The second of the four guest contributors to the new set of buddhify meditation content is the wonderful Emily Horn.
Emily Horn is a meditation teacher based in Asheville, North Carolina and ever since a young age, she’s been moved by the feeling of a sacred interconnectedness to all of life. This feeling has driven her exploration of many wisdom traditions, and inspired intensive meditation practice and rigorous psychological inquiry. In 2010 Emily was encouraged to teach meditation by Jack Kornfield, co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and Trudy Goodman, Insight teacher and founder of InsightLA. Her contemplative training continues and she is currently in the Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society’s 4 year Retreat Teacher Training. Emily is also a co-director of Buddhist Geeks–a for benefit organisation dedicated to exploring what it means to be a contemplative practitioner in the modern, tech-savvy world.
Already the author and voice of some of the existing buddhify tracks – she’s the one with the beautiful Southern Carolina accent – Emily has written and voiced five new tracks for buddhify’s refresh in the fall and so we checked in with her to find out more about them:
Rohan: Can you tell us a little about your new tracks and the ideas behind them?
Emily: Sure. All of my five new tracks are for different sections, one is for the new pain & illness section and the others for when you’re feeling stressed, walking, working online and just meditating wherever.
The one for pain and illness is called Chain and this meditation is about noticing the chain reaction of experience from your body sensations, feelings, to thoughts. All these aspects co-arise, but it is helpful to learn to recognize parts as they arise so that we can allow it to pass through more easily. Thus creating the capacity to be with whatever is happening and have more freedom in the moment.
Now has much less instruction and this meditation simply asks you to rest with whatever is happening. This is a longer, simple, and formal practice.
Space for stressful situations has an emphasis on stopping, on your posture, on allowing and centering.
Most of us walk throughout our day and Step is a way to cultivate a greater sense of awareness while doing that very ordinary activity and finally Surf is very difference and invites you to stay mindful of your choice of websites and to stay present while navigating the content of both your inner and outer experience.
What are you finding most exciting about the meeting of meditation and technology right now?
Technology is enabling people from all over the world to access meditation guidance. For a lot of people, turning attention inward is a big first step and that simple movement of mind is important. This movement enables an ordinary freedom of heart and mind which is a kind of remedy for our modern world. It also inspires us to make our life the place of practice which creates a sacredness of every moment. In other words, this is exciting because technology can help people connect to themselves and in turn each other.
Thanks Emily! You can find out more about Emily’s thinking and work at emilyhorn.com and @emilyhorn.
Image courtesy of seekingheartwood.com