Staying Awake While Meditating When we lived at the Mt Baldy Zen Center we began our day at 4 a.m. with a pucker-inducing dose of hot lemon tea, followed by almost an hour of chanting. Both tea and chanting helped keep everyone awake while meditating. Monks and nuns of all types get up before dawn… Read more »
Still Sitting Meditation Blog
Create Your Meditation Space
To sit still you need at minimum a couple of things: time and space. We recommend you take time for your meditation practice, and also that you think a little about the space. Do you have a dedicated meditation space? A little sanctuary you can retire to when you need it? How about a clear… Read more »
Samue Clothing
Samue is the traditional clothing worn during daily work by Japanese Buddhist monks. Samu refers to daily work that is done with mindfulness. This can include any work, such as gardening, cleaning or daily chores. Samue Clothing The pieces are typically made from cotton or linen in dark colors, such as brown or navy. The style is… Read more »
Introducing our New Mini Zafu
When we started Still Sitting 14 years ago, our round zafu was the first cushion we designed. We spent a long time perfecting our zafu construction, choosing fabrics, and finding suppliers that met our needs for the highest quality materials and business practices. Our traditional round zafu has continued to be our most popular item… Read more »
A Few Common Questions about Meditation
Recently we were asked to answer a few common questions on meditation for a local yoga conference. Many people are first introduced to meditation through yoga, so we took a few minutes in between making cushions to consider the questions. Below you will find the questions and our responses. Four Questions About Meditation 1. Why is… Read more »
The Resonant Gift of Rin Bells
A Still Sitting customer has been sharing our rin bells with his close circle of friends for years. He enjoys the connection that comes from each friend experiencing the resonance from the same bell. This past year he had the idea of creating a similar gift for his mother and her friends. His mom has Alzheimer’s and is no longer able… Read more »
The Benefits of Breathing Deeply
Breathe in, breathe out. You can’t help it of course, but you can bring consciousness to it -– and that in turn changes your breathing. Breathing is one of the few activities that we do unconsciously but that we can affect consciously. Meditation can change the quality of our breathing, and breathing deeply can change… Read more »
Sitting Up Straight
We feel that it’s well worth paying attention to your posture during meditation. Meditation is more than just a mind exercise; it’s a mind-body exercise. Once you have a strong foundation, the next step is to sit up straight. Sitting up straight and relaxed allows your body to open to the world around it. Sitting up straight… Read more »
The Gift of Lovingkindness Meditation
Lovingkindness meditation is a way of offering friendly kindness to yourself, to others or to the world. Lovingkindness is based on Buddhist teachings that emphasize compassion, love and kindness. This is also be referred to as Metta meditation. In Lovingkindness meditation, there are phrases to repeat to yourself throughout the meditation. The phrases below are taken from Real… Read more »
A Look at the Earliest Buddhist Statues
This guest post by Robert Cain takes us on a tour of some of the earliest historical instances of Buddhist sculpture. Sculpture is the visual art form most closely identified with Buddhism. The types of Buddhist statues that we see today took time to develop, and changed significantly along the way. This post will highlight some of… Read more »
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