Hi, I’m Bodhipaksa, and I set up Wildmind in 2001 with the help of several friends who offered me their time and technical support when I was a grad student with no financial resources at all. I’m a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, I’ve been a practicing Buddhist since 1982, and I’ve been teaching meditation since the late 1980’s.
I’m the author of Wildmind: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation, a book called Living as a River, which explores the Buddhist teaching of not-self though a traditional reflection on interconnectedness called the Six Element Practice, and Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View, which is a book on Buddhism and the practice of vegetarianism. Additionally, I’ve written I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha! (a book on fake Buddha quotes), This Difficult Thing of Being Human (on self compassion), and A Year of Buddha’s Wisdom (which is a collection of daily readings, reflections, and meditation suggestions). I’m also the author of ten audiobooks of guided meditations.
In Oct 2012 gave a TEDx talk on compassion.
I was given the name Bodhipakṣa when I joined the Triratna Buddhist Order in 1993 (although at that time it was called the “Western Buddhist Order”). “Bodhi” means enlightenment and “paksha” (there’s a dot under the “s” which gives it a “sh” sound) means “wings.” So my name means “Wings of Enlightenment.”
I was born and brought up in Scotland, although I now live in the US. For three years, I was the director of Dhanakosa retreat center, in the Highlands of Scotland, and after that I ran the Edinburgh Buddhist center. For three years, I taught Buddhist meditation in the Religious Studies department at the University of Montana, before moving to New Hampshire.
I love teaching meditation. It’s had a tremendously positive effect on my own life, and I’ve seen it have an equally large effect on the lives of my students. Over and over again, students have told me how learning to meditate has changed their lives.
For many years I’ve been excited by the potential for bringing the benefits of meditation to millions of people over the Internet. That enthusiasm is what led to me setting up Wildmind.
Wildmind started as a project while I was completing a Masters degree in Montana. Supported by a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, I worked with Dr. Alan Sponberg to develop an innovative Internet based meditation course for the University of Montana, and that experiment formed the basis of Wildmind.
I hope you find these materials useful, and I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to drop me a line using the comment form below. If you want to write more privately use the “contact” link above — the message will get to me.
I also have a personal website where you’ll find links to all my publications, YouTube videos, etc., as well as information about the meditation coaching that I do. It’s at Bodhipaksa.com.
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I recently started listening to your Guided Meditations recordings and want to say thanks for making them available. As a self-employed designer and artist, practicing mindfulness has made my life much more enjoyable given the uncertainties of the economy. I just found your blog online and will check back to keep up. I also didn't see the "contact" link Eddie mentioned?
PS: I was not expecting to see comments on current events (ie the David Brooks item). How do you reconcile observing the insanity in today's news cycle with the principles of mindfulness?
Hi Scott,
First the contact form link: I'm not sure whether you're talking about my personal blog (bodhipaksa.com), which didn't have a contact form (although I've just added one -- thanks for the reminder!), or Wildmind. It it's the latter, then the bottom of this page, under the contact form, should look like this:
The first link in the left column in the blue area is the contact link. Please let me know if that's not what you're seeing on the page, because it's possible there's some bug in the code.
Now for politics! The news cycle is crazy, and in fact TV as a whole is crazy. I don't have a TV, and so I get most of my news by reading the NYT and BBC online. I like to read certain Op Ed articles and a few of the main stories (or at least enough of those stories to give me the gist). Many people think that having a TV makes you better informed, but I bet that the most ignorant people you meet all spend hours glued to the box. I also used to listen to NPR in the car, but I don't drive so much these days and when I do I have the kids in the back seat and I'm acutely aware of how much I do not want them exposed to stories about wars, people being stoned to death, etc (they're three and two years old).
I think it's important for Buddhists to be informed, but at the same time when I go on retreat I'm relieved to unplug from the limited amount of news I do expose myself to.
Sorry for not being more clear. Yes, I was referring to your blog, but no worries, now that I've found Wildmind I can see this is the way to go.
As a mid-century modern-era person, I still get info from print, broadcast and online as well but with the noise level in the news cycle becoming louder and increasingly inane, NPR is about the only source I trust any more.
But the question remains: for anyone with a conscience, how to co-exist with it? The more aware I am, the more upset I get. I don't want to be completely out of the loop on current affairs but I'm on the verge of simply tuning out altogether, especially with the elections coming up.
Now that I've said that, can you suggest a meditation that would be good to nurture insight?
Thanks again!
Hi again!
I can only speak for myself.
It (the "news") can all be maddening. There's a lot of hatred, ignorance, and deliberate distortion involved in politics -- and that's the news we're talking about, mostly. I find a little Jon Stewart can be good for laughing the frustration out of my system.
But I think we should be worried. There are dangerous forces of hatred and ignorance being tapped into and made mainstream. Maybe the best thing to do is to befriend a tea-partier! I remember a superb video of Al Franken talking to health-care reform opponents. He was respectful and empathetic and reasonable, and he ended up with them wrapped around his little finger. Unfortunately I'm the parent of two young children and rarely get out of the house!
But mostly (as I said) I limit access and stay away from TV. It keeps me sane, which is the most valuable thing I have time to do right now.
For nurturing insight, I'd suggest the Six Element Practice (this is assuming you already have a good basis of shamatha practice). I have a book out about the practice, called "Living as a River," and you might want to check it out. There's also some information about it on this site, in the "meditation guides" section.
OK, thanks. Maybe I'll make this site my home page!
Hello Bodhipaksa - I'm trying to establish a personal meditation practice, using your CD "Guided Meditations for Busy People". I like the 8-9 minute lengths. Would you suggest doing Meditation #1 daily for some period of days/weeks/months, then moving to #2, etc, or would you suggest cycling through all the meditations, one each day, over and over in a kind of circuit? Or maybe you have an altogether better suggestion? I would appreciate your guidance. I like the CD a lot. I also have your "Calmness, Awareness and Love" CD but those meditations are a bit long for me to be consistent with as a beginner, especially during the workweek.
- - Happy Thanksgiving, Phil H.
Hi Phil,
I hadn't really thought that through, to be honest. I'd put that collection of meditations together to provide a variety of approaches, but not with the idea of it being a system. I'd suggest just doing whatever seems to make sense for you. It could be that you stick with just two or three that seem to work particularly well for you, but the other suggestions could work too (although that might end up being a bit regimented).
One thing you should definitely throw into the mix, though, is some unguided meditation -- just you, drawing on your own resources. It's useful to have guidance at first -- perhaps a lot of guidance at first -- but ultimaely we want to internalize the skills involved in meditating, and the way to check how that is going is to "fly solo."
Anyway, thanks for the appreciative comments. I love hearing from people who've used my CDs.
Dear bodhipaksa
Been a frequent visitor to your amazing and informative site. Your is simple straight forward and contain simple to follow information on meditation. Living and working in shanghai and have contribute to some comments on your incense site. I am a great fan of incense, meditation and tea and I hope someday your site could also create a issue on tea drinking as many westerners does not really know that tea drinking can support meditation in many positive ways. zEn masters in japan have often wrote about tea & the benefits of tea in helping meditation.
Thanks again for this wonderful site
Sebastian, shanghai, china
Hi Sebastian.
Thanks for your kind words about Wildmind.
If I knew anything about tea I'd certain write about it! Unfortunately, its relation to meditation is something I know nothing about. If you could point me to some resources on the topic I could perhaps write a blog post on the topic.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
I am a Buddhist by birth from Asia. I am really happy that Westerners find peace of mind through meditation. I am amazed to browse through your site, to realize what I was learning about Buddhism in my childhood is there in the web site! You have done a good job! May you be well and happy!