The path of practice has many challenges. How we meet those and turn toward them and learn form them is possibly the most important aspect of our practice. This talk looks at these challenges in the retreat setting and suggests ways of meeting them.
Our practice aims at awakening (and awakened beings help others awaken). We review briefly the nature of awakening for the Buddha and later Buddhist traditions, and the centrality of the teaching of the Seven Factors of Awakening. We then explore the two foundational factors--mindfulness and equanimity--identifying their core qualities, as well as how to practice to cultivate each of these factors, both in formal meditation and in the movement of daily life. There is a talk and then discussion.
on the last night of the retreat we reflected on the path of practice, the fruits that spontaneously emerge from practice, how are actions of body speech and mind, the Buddha called karma, influences everything. the talk ends with some reflections on equanimity and the skillful work we can do to balance our practice with where we are in terms of the three marks of existence.
The state of the world is getting more intense, more extreme, more divided. It is undeniable that we need to do things differently, including thinking we can do it all on our own.
The mutability of karma. An act of beauty in a war zone. Moments of connection with wildlife. Compassion meditation for ancestors, those in our near relational field, future generations, and all beings.
The danger and opportunity in the dying of an old world. The curriculum of decolonizing internally & externally. The reclamation of an ensouled world. Dharma practice as essential for navigating the shifts of consciousness needed for radical re-orientation within a moment of evolutionary potential.
