Author Archives: alan

Emerging science: Meditation for teachers

There is an ever-expanding scientific literature on the impact of meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, on health care professionals and their patients. This work is now spilling over into the academic arena. The August 2015 issue of the Mindfulness Research Monthly newsletter describes a recent study this way:

The high emotional demands of public school teaching can contribute to impaired teacher morale, professional burnout, and the fact that 40-50 of teachers quit teaching within their first five years on the job. …

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No Laughing Matter

Pearls Before Swine, Dec 19, 2009

Comics speak to me. I feel like Rat sits on one shoulder, Goat (or Uncle Duke or Dagwood or Lucy …) sits on the other. They go back and forth and I’m caught in the middle. One side tells me how the “spiritual journey” might improve my life by making me kinder, more patient and even-keeled, more helpful. The other tells me not to be such a pushover.

Thoughts, even Rat-type thoughts, are not really a problem. We are, by our very nature, thinkers. The “Problem of Thinking” is not that we think (We are thinkers! How can one not think?), but rather the fact that we can so easily get lost in our thoughts. When this happens, thought becomes a substitute for experience. You could even say thought becomes a substitute for life.

So enjoy your life. Enjoy your thoughts. An entire spiritual journey occurs each time you experience even one thought as “just a thought.” This task is not insurmountable.

The Science of Compassion

Geshe Thupten Jinpa is a former Tibetan Buddhist monk, the principal English translator for the Dalai Lama (since 1985), and a Cambridge-educated scholar (BA, PhD). He spoke in Kaul Auditorium this past weekend as the guest of Maitripa College to speak about his new book, “A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives.” He also spoke with OPB’s Think Out Loud about The Science of Compassion (11 May 2015). You can listen to this interview by following the The Science … link.