The sense of self is an inadequate vehicle for dealing with life, for dealing with dukkha. Where body and heart meet can deal with it – grounded in body, steady and open in heart. Your true power will come through

All conditions of this world have the nature to change: the earth, weather, governments, work, health, leisure, family, friendships and so forth. We observe these variations and consider the most critical change of all. It promises the greatest blessing – but first we must plow the interior field of goodness that yields our heart's deliverance. Faithfully, patiently, as we clear away the dust in the mind, the hindrances of greed, ill-will, fear and delusion fall away, and we abide in the clarity, serenity, and joy of the Dhamma.

Citta is the heart and feeling aspect of our experience. It can determine what is for our welfare, but becomes tangled and obscured by proliferation. Use deep attention to cut through the proliferations. Come out of the world of differentiation to just here now.

When we remember to empty out all the distraction, all the movement, all the roughness of life, nameless, formless, without identity - we touch the shore of truth as waves touch the shores of the ocean, reaching our true home in the fullness of this moment exactly as it is.

Meditation is a time to crystalize the training, to deeply take in and feel the teachings. In these pause moments we take heed, look deeply into the heart, come to know the experience of what stirs it up – clinging, aversion, becoming. We begin to prefer relinquishment, finding it a freer more livable options.

We make contact with external phenomena, and the impressions and meanings resonate through the heart and mind. Make skillful contact – pick up that which is worthy, that which lifts the heart.

Breathing gets conditioned by how we live our lives – energy can be mottled and unbalanced. It is a signifier of the heart. We can take time during retreat to take samādhi as a way of life, unifying body, heart and mind to bring into fruition the factors of awakening.

As we begin our meditation, establish a reference that helps us to be with rather than be in. Be the ‘knower of the worlds’, aware of the danger and getting stuck. Body can be that reference, it gives a sense of here-ness. Widen awareness and be choosy with attention.

We use a meditation theme like mindfulness of breathing to bring about the factors of awakening. These factors are not things we can do, they come about under the right conditions. Tend to the heart and body energies, bringing them together to hold your ground against the hinderances and make way for the factors of awakening.