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The Sagacious Buddhist Blog.
practical dharma teachings. questions|answers. essays.

answering your questions and teaching on buddhism, dharma, and enlightenment

- new teachings posted every 4 to 16 weeks, please subscribe to receive notifications -

update: I did it! :)

In the Spring of 2021, I left for Southeast Asia to renounce and ordain as an ascetic forest monk in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, with a special emphasis on Early Buddhist doctrine and discourse. I am no longer accepting students and I may be slow to respond to emails and contact form submissions; I apologise.

I will check-in periodically if I can when I post new teachings to my blog.

Much love & thank you.

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Analytical Meditation: What is it and how to do it - Buddhism Explained (Q&A Part Two)

4/21/2020

5 Comments

A very powerful, yet simple-to-understand practice.

Buddhist Analytical Meditation Blue Skies How To

Hi Michael, it's nice to see you again too. Thank you so much for the help. Let me see if I understand it clearly: what I usually end up doing is re-wording the meaning of the text, mainly so I can work with it in my head using my native language. So should I also meditate on the words longer in order to burn the meaning into my core? Would that would be the right thing to do if I don't need to know the exact words?

- N.V.

Hi N.,

Thank you for your question to clarify your understanding.

We want to move away from recitations and start down the path of analytical meditation to help you get around your short-term memory issues; and rote memorisation does little for our understanding and insight, memory issues or not.

So how do you meditate analytically? While there is a reason entire books and courses are written on this single topic, here is a simple process that you can use to start doing it today.

First of all, what is "analytical meditation" and how is it used?

5 Comments

Short-term Memory Problems Affecting Meditation & Dharma Practice - Buddhism Explained (Q&A Part One)

4/18/2020

0 Comments

Memory Issues Affecting Mindfulness and Meditation Practices

I have a problem with my ability to meditate, in 2015 something happened to me and my short-term memory has been affected ever since, so now I have a really hard time memorising the texts. So, I decided to just keep the texts with me (in-hand) and read them, but it feels so artificial. I had the exact same problem during a recent retreat and I don’t know how to handle it. Should I just make an extra effort until I memorize it all, allowing myself to just "be peaceful" and read, or should I skip the recitation part entirely?

- N. V.

Hi N.,

So nice to see you again.

I can understand how it can be frustrating or feel limiting to have your short-term memory affect your ability to meditate or memorise the buddhadharma. I have good news: it doesn't have to be! May I offer an alternative to "artificially reading" the texts or skipping the recitation part entirely?

The purpose of the Dharma is neither memorisation nor recitation; at least not in its true sense. However, we can use

0 Comments

Row, Row, Row Your (Dharma) Boat...

4/13/2020

2 Comments

a simple sing-along or chant that can be used as a teaching tool or a reminder practice.

This may seem silly and frivolous, but in these challenging times, it's nice to have more fodder for positive thoughts than negative ones, and I know many people are ruminating a lot on what they see as a pretty negative future-state. :(

I was asked by a student to write a short mantra that they could remember to use with her children (and herself) as she saw fit, so I took a ubiquitous and popular children's song and I tweaked and reinterpreted it with deeper Buddhist meanings.

2 Comments

Forgiveness: it's about our relationship with ourself.

4/6/2020

1 Comment

Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.

Forgiveness is really not about someone else’s harmful behavior; it’s about our relationship with our own past. When we begin to work on forgiveness, it's firstly a self-care practice for ourselves.

Forgiveness and patience are critical to being able to cultivate your ability to develop inner peace-of-mind and happiness.

1 Comment

Author.

Mike Turner Photo Buddhist Analytical Meditation Trainer

Hi! My name is Mike Turner. I'm a Buddhist Ariyapuggala and I've spent over 25 years learning and cultivating what I do, and what I do goes far beyond meditation and dharma.

I work with dedicated Buddhist practitioners to help them attain streamentry. This kind of one-on-one training isn't readily available to lay practitioners and I hope to do my part.

I'm available for advanced and intermediate practitioners of meditation-and-dharma to help them significantly advance their practice and their progress toward Buddhist enlightenment.

Please visit my home page to see what my streamentry and enlightenment training can do for you.

"The only thing that prevents people from attaining Enlightenment and experiencing Nirvana directly is insufficient instruction and/or practice."

The Sagacious Buddhist Blog.
practical dharma teachings. questions|answers. essays.

Analytical Meditation: What is it and how to do it - Buddhism Explained (Q&A Part Two)

Short-term Memory Problems Affecting Meditation & Dharma Practice - Buddhism Explained (Q&A Part One)

Row, Row, Row Your (Dharma) Boat...

Forgiveness: it's about our relationship with ourself.

Subscribe.

Categories.
(Spring 2020 and newer only.)

Archives.
(Spring 2020 and newer only.)

Author.

The Sagacious Buddhist Blog.practical dharma teachings. questions|answers. essays.

Analytical Meditation: What is it and how to do it - Buddhism Explained (Q&A Part Two)

Short-term Memory Problems Affecting Meditation & Dharma Practice - Buddhism Explained (Q&A Part One)

Row, Row, Row Your (Dharma) Boat...

Forgiveness: it's about our relationship with ourself.

Subscribe.

Categories.(Spring 2020 and newer only.)

Archives.(Spring 2020 and newer only.)

Author.

The Sagacious Buddhist Blog.
practical dharma teachings. questions|answers. essays.

Categories.
(Spring 2020 and newer only.)

Archives.
(Spring 2020 and newer only.)