When we first start meditating, the mind is like a young kitten—scampering off, chasing butterflies, getting distracted, tipping over, getting hungry, bumping into walls. And each time it wanders, we hold it gently, and kindly invite it back into our lap.
The Grateful Dead only opened a show with Franklin’s Tower once in their career — 5/9/78 in Syracuse, NY — but it’s where this series opens. The lyric ‘If you get confused, just listen to the music play’ is the seed syllable for this project, and leads us where the four winds dwell.
An opening reflection for the Dharma of the Dead series — a bit of tuning before the first song. This post sets the stage for exploring how Grateful Dead lyrics can function as contemplative teachings, ripening alongside our lives in ways that feel both personal and shared. It’s the beginning of an ongoing conversation with the songs that have shaped so many of us.
Some days I find myself suspended between feeling too much and not wanting to feel anything at all. Buddhist philosophy points to a middle way between these two extremes.
Whether it’s a difficult conversation with a partner or family member, a make-it-or-break-it corporate pitch, or a tense exchange with a stranger, you can do this brief grounding practice on the spot.
When we feel the sting of failure, loss, or grief it is hard to imagine coming back to ourselves. This poem reminds us of the Phoenix – reborn from the ash.
For the coyote in the Warner Brothers’ cartoons, hitting the ground usually meant he was about to get crushed by a boulder and mocked by his quarry, the roadrunner. “Meep meep!”
What does it mean for us?