ll learn is very ancient and called shamatha, or peaceful abiding meditation, and it actually predated Buddhism by quite a lot and is incorporated into lots of different traditions including totally secularized mindfulness. It involves making friends with ourselves through grounding in our breathing, and learning we can make peace and rest. At any given event, there’s usually quite a wide range of interests and I actively celebrate that. That said, I also don’t water it down, and folks interested in Buddhism will learn a way of meditating that will be foundational to our practice.

I’ve learned different meditations, mantras, etc., on apps or YouTube, in books, in yoga, etc. I like some of them. How will this relate?

Your practice is your practice:) It’s totally normal and healthy that we mix and match from things we find helpful. Learn to Meditate events will focus on learning shamatha meditation, which is often a baseline or a foundation for any other practice we do. I’ll say more during the retreats about how we can incorporate it into our paths.