April 2009: Celebrating impermanence

Welcome to Wildmind's latest monthly meditation newsletter. You're receiving this email because you subscribed to our newsletter mailing list. You may unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions at the end of this email.

Online Classes Now Registering

	Get support and guidance from an experienced meditation teacher when you take an online meditation course.
	Experience the convenience of learning meditation at home, with 24/7 access.
	Develop greater peace of mind with the help of our online readings and MP3 meditations.
	Connect with others in our discussion forum.
	Click here to learn more about our online courses

So many ways to keep in touch!

1. Friend us on Facebook

2. Follow our Twitter feed

3. Get every new article send direct to your inbox via Feedblitz, (you can sign up from the form at the top of our sidebar)

On Practice

Breaking up -- the Buddhist way
by Auntie Suvanna

They say breaking up is hard to do. Can Buddhism make it easier? Auntie Suvanna dispenses her wit and wisdom to a Buddhist wanting to undo a powerful attachment.

Click here to read more

Opening to Insight
by Kamalashila

Fundamentally, we don't know anything about anything. How then can we even begin to cultivate insight into how things really are? Author, practitioner, and Dharma teacher Kamalashila suggests how we can learn to open up to reality.

Click here to read more

If there is no self, then who's sitting here?
by Sunada

Does the Buddhist idea of "no self" strike you as bizarre or outrageous? Sunada has been reflecting on this difficult concept, and shares her thoughts on it so far. It isn't just an obscure philosophical point for mental gymnasts, she says. Paradoxically, she thinks the ideas can help us in a very real way toward finding and becoming more of who we really are.

Click here to read more

The Centrality of Impermanence
by Justin Whitaker

If there is just one thing you should learn about this world, anicca is it. It may be an exaggeration to say that anicca, or impermanence, is the core of the Buddha's teaching, but when we look closely at this single idea, the whole of the Buddha’s teaching begins to open up.

Click here to read more

Quote of the Month

"We must learn to die, and to die in the fullest sense of the word. The fear of the end is the source of all lovelessness…" - Richard Wagner

Wagner's advice, that we need to learn to die, may bring up thoughts of our mortality: thoughts we may not be comfortable dwelling upon. But Bodhipaksa suggests learning to die really means learning to live fully, embracing the ungraspable flow of life.

Click here to read more

Book reviews

"The Best of Inquiring Mind: 25 Years of Dharma, Drama, and Uncommon Insight"

As the exceptional, essential new anthology The Best of Inquiring Mind: 25 Years of Dharma, Drama, and Uncommon Insight underscores for us, Inquiring Mind journal has been a vital and heroic effort in English-language Buddhist media. The Reverend Danny Fisher celebrates this remarkable collection of writings.

Click here to read more

"Ten Zen Questions," by Susan Blackmore

Susan Blackmore's Ten Zen Questions, like so many Zen koans, may at first glance seem silly or pointless — "Where is this?" for example — but when approached with a focused mind they can be used to push back our assumptions and let us have a glimpse at what's really going on.

Click here to read more

"Never Turn Away: The Buddhist Path Beyond Hope and Fear" by Rigdzin Shikpo

Tejananda, Buddhist practitioner, meditation teacher, and author of The Buddhist Path to Awakening, gives an overview of a new, fresh approach to translating the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism into a western idiom.

Click here to read more

Other articles

What Rikers Island taught me about meditation, by Steve Bell

Prison can be a tough environment for those who work there as well as for inmates. Psychotherapist Steve Bell reflects on a few tough months spent in Rikers Island and realizes how much he learned by teaching meditation to incarcerated women.

Click here to read more

Meditation in the News: Top Five Stories of the Past Month

Each month we bring you the media buzz on meditation.

• Meditation, prayer alter brain, says researcher
• Tibetan monks protest New Year prayer ban
• Meditation slows progression of AIDS
• PTSD treatment for monks
• Stressed? 5 quick tips for meditation in a busy schedule