Author and teacher Sebene Selassie writes: “Meditation practice is not about becoming a good meditator. Practice allows us to cultivate an embodied awareness so that we can observe our experience, know what’s happening, and reconnect to belonging.” In the same way, mindfulness practice is not about mastering a trending buzzword or life-hacking ourselves into optimal productivity. Mindfulness allows us to tune into what is happening in the present moment, laying the grounds for inquiry and insight into whether what we are doing in that moment increases or decreases suffering in ourselves or in the world. When we choose actions that decrease suffering, we are on the path to liberation.

Yet many of us find ourselves caught up in the belief of being a “bad meditator” - and then find ourselves stuck in the suffering caused by this judgment. Or we get disconcerted that, instead of leading to an instant calm, meditation or being mindful puts us in touch with painful emotions and sensations. The rise of app-based meditation practice has increased accessibility and convenience markedly, opening a new gateway into the practice. Yet to stay on the path, and to progress in it, we need community support. Teachers, fellow practitioners, and kalyana mitta—spiritual friends—are essential to this work.

My offering of meditation mentoring is as a kalyana mitta, a fellow traveler on the path, and as an aspiring boddhisattva, a person committed to liberation for all beings. I am certified as a mindfulness and meditation teacher, and mainly seek to teach what I know - how mindfulness and other teachings of the Buddha help us to meet the world with clarity and compassion. I also bring a keen awareness of trauma, accessibility factors, and groundedness in collective liberation, and seek to help each student find their own particular gateway to the path.

If you would like to work with me as a meditation student, please read more about my meditation mentoring in the drop down menu of the services page and then please use the contact me form to get in touch. To learn more about me and my approach, click here.

Boddhisattva Guanyin, photographed at the Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore, MD.