For many years, meditation has been an important part of my life—not simply as something I practice, but as something I have had the privilege of sharing with others.
Over time, I noticed that many people were interested in meditation but were uncertain about how to begin. Some had encountered practices that seemed complicated, highly esoteric, or rooted in language that did not speak easily to their own experience. Others had tried meditation before but felt that they somehow were not “doing it right.”
That observation eventually led me to develop Sit, Relax, Breathe.
The idea behind Sit, Relax, Breathe is intentionally simple. Before we concern ourselves with advanced techniques, complicated philosophies, or unusual states of consciousness, we can begin with three very ordinary things: learning to sit with awareness, allowing the body and mind to relax, and noticing the natural rhythm of the breath.
Sit. Relax. Breathe.
From those three actions, an entire contemplative practice can grow.
My goal has never been to create another rigid meditation system. Rather, I wanted to offer a doorway—something approachable enough for a beginner but substantial enough to return to again and again. In my own experience, meditation is less about reaching some extraordinary state and more about learning to be present with ordinary experience with greater clarity, stability, and openness.
Journey Toward Clarity grew out of that same approach, but it moves a little farther down the path.
If Sit, Relax, Breathe establishes the foundation, Journey Toward Clarity asks what we might discover once that foundation becomes stable.
Here I explore meditation more broadly and more deeply. That includes aspects of Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhist practice, along with teachings and contemplative methods drawn from Zen, mindfulness traditions, Jewish contemplative practice, philosophy, and other spiritual and meditative traditions.
I am particularly interested in the meeting place between ancient contemplative traditions and modern life.
Many Vajrayana practices, for example, contain extraordinarily rich symbolism—Buddhas, bodhisattvas, mantras, visualization, ritual objects, and elaborate imagery. Traditional explanations of these practices are important and deserve respect. At the same time, I believe it can also be valuable to explore how some of these teachings might be understood through contemporary language.
A bodhisattva, for example, can be approached devotionally within a traditional Buddhist framework. But the same figure can also be contemplated as an archetype of a quality we wish to cultivate: Manjushri as clarity and wisdom, Avalokiteshvara as compassion, Vajrapani as courage and strength.
These approaches do not have to cancel one another out.
Part of my purpose in writing Journey Toward Clarity is to explore that space with curiosity and respect.
I am not attempting to replace traditional Vajrayana teachings, nor am I presenting modern interpretations as though they were identical to traditional practice. When I adapt language, symbolism, imagery, or meditation instructions, I try to make that distinction clear. My interest is in asking whether practices that have helped people for centuries can still speak meaningfully to people living very different lives today.
I also do not believe that wisdom belongs exclusively to any one tradition.
A Buddhist teaching may illuminate something found in Jewish contemplation. A Zen teaching may resonate with Stoic philosophy. Modern psychology may help explain something meditators observed centuries ago. Sometimes very different traditions arrive at surprisingly similar questions:
Who am I beneath the stories I continually tell myself?
What happens when I stop struggling with every thought that appears?
How do I live with uncertainty?
How do I cultivate compassion without losing strength?
How do I find clarity in a noisy and distracted world?
Those questions are at the heart of this site.
The word journey is important to me because I do not think contemplative practice has a final stopping point. We learn something, practice it, discover something new, become confused, return to the beginning, and continue.
Again and again.
In that sense, Journey Toward Clarity is not a declaration that I have arrived somewhere. It is an exploration of the path itself.
I write as a practitioner, a meditation instructor, a student of several contemplative traditions, and someone who remains deeply curious about how human beings learn to see themselves and their lives more clearly.
Some of what you find here will be very simple.
Some of it may venture into practices that are more symbolic, philosophical, or esoteric.
Some articles will remain close to the approach of Sit, Relax, Breathe. Others will wander farther into Vajrayana Buddhism, Zen, Jewish contemplation, philosophy, archetypal imagery, mantra, visualization, and the wider world of contemplative practice.
But the underlying purpose remains the same:
to cultivate greater presence, greater clarity, and a more conscious way of meeting our lives.
I hope you will explore with me.
The journey continues.