A simple meditation object is oftentimes the best object for beginners to meditation. When your mind is running wild and your body feels even more restless, it can hard to settle down. This is particularly true when you’ve chosen to focus on an object that doesn’t provide much substance. That’s why learning to breathe in […]
Vincent Lim
Breathless
As a teen, I’d occasionally suffer from intense stomachaches, as result of food allergies or physiological imbalances in the body. Witnessing my battles with stomach pain, my father gave me specific instructions for how to find ease, even though I felt my body was under relentless attack. “When you feel pain, breathe as deeply and […]
Have You Been There Before?
When my mother or grandfather (爷爷/爺爺) needed a break from cooking in the kitchen, my family would eat out at fast food restaurants when I was a child. McDonalds and Subway were popular options, and KFC was a favorite of my grandparents for many years. But there were times when we’d opt for a casual […]
Eating Pains
By turning pain into pleasure, I was simply feeding on pain in a more delicious form. There’s a peculiar satisfaction that comes with being able to endure pain that’s similar to the perverse satisfaction that comes from inflicting pain on others. If we look closely, this elevated feeling isn’t that different from indulging in our […]
Why Am I Still Hungry?
I sat cross-legged in meditation for several hours in pain. And I liked it. I was staying at a forest monastery and wanted to better understand how I perceived and reacted to pain in the body, so I decided to spend my entire afternoon sitting through whatever aching arose. In the process, a strange feeling […]
Let It Rain
I heard the crack of thunder as it whipped across the sky and prepared myself for the downpour to come. I was sitting cross-legged in a tiny wooden kuti that was nestled among the tall trees and rugged rocks on land that was part of a remote forest monastery in Northern Thailand. As I sat […]
Remember to Change Your Oil
There was another time when one of my teachers — the abbot on a temple just outside of downtown Los Angeles — pulled me aside to tell me something important. I was expecting him to share enlightening words with me. In a way, his advice proved to be wise, albeit unexpected. He wanted to remind […]
How to Dry Feet
“Don’t pat the feet! We need them to be dry!” Those were the stern words that the abbot of a forest monastery said to me as I was drying his feet and the feet of monks who had just cleansed them with water before entering the meditation hall. Drying the feet of monastics was the […]
Is It Bloody Worth It?
I saw blood in the kitchen. My grandmother (奶奶) had cut her finger while julienning vegetables. As a child, I couldn’t believe how it was possible. I had seen my grandfather (爷爷/爺爺) finely dice vegetables with alacrity as he prepared stir-fried dishes for his hungry grandson. Never once did I see him cut himself.
Simple and Direct
A simple solution was the right solution to my meditation problem. But the principle of simplicity when applied on its own can lead to reductionism that ironically makes finding the solution to a problem even more difficult and complex. That’s because following a basic principle cannot provide a complete picture of reality. Simplicity must be […]