TEACHER: Jeff Warren
THEME: Kinds of Inquiry
MEDITATION: What is this?
INTERACTIVE: Restructuring Stressful Thoughts
Jeff: In this first Monday of the month, we’ll set the stage with a classic bit of Hindu Vedanta-inspired self-inquiry. This particular version of the practice comes by way of my colleague Vince Horn, who runs the Buddhist Geeks podcast and offers many excellent courses with his partner Emily Horn over at meditate.io. Instead of asking “Who am I?”, we make it less personal, and ask “What IS this?” – as in, what is this whole existential boondoggle that we find ourselves running around inside? Not because we’re hoping to find an intellectual answer, but rather, because in the asking, we may find a new freshness and immediacy in our being here at all. And then for part two, we’ll explore a useful cognitive restructuring exercise, one that uses thinking to help us think in even better ways.