Author Archives: t scott-miller

ancestor-guided. liberation-minded. curator × co-conspirator of safe(r) sacred space × soul care × liberation × legacy work. teacher of contemplative tools to cultivate embodied self-awareness, healing + transformation. facilitator × spiritual director of spiritual inquiry × discernment × accountability. creator of digital spaces: tscottmiller.com | radicalbodhicitta.com | dhamma4mama.com | 3jewelsyoga.com

The Girl Who Got Up | TashmicaTorok.com

A truth about meditation: it can be uncomfortable or even excruciating, as my friend Tashmica so eloquently shares below.

First we meet the process of physically conditioning our bodies to find and sustain a steady posture (practice note: for me, “conditioning” means understanding how to take care of the tensions in the body not torturing ourselves to endure a rigid alignment that can create more distress). Holding the body through sitting meditation, in particular, takes time…just as training the body to walk a half marathon takes time, diligence and patience.

What we may be surprised to learn is that meditation is not “passive.” Rather, I’ve found it more accurate to frame meditation as I would yoga asana — in which we discover that the opposite of being active is not being passive; it is the more complex and dynamic energy of being receptive.

Sitting within the quiet space of receptivity, we open up to the possibility of encountering the hidden/neglected/protected parts of ourselves. With that, difficulties and discomforts may arise well before any insights or understanding that we may be longing for.

How, then, do we take care of ourselves through those moments when we discover that this practice, which is so often extolled for delivering peace, actually puts us face-to-face with the stunning reality that cultivating peace is a process…a training, not unlike a marathon. Tending to our hearts and minds requires our patience, diligence, and self-compassion.

I love that Tashmica is choosing not to give up but to keep getting up!

movement as meditation: learning to walk in peace (when sitting is not an option)

walking is always, always a good choice.
we were built to walk.
every location of every muscle and every shape of every bone
offers perfection in walking…
our bodies want to walk.
and with the body as in life,
we will find that what attracts us is in our own best interest.

~joy colangelo

It’s walk where you are 3been almost 15 years since I discovered that walking meditation was actually a thing! It happened quite spontaneously through the normal course of my day, trooping around New York City.

One moment I was mapping out errands and very likely puzzling out the “issue-of-the-day” related to grad school, work or relationships; and the next: I could only hear the sound of my breath and the rhythm of my boots on the pavement.

Everything else dropped away. The cacophony of the bustling neighborhood became a low humming in the background — alerting me of my surroundings but no longer as intrusive or overwhelming as it could be.

In the midst of the relentless “madness,” I felt surprisingly centered, clear and relaxed!

But it would still be years before I even stumbled across mention of walking (along with standing, lying down, and, of course the most commonly-known posture, sitting) as a form of meditation. “Ahhhh,” I thought. “So that’s what was happening?!”

Many moons later, I was introduced to the formal practice of walking meditation when I began studying the dharma with my root sangha. Those 20 minutes that we devoted to silently circumambulating the temple helped us transition from the hustle of the day into the quiet refuge of practice. Physically, it also helped to ease tension and to pbig sky mind.constellation2repare us to sit steadily in meditation for 20 minutes.

Beyond the temple walls, I’ve enjoyed walking meditation in yoga studios, at a labyrinth, on a park trail….and lately: around the rug in my living room!

So walk where you are to invite mindfulness and cultivate peace.

from cushion to community: spirituality at work

I’m thrilled to be a part of this interfaith conversation at Michigan State University on Tuesday, 24 March 2015. As I reflect on my work experiences — from retail to restaurants, grassroots to corporate offices in New York City and, for the last 9 years, in various wellness and spiritual settings — I am aware that in my younger days in the workforce my choice and ability to navigate differences in professional environments was influenced by the conditions and circumstances of the time. With wisdom and after witnessing a whole lot of “mess,” the decisions I make are driven by my principles and ethics. I seek alignment in all areas of my personal and professional — eliminating any disparities between how I tend to my livelihood and my life. I look forward to sharing insights and ideas with this diverse group of beings. image | Complete Event Details: http://alumni.msu.edu/programs/lens/courseSummary.cfm?activity=1417 | Livestream Info: http://new.livestream.com/msualumni/FAITH

March Mindfulness 2015

Today I kick off my annual ‪#‎MarchMindfulness‬ campaign to promote the practice of bringing skillful + compassionate awareness to how we engage, are impacted by, and then respond to the world around us.

The Satipatthana Sutta (Discourse on The Four Establishments of Mindfulness) is a foundational text and, ultimately, guiding practice in Buddhism. It is the inspiration and heart of my ‪#‎BodyAwarenessBootcamp‬ series, which ended this afternoon, and truly the ground in which my teaching practice is rooted.

How do we fully establish ourselves in mindfulness? We are diligent in developing a clear comprehension of the realities of our body and mind. It begins with the thread of the breath:

Breathing in,
be aware that [you] are breathing in.
Breathing out,
be aware that [you] are breathing out.

Breathing in,
be aware of [your] whole body.
Breathing out,
be aware of [your] whole body.

Throughout each day this month, let us take a few moments to immerse ourselves in this level of awareness and notice what moves, blooms, dissolves, transforms and even becomes reconciled in our body, mind and heart.‪ #‎RadicalActsOfSelfCare‬

Lotus in the Mud: Blackness, Decolonizing Yoga and Tai Chi and My Teaching Practice

H. "Herukhuti" Sharif Williams, PhD, MEd's avatarCENTER for CULTURE, SEXUALITY, and SPIRITUALITY LLC

DrHerukhuti - Lambda 2014 ReceptionBy Dr. Herukhuti

I started learning yoga, pranayama, tai chi chuan and chi kung when I was 14. Our school, the Temple of the White and Gold Lotus, Shrine of Amen-Ra, was housed in the parlor floor of a pre-gentrification, Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone that our teacher had reclaimed from abandonment by squatting in it with his family. The tightly-woven, blue rug covered the tattered and well-worn wood floors underneath.

Our bathroom was downstairs in the back on the ground floor. We walked past a mass of junk that resembled the exterior set of Sanford and Son to use it. Cold in the winter and cool in the summer, I can’t remember doing anything but urinating in the bathroom, washing my hands and quickly escaping to cleaner air upstairs. If you didn’t wear your clothes for class to Temple, then that’s where you changed–quickly. I think there was a litter box down there…

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The Women We Are [promo video]: Community Conversation “On Reconciling With The Body”

How can we cultivate the voice of self-love and devote ourselves to radical acts of self-care?
How do we tend to ourselves through the reality of our aging, changing bodies?
How can we learn to take refuge in our bodies and reclaim beauty, wellness, and strength in our own terms?

Join us on Thursday, 19 February, at 7 pm for a compassion-filled, community-centered conversation
on reconciling with the body and seeing ourselves whole!

The Women We Are is a documentary portrait project created by Amanda Grieshop.
Learn more about her work at Magpie Imagery.

spirit. human. black woman.

V shared a personal revelation —

spirit. human. black woman.2

she had come into an awareness of
her magnitude and design as a

spirit/soul
human/body
black + woman

in that precise order.

how necessary to acknowledge
being so much bigger than this body
and to cherish the fleeting human life span

of a woman
of hue and shape
of undeniable origins 

giving refuge and expression to
a boundless and indestructible force.

to celebrate her blackness —
a unique dna of history, culture, biology, and expression

is to nourish her body —
mindful of its resilience and fragility
its cycle of consuming, creating, destroying, releasing, renewing

is to honor the spirit —
a source of radiance, wisdom, compassion
empowering a life with purpose

[january 2014]

Continue reading “spirit. human. black woman.”