The foundation of Friendly Ping
Every ping has deep roots in at least one wisdom tradition thousands of years old.
- SomaticSomatic methods work through bodily awareness rather than through thinking about a problem. They arose in the twentieth century out of body psychotherapy and trauma research, using breath, muscular tension and ground contact as the way in.
- BuddhismBuddhism arose in northern India in the fifth century BCE. Its starting point is the Four Noble Truths: an examination of suffering, its cause and a way out — not a doctrine to believe but an instruction to test.
- StoicismStoicism is a school of philosophy founded in Athens around 300 BCE, which took its best-known form in the Roman imperial era. Its practical core is the distinction between what is in our power and what is not.
- MindfulnessMindfulness is the capacity to notice present experience deliberately, without immediately judging it. The term translates the Buddhist sati; since 1979 the practice has been taught and studied outside its religious frame — it is the secular tradition of this collection.
- ZenZen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that arose in sixth-century China as Chan, out of the encounter with Daoism. It puts practice above doctrine: sitting and ordinary activity count as equals.
- Advaita VedantaAdvaita Vedanta is the non-dualist school of classical Indian Vedanta philosophy, founded on the Upanishads. Advaita means not-two: it distinguishes between what is observed and what observes, and holds that the split between them is only apparent.
- TaoismDaoism is a Chinese philosophical and religious tradition whose founding texts date from the fourth and third centuries BCE. Its central term wu wei means not inaction but acting without forcing.
- SufismSufism is the mystical current of Islam, which emerged in the eighth and ninth centuries out of ascetic movements. Its practices include the repeated speaking of divine names and a form of gratitude that runs through the day.
- Nonviolent CommunicationNonviolent Communication is a method of conversation developed in the 1960s. It divides statements into four steps — observation, feeling, need, request — and consistently separates what is observed from how it is judged.
- ChristianityThis means the contemplative side of Christianity: forms of practice from monasteries and spiritual schools, developed over centuries. Among them are the evening review of the day, the practice of forgiveness, and short prayers tied to the breath.
- Shadow WorkShadow work goes back to a term from depth psychology: the shadow, the part of oneself one does not want to acknowledge. The practice consists of reading strong reactions to other people as a pointer to it.
What qualities do you want to bring into your everyday life?
Pick what you want to carry into your day. Friendly Ping sends you small micro-meditations for it — as a gentle sound, spread across the day.
Pause in the middle of your day — and move on with more clarity
Bring mindfulness into the middle of your life. Just try it.