In his book Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience(1990), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi notes that good interpersonal relationships bring “flow experiences,” a high quality of life and happiness, but relationships involving conflict are probably the most depressing and dispiriting events anyone experiences. Yet, he notes, most people never explore solitude.
Why is solitude such a negative experience? The [...]
One of the more insightful features of hatha yoga and qigong/tai chi chuan are the postures that visualize the body’s identity with the earth. The corpse asana or posture of yoga is a supine resting posture during which one imagines one’s weight sinking into the ground. Similarly, the standing meditation of qigong visualizes the same [...]
In his list of prerequisites for meditation, which is easily applicable to daily life, Kamalashila includes limiting one’s desires. He offers this brief explanation of what that entails: “limiting your desires refers to not being excessively attached to many or good clothes and so forth. The practice of contentment means always being satisfied with any [...]
Kamalashila identifies five characteristics for a “conducive environment,” such an environment being a prerequisite to meditation but also to daily life and the ideal physical setting for solitaries. (The list is easily updated by identifying evil beings in 2. as bad company and neighbors.)
provides easy access to food and clothes,
is free of evil beings and [...]