Pixel Sorted Creation Scene

Meditation is amazing. It has made me a better person, and I want to freely help others.

Ryan Allen
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read

Several years ago I was experiencing an abundance of stress and I was constantly tired. My wife and I had a beautiful new daughter who, despite her best efforts, couldn’t sleep through the night, and a major project I had spent years working on fell apart and I found myself out a lot of time, effort and money.

Every day was confusing and chaotic. I made so many unhelpful choices it was easy to see the negative effect it was having on me and everyone around me. I felt like I had hit a hard bottom, like I had no personal values worth having.

Hell-Mouth

Until one day when a psychologist and personal friend told me “you should try to see yourself as you really are”. I had no idea what this meant so I turned to Google. I typed in “see yourself as you really are” and was rewarded with a link to the book “How to See Yourself as You Really Are”, by the 14th Dalai Lama. When I read the title I got that gut feeling that this was the perfect book to kickstart my journey. The title of the book was exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks to this book (and many other resources like this subreddit) I began to study and practice the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-Fold Path, the many Suttas and their commentaries, the four foundations of mindfulness, and calming and insight (Madhyamaka) meditation with growing enthusiasm and determination.

Because of that enthusiasm I have time scheduled every day for study and practice, and for the last few years this has enabled me to find inner meaning and the truth of my self, as well as enabled me to make it through many situations with poise and equanimity.

I began designing written and oral content explaining my understandings in an effort to guide my practice and fine-tune my understanding of the material. By creating new content based on existing content I can more effectively learn the material at a deeper level. The product designer part of me wants these tools to be freely available and useful for others with the same goal.

At the beginning of the summer I created a simple github project with the intent of sharing my practices to help others. A few people have been practicing the content and giving me feedback, and ever since then I’ve been iterating and refining my understanding of Mahāyāna Mādhyamika teachings. As a product designer I’ve also delighted in the experience of iterating through a free audio meditation app with the amazing group of people who have been sending me edits and other helpful feedback.

Use the Calming and Insight Meditation App Free Forever at http://openmindapp.org

Note* The mindfulness practices were created and made available by Diana Winston in response to some of the people using the app asking for mindfulness practices. You can learn more about them here.

If you are interested in reading the content for the calming and insight practices, here is my working document.

Feel free to reach out with any comments or feedback ❤

)

Ryan Allen

Written by

Designer of things | @ryanallen_com

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade