I've become more accepting of my agitated mind. When there are major decisions to be made, regardless of whether the outcomes are positive or negative, my mind seems to chatter away during meditation. I'm lucky if I can sustain Anapana for long stretches of an hour sit so I can forget about scanning the body. …
Author: Ryan Shelton
While my job description is to lead the science department and teach physics at Padua Academy in Wilmington, DE, my calling is to prepare teenagers to lead their communities towards a vibrant and healthy future. This purpose has lead to the creation of Loving Lives Delaware.
Before becoming a teacher, I explored many careers and had many adventures in search of the best way to make a difference in the world. I hiked over 1700 miles, traveled to 5 continents, managed a bakery, started a meditation center, counseled troubled teens, attended Duke, UNC, and Harvard, protected forests as a wildland firefighter, volunteered thousands of hours with Americorps, rafted the Grand Canyon, and SCUBA dived on the Great Barrier Reef.
My next adventure is starting a family with my beautiful wife in our Wilmington home. I'm sure there will be many mistakes along the way, but I hope we're able to create a loving household that's a beacon of support and clarity for others in our community. Thank you for all of your support throughout our journey.
Accepting the Present Moment
I've been told a million times to live in the present moment, but I just discovered a new piece of this idea. To live in the present moment, I need to accept the present moment. If I don't accept things the way they are, that means that my mind wants something different than what is …
Are We a Community?
One reason I started this blog was that I felt alone. I had experienced the profound potential of Vipassana, but I was having all of these experiences in my own little bubble. I didn't want anyone else to feel this way so I decided to share my story. Of course, no one's story is exactly …
One Year of Blogging
We made it! This blog, which started one year ago as a personal journal to help me process through the many changes Vipassana has brought to my life, has become supportive community of meditators around the world. We've had over 16,000 hits averaging over 44 hits per day. That's hard to believe! What's even more …
A Pure Mind is a Loving Mind
This statement is a fact I've learned through my meditation practice. If this fact was universally understood, the way the world functions would change. The movies in our society support the idea that there is good and evil everywhere. The good guys my face the bad guys, and the fate of the world hangs in …
The Path Is Changing
The world gives me a problem, and I need to find a solution. That's the mindset I've used for a long time. When it came to people involved in a problem, I needed to find the right words or listen in the right way to help us agree on the same solution. But this paradigm requires the …
Making Friends
I've been wondering about the concept of making friends. I've moved a number of times, and each time I actively went into the world and made friends by engaging strangers. Basically, I would be giving parts of myself and seeing if they wanted to take it. After engaging a whole bunch of strangers through a …
Accepting Others Today
On Friday I wrote about accepting and loving my weaknesses in the present moment. The logical extension of this is to accept other people for who they are in present moment. Unconditional love is revealing new aspects of itself every few weeks. Previously I would have tried to love an imperfect person because I thought …
Know Myself
I've always been open with myself about my weaknesses and areas I could work on, but it has always been for that purpose. I've considered growing every day to be a cornerstone of my life, so as long as I believe I can grow past it, acknowledging a weakness isn't so bad. But this way …
A Shifting Perspective
Over the last week the last deeply rooted sankara of fear and anger towards an individual has dissolved which has change my entire perspective. While I was harboring this fear and anger, I could never fully open up and feel unconditional love for all beings. Part of me was afraid of being hurt by opening up, and part …
Living Vipassana 