This week I finished: Meditation for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, by podcast guest Oliver Burkeman: I loved his book Four Thousand Weeks and I loved this book. I see it describing how to look at and respond to our culture and my life without getting caught up in its pressure to make me feel like I’m not enough, that I don’t[…] Keep reading →

Meditation instructors often talk about thoughts arising and passing away in consciousness, as if they just come out of nowhere and go to nowhere. I’ve found otherwise. No part of your mind is superfluous. The human brain uses up too much energy for evolution to allow unnecessary parts to persist. Each part does something that helped your ancestors survive and pass their genes on to you. For example, some part[…] Keep reading →

The notes I read episode 630: Simplifying Meditation Words and Meaning from were long, so instead of including them in the podcast notes, I’m posting them separately here. Longtime listeners know I meditate regularly, now 25 minutes every other day. I started in 2007 with a ten-day vipassana retreat and have done a few ten-days, plus some 5-days and 3-days. Mostly I pay attention to my breath or do body[…] Keep reading →

The notes I read for this episode were long, so instead of including them in the podcast notes, I posted them as a separate blog post. My book: Leadership Step by Step The Science article I mentioned: Limits to economic growth The article showing humans lived to a modal age of 72: Longevity Among Hunter- Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning Wikipedia page The Calvin and[…] Keep reading →

The notes I read for this episode were long, so instead of including them in the podcast notes, I posted them as a separate blog post.

About ten months in to meditating 20 minutes two days out of my five-day exercise cycle, a few updates. I last updated in November on my full lotus pose. Practice is making it more comfortable. Here’s my post with the video of me in the pose. You may have noticed my sitting on a folded towel on a folded sheet. Here’s me, about to sit on the folded towel on[…] Keep reading →

I did a three-day meditation retreat last month, meaning nearly no talking, reading, writing, internet, phone, etc for three days. The basic unit of meditation there is one hour sitting still, which we do 6 or 7 times a day while there. Barely moving for one hour, focusing my mind is hard, though I’m more skilled at it than ever, which is why I go to the retreat sometimes. It’s[…] Keep reading →

Interruptions distract you from your thoughts. How often you get interrupted determines how complex and developed your thoughts can be. If someone interrupts you every five seconds it’s hard to think thoughts that take more than five minutes to develop. Someone interrupting you every ten minutes would let you develop more complex, longer-term thoughts. If you can only think short-term, you can only see short-term trends in your life, you[…] Keep reading →

Two days ago a guy named Satya Narayan Goenka died. Who was Goenka and why should I care? First, I’ll mention how I found out about him. I had no experience with meditation when a longtime friend I hadn’t seen in a while suggested I try it. The idea made no sense to me because meditation made no sense to me. I didn’t know or care about it to that[…] Keep reading →