Blog Entries

Green business role model follows its folly to success

kiva@themindfulword.org — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Stepping into the tasting room, dubbed the Liquid Center, at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, I felt a vibe unlike almost any I get from a large business in Corporate America. New Belgium’s reputation as a groundbreaking green business did precede that feeling , but seeing the smiles on the employees faces told the truth about this highly-evolved corporate citizen’s place in the green business world. Those smiles weren’t alcohol-induced gr [...]

Mindfulness of breath

kiva@themindfulword.org — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:00:00 +0100

Taming the wild mind is a difficult task and it’s one of the primary reasons why meditation focuses so consistently on the breath. Just as our organs constantly work and our glands regularly secrete hormones without conscious thought, so does our mind work unconsciously. It’s estimated that over 80% of all our thoughts lie in the unconscious. Without our unconscious bodily processes operating 24/7 for us, we would be dead. Because we don’t need to think a [...]

Timelessness

kiva@themindfulword.org — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:00:00 +0100

After spending the summer living and working at the Shambhala Mountain Center I didn’t get a chance to return for three months after I left. Quite longer than I would have liked. As the home of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya monument, the Center carries a special significance unlike most other Buddhist sacred spots in the western hemisphere. Upon returning in November I immediately felt that familiar sacred energy that this blessed place holds. Though the numerous deer and other wild [...]

Snow shovelling

kiva@themindfulword.org — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:00:00 +0100

I cross the flight path of the snowflake. Thwack. Cold and wet meets warm and dry. The chemical reaction tingles my cheek, waking me up to the fresh, bright morning. Thwack, thwack, thwack. Feeling it fully I bring myself into the pleasure of it all. Nature, coming down from the heavens as a wake-up call. Not some scenery off in the distance to look at with a few minutes of interest until the next sight comes along, but a purely visceral experience felt as snow falling on the face, heard [...]

Full of space

kiva@themindfulword.org — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:00:00 +0100

I’ve lately come to appreciate the beauty of blank space. On a recent trip from Toronto to Colorado I opted to take the train rather than fly, looking forward to the vast emptiness of the Great Plains to clear my mind from the mental overstimulation of a big city trip. On the leg from Chicago to Denver we rolled past thousands of acres of farmland, interrupted only by small patches of trees and farmhouses. The unrelenting blankness of the terrain lulled my mind into a restful, blank [...]

Reclaiming God

kiva@themindfulword.org — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0100

My disillusionment with the Catholic Church set in as a child and culminated when I stopped going to church as a teen. The Church posed a number of problems in my mind, but I especially developed an aversion to anything God. The image of a gray-bearded father figure looking down from up above just didn’t work for me. Despite trying, I could not reconcile the dependency that this separateness evoked. I was a disempowered soul, trapped in a victim state. And I was far from being alone [...]

Christmas 2007

kiva@themindfulword.org — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:00:00 +0100

Thich Nhat Hanh regularly reminds his students to not abandon their original spiritual tradition in favour of his mindfulness practice. Upon first hearing this I questioned the validity of the statement. Why would I still need my born-into religion of Roman Catholicism when I’ve found something that works for me? Recently I’ve really come to appreciate the wisdom of Thay’s teachings. At one time the many problems I had with the Church prevented me from relating to it at [...]