Meet Lisa Ernst

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa Ernst a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My greatest resilience comes from my meditation practice. I discovered Buddhist meditation in high school after experiencing significant losses in my family, but I didn’t begin practicing for several more years after that. I quickly learned that I needed to be consistent, meditating daily, for it to truly make a difference in my life. Meditating each day gives me the opportunity to meet myself exactly where I am since I can’t be “somewhere else” to truly meditate. Its not always easy, but sitting in silence with my body, mind and heart, continuously reveals to me what truly matters and the path to living the moment, no matter what the conditions are in my life. By practicing presence and self-compassion, I can unwind from worry and self-judgement loops, touch any pain arising in my life and find a level of acceptance and kindness that is hard to come by otherwise. This gives me an significantly expanded capacity for resilience.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Before becoming a meditation teacher I was a visual artist and a tech executive. I still create art and have paintings in many public collections. Right here in Nashville you can find a number of my paintings at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. But my primary focus is teaching meditation and I founded a non-profit meditation group, One Dharma Nashville, where people from all backgrounds are welcome to meditate and learn Buddhist teachings. Our main meeting is Monday nights and we offer meditation, teachings and discussion. I also teach many silent meditation retreats per year, both in the Middle Tennessee area and beyond. In May I led a meditation and exploration retreat in Costa Rica and am excited to offer this again in early 2025.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

To teach meditation effectively, I believe the teacher should have extensive personal experience and I have been meditating consistently for over 30 years now. I’ve also sat many retreats. Nothing substitutes for personal experience as well as having a good teacher. The important qualities for anyone who wants to truly benefit from a meditation practice are patience, perseverance and initially, trust that the journey is worth taking. Study matters too, but nothing replaces direct experience. Sometimes talking with an experienced friend who meditates or teacher is very helpful in this regard. I studied for many years with wonderful teachers such as Trudy Goodman, founder of InsightLA. Connecting with a meditation community is also incredibly supportive.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
I have been fortunate to have wise elders along the way to help me develop resilience and skills that have served me on my spiritual journey. As mentioned, my primary meditation teacher, Trudy Goodman, has been a trusted and wise advisor and has helped me through many challenges along the way. She remains an important resource in my life. I think the best meditation teachers always remain students. Remaining humble while recognizing I always have more to learn, is so vital to me.

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