• How to Sit in Meditation Sessions

    Today, we will discuss some of the basics that will be helpful in your meditation journey. Hopefully they will address many of the questions that are lingering on your mind. Let’s start with the most basic question. How to sit in meditation sessions? Sitting Sit comfortably, with a posture as recommended below. Spend a few…

  • A Few Basics of Meditation

    If you are a beginner and have no previous exposure to meditation, you might have a number of questions and doubts in your mind. That’s why, in this post and the next, we’ll try to address some of those questions. If you still have some queries, you can always write to us at contactkalampedia@gmail.com. Now,…

  • Farewell, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh!

    Over ten years ago, one of my disciples in Vietnam had a Stupa — a Buddhist shrine — built for my ashes. I told her, I didn’t need a stupa for my ashes; I don’t want to be stuck in a stupa; I want to be everywhere. “But,” she protested, “it’s already built.” “In that…

  • What is Meditation?

    Let’s start with the understanding of meditation. What is meditation, really? We know that the mind can be divided into sense consciousness — sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — and mental consciousness. Mental consciousness ranges from our grossest experiences of anger or desire, for example, to the subtlest level of complete stillness and clarity.…

  • What is Right Brain and Why It Matters Today

    Our brains are extraordinary. The typical brain consists of some 100 billion cells, each of which connects and communicates with up to 10,000 of its colleagues. Together they forge an elaborate network of some one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) connections that guides how we talk, eat, breathe, and move. James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for…

  • A Short Course on Buddhist Meditations

    In this series of posts, we will bring you some of the finest lessons of Buddhist meditations. The lessons are based on the teachings and published works of Kathleen McDonald. She is a respected and inspiring teacher in the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, the worldwide organisation of the Buddhist teaching and…

  • Sam Harris on Free Will

    Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making. Thoughts and intentions emerge from background causes of which we are unaware and over which we exert no conscious control. We do not have the freedom we think we have. Free will is actually more than an illusion (or less), in…

  • How to Write a Dialogue

    Writing a dialogue can be challenging. For most writers, it’s much easier to narrate a story in their own voice, instead of jumping from one character to another. But… there is thrill too, in writing dialogues. Think about a dialogue that you can remember at this moment — maybe from a book or a movie.…