Mindfulness teachers: who do you follow?

[Calvin77 856]

We have quite a few articles here on the site about different mindfulness/meditation teachers and experts: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, etc. I was curious as to which ones you follow and why: why do some resonate more closely with you? 

Personally I like Ruby Wax a lot: she's a comedienne and author who later studied for a Master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. The way how she mixes advice with comedy really works for me. ?

Who are your faves and why?

[Candy 611]

I really like Thich Naht Hanh. His teachings on peace, mindfulness and loving kindness are very profound. His books are plainly, yet beautifully written and they've helped me so much. They are books one can read over and over and never get tired of it. ?

[Tine 707]

I go through phases. I had a Tara Brach phase, where I would listen to her talks and draw mandalas.
Training to be an MBSR teacher, I naturally read a lot by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Part of my journey has let me to investigate the work on self-compassion by Kristin Neff deeply.
Through a Vipassana retreat, I focused on S.N. Goenka's teaching, and in the same year, I went to Plum village and dived into the world of Thích Nhất Hạnh and his monks and nuns, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I guess I like looking at life from different angles and through the lenses of different teachers again and again as I keep having new and deeper insights even with seemingly "easy" topics like thoughts.

[Samsara 1]

Hi, I like Ajhan Brahm alot as he is very down to earth and talks a lot of wisdom, he is a teaching monk in Australia.

[waihong 49]

I'm sort of a born Chan Buddhism practitioner, which I literally got by stunned by it when I was looking for a Buddhist practice in my early days. About ten years later I got to know & followed Dharma Drum practice by Master Sheng Yen. Eventually I got acquainted with Master Ji Chern and shortly after, Master Guo Jun, and had followed them since then. Both of them were under the same lineage from Master Sheng Yen, albeit 20 years apart.

When a meditator friend first invited me to attend a retreat under Master Ji Chern, I got extremely excited although I had completely no idea who he was. I even told myself to follow his instructions completely no matter what he asked me to do; which still sounds crazy to me these days. After years of practice, I realized I'm somewhat a Chan practitioner in my past lives and therefore able to resonate well these Chan Masters. But having said so, my practice was never been easy and were pretty daunting a lot of times. Things are much better now though.

On 3/12/2020 at 6:20 PM, Tine said:

even with seemingly "easy" topics like thoughts

In Chan practice, the more "easy" things are seemed, the more you have gained; Glad that you are here! ?

[Tine 707]

@waihong Could you recommend a Chan Buddhism practice you found particularly useful. I googled and read the wikipedia article but I doubt that gives me the idea of Chang Buddism that I am looking for.

The two words "seem easy" have so much room for interpretation we could start a whole new forum thread around them. :-D

[waihong 49]

@Tine Below are some reference on Chan practices:

A simple introduction - https://www.ddmbachicago.org/chan/zen/

The methods:

 - https://www.ddmbachicago.org/chan/methods/silentillumination/
 - https://www.ddmbachicago.org/chan/methods/hua-tou/

Personally my practice is more towards the Silent Illumination these days. The second method can be quite explosive and hence would be more appropriate during a retreat. However I did benefited from casual self-reflecting incidents that draw similarities to Hua Tou, literally "the head of the word or word head", which means "the mind before the thought".

Interesting sessions below:

Silent Illumination Introduction - by Dr. Simon Child, a Chan Teacher and Dharma Heir of Master Sheng Yen
 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHp385ZUCsg

 

Dharma Talk by Ven. Guo Yuan - Silent Illumination and Huatou, skipped to 56 mins
https://youtu.be/ZbW8pLGXHFc?t=3404

 

On 9/16/2020 at 9:37 PM, Tine said:

The two words "seem easy" have so much room for interpretation we could start a whole new forum thread around them. :-D

Ha..ha.. FULLY agree! The easy ones are the toughest ones to explain.. It was said Chan is not established on words, yet had the most words to explain it; only the traveler knows the journey.