Wildmind: A Community-Supported Meditation Initiative

In order to provide financial stability and to create community, Wildmind is in the process of transforming into a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative. In sponsoring Community Shares you'll be helping to support and expand this online resource. You'll also be getting:
  • A monthly newsletter that's just for sponsors, containing an exclusive article and a meditation download.
  • An online sponsors' forum where you can share your practice and get feedback, support, and encouragement.
  • Free access to new meditation courses that Bodhipaksa develops.
You'll also have the satisfaction of knowing that you're making 30 of our existing meditation courses available free of charge to the public. (You'll have access too, of course.)
Click here to learn more about this initiative

Check Out Wildmind's Online Courses

Sitting With Bodhi: Mindfulness of the Body (Enroll until May 12)

Nourish your meditation practice as you join Bodhipaksa for a series of 28 guided meditations designed to help us find calm and centeredness through being mindful of the body. At a pace you determine, you'll be sent a link to a new guided meditation, especially recorded for this event. Each meditation provides a 10-minute lead-in to a particular way of approaching our experience. First, set a timer for as long as you want to sit — for example 15 or 20 minutes (or longer if you want). Second, start the meditation. Third, after the guidance has ended, continue to practice until the end of your chosen time period.
Click here to enroll

Sit Breathe Love (Starts May 7)

28 Days to Establishing a Rock-Solid Daily Meditation Practice Sit Breathe Love is a 28 day meditation challenge helping you to set up the habit of meditating daily. The benefits of regular meditation have been demonstrated again and again in multiple studies. Meditating makes you happier, is good for your health, protects your brain from aging, boosts your intelligence, and helps reduce pain, stress, and depression. But it’s not easy to set up a regular meditation practice, so we’re here to help you!
Click here to enroll

Recent Posts

Be part of something special

By Bodhipaksa

I’m Bodhipaksa, the founder of Wildmind, and I’d love to extend you an invitation to be a part of a very special initiative we’re launching. What we’re doing is turning Wildmind into a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative by asking fans of our work to sponsor…

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Becoming more mindful of our feelings

By Bodhipaksa

The “first foundation” of mindfulness is the body, which involves being aware of the physical sensations of the body, the body’s posture, how we move, and so on. The second foundation is “feelings.” Feelings are internally generated pleasant and unpleasant sensations that arise in…

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Our Community-Supported Meditation Initiative: An Update

By Bodhipaksa

We’re making excellent progress toward the goal of Wildmind becoming a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative. In this new model Wildmind’s teaching will be supported by sponsors contributing as little as $4 each month. Sponsors will of course gain a number of benefits. All of the…

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Liking yourself is not the antidote to hating yourself

By Bodhipaksa

You might think that the antidote to self-hatred is liking yourself. But is that desirable, or even possible? We all contain impulses such as jealously, hatred, and greed. What would it mean to like them? Are we supposed to approve of them? To give…

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One of our online meditation courses is available free of charge

By Bodhipaksa

We’re making one of our introductory meditation courses, Sit Breathe Love, available free of charge. The course starts on May 7 and runs for 28 days. This is indirectly connected to our move toward being a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative, where Wildmind will be entirely…

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A Community-Supported Meditation Initiative

By Bodhipaksa

The past I started Wildmind in 2000 as a website where anyone could come to learn to meditate. It’s been a stunning success; we’ve had roughly 15 million unique visitors during that time! At first the sale of CDs supported my meditation teaching. Later,…

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About Buddhist meditation

buddha statueIn a way there's nothing very "Buddhist" about the meditation you'll find on Wildmind. When you pay attention to your breath, or to the sensations in your body as you walk, or when you cultivate feelings of love for another person, you won't have a sense that you're doing anything very "religious." In a way these are simply "human" meditation practices -- ways that a human being can pay attention to his or her own experience, and gently cultivate greater awareness and love.

The simplest form of meditation we teach here is mindfulness of breathing. The essence of this practice is that we simply bring our attention to the sensations of the breathing, and when the mind wanders, as it will, we gently steer it back to the breath once again. However in the form we teach here, there are four stages, each of which has a specific purpose in helping us to develop calmness, energy, continuity of awareness, or one-pointedness.

The other main form of meditation that we teach is the cultivation of lovingkindness, in which we take responsibility for our emotions, and encourage the development of qualities of empathy, patience, kindness, and compassion.

We also teach you how to set up your meditation posture (an essential consideration in any form of meditation practice), as well as walking meditation.

And outside of these structured guides to meditation, we have a blog with a vast collection of news stories about meditation, articles on practice, and reviews of books, CDS, and videos.

About the meditation practices you can learn on this site

Our Posture Workshop

Our posture workshop is where we suggest you start if you don't already have a meditation practice (and perhaps even if you do). We'll take you step-by-step through the process of setting up a meditation posture that will allow you to be both alert and relaxed.
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The mindfulness of breathing

The mindfulness of breathing is a fundamental meditation practice that everyone should know. The benefits? You'll find that this practice helps you to calm your mind so that there's less inner chatter (especially the stuff that makes you unhappy). You'll find also that you're less distractible and better able to pay attention.
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The development of lovingkindness

The development of lovingkindness (metta bhavana) works directly on our emotional habits, helping us to become more emotionally positive. You'll learn to be kinder to yourself: more patient, more understanding. You'll find that you're more considerate to others and that it's easier to forgive. You may even find (as others have) that others around you mysteriously become easier to be around. Hmmm.. wonder why that is?
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Walking meditation

Walking meditation is a great way to bring more meditation into your daily life; it's a practice that can be done even in a busy city street. In this form of practice we develop greater mindfulness of the body, but we also become more aware of our thought patterns, our emotions, and even of the outside world. It's a calming practice. Walking meditation can also be a lovingkindness practice, especially when you're walking in a public place.
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Mantra meditation

Our mantra meditation section is the most popular destination for our visitors. Mantras are simply phrases that we repeat (usually internally, but they can also be chanted out loud). As well as occupying the mind and thus calming it by preventing it from getting up to the usual mischief that causes us pain, mantras also have a symbolic value that evokes spiritual qualities.
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The six element practice

The six element practice is a profound reflection on interconnectedness and impermanence. It's a very beautiful form of meditation. It not only helps us to calm the mind and give us a reassuring sense of our place in the great scheme of things, but it can be unsettling and challenging as well. Yes, I know. Reassuring and unsettling. That's Buddhist practice for you!
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