Those who view the world through a lens of rigidity, fear, and control make terrible meditation teachers; promising their students that neither memories nor emotions matter and instructing them to turn their backs on them, eternally returning their concentration to their breath. May all find teachers: flexible, loving, and laid-back; who teach them to replace rigid concentration with the flexible mindfulness that is courageous enough to blend each inhalation with vulnerabilit

Purveyors of “the Secret” exhort us to set intention, sculpt imagination, and bend the universe to our will; all in contrast to Lao Tzu’s advice. The sage does not actively visualize, and his only intention is to master the path of going with the flow. With each inhalation his sympathetic nervous system is wired to vulnerably, passively, viscerally, and spontaneously NOTICE whatever “comes up” in the present moment; be it perception, emotion, intention, cognition, recollectio