Questions? Comments? Email C.T. at thesittingproject (at) gmail (dot) com
The Sitting Project was founded to explore and demystify the benefits and techniques of meditation. The hope is to provide people with information and education regarding the various traditions of meditation and to cut through the spiritual mumbo jumbo that often is perceived to surround it and get straight to the core of what meditation is really about and how it promotes qualities like awareness, compassion, mindfulness, stress reduction, understanding, and the search for basic human happiness.
Meditation (some just call it “sitting”), is not just for Buddhists or mystics. Meditation comes in all different forms. Sometimes it is referred to as “vipassana” or “shamatha.” Other times it is can be called “contemplation.” And still other times, it is called “prayer.” But sitting meditation is not about supporting a certain set of beliefs. You can strengthen your mind and heart by cultivating awareness and compassion in your day-to-day life. If you want a healthy body, you can eat healthy food and go to the gym. If you want a healthy mind and spirit, you can ingest healthy teachings and meditate. Think of meditation as going to the gym for your mind and heart.
The Sitting Project is run by C.T. Tamura.
C.T. has been meditating for over 20 years and teaching for about 7 years and counting. He currently teaches mindfulness-awareness meditation to real estate professionals in New York City at The Agency and formerly at Corcoran. He also has taught in more traditional settings such as New York Buddha Dharma at Nalandabodhi, The Three Jewels in the Village, The Aligned Center in Irvington in Conjunction with The Westchester Buddhist Center and at schools such as Marymount Manhattan College and Phillips Exeter Academy. He has been featured in Mindful magazine, New York Magazine, the Seeking Center and Soul Pod podcasts and is published on Elephantjournal.com as well as his site, www.thesittingproject.org and was recently featured in a South Korean TV documentary about Buddhism in the West and the book Public Meditations along with the likes of Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg.
In 2004 C.T. became a student of John Baker– one of the founders of Naropa University, The Westchester Buddhist Center, New York Buddha Dharma and a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. A proponent of meditation in public, C.T. led various outdoor meditations in Times Square, Boulder, CO and Denver, CO. You can see one here.
C.T. also currently works in real estate at The Agency in New York City, ran his own music marketing and promotions company and spent some time as a consultant on Wall St. When not teaching or working, C.T. can be found hiking, snowboarding, making music or spending time with wife and daughters.