A slide show of some recent paintings done 2015 - 2016 during the death of my mother. This talk covers the creative process with questions and answers from the writers and painters.
After a review of our previous practices with everyday views, we explore more subtle views, including, including the methods of the Buddha's Middle Way, Nagarjuna, and Zen.
This talk explores various facets around relinquishing the ways we are constantly seeking something different than what is actually here and by doinf so, missing the peace that is already here.
We continue to examine the nature of views and attachment to views, exploring the Buddha's pragmatic approach and working with an exercise to go more deeply into views, attachment to views, and what helps us be less attached to views.
If we try to get the conditions of our life to match our expectations, we will be disappointed again & again. Understanding the Buddha's teaching on 'dukkha' helps us let go and see more clearly.
After a review of the nature of the judgmental mind and the inner practices to transform it, we begin to work with how to practice with judgments in the context of interaction and communication. We start with looking at views and our attachment to views, offering three practices for the next week.
As we commit to our meditation practice, we can see patterns that are helpful to understand and use to deepen our experience. This is an important part of the training and can give us confidence in the practice and our experience.
Contentment and relaxation are supportive conditions for the development of samadhi. Transforming our relationship to the breath allows us to deepen the connection.
As our practice matures we are encouraged to cultivate healthier more compassionate relationships with those energies of life that obscure our natural perfected heart. In this talk we explore the origins of these energies and a perspective on them that creates harmony both inside and out.
Everyone wants to be calm and peaceful. Much of our restlessness and agitation stems from an untrained mind and lack of clear perception of what's happening in our mind and body moment-to-moment.
Cultivating courage through trust and faith to meet the "what is" in our lives allows us to remember our own innate goodness, our Buddhanature, to live life more fully no matter what.
After twenty-four hours on a silent residential retreat we can already see the patterns of daily life being exposed. Too often we are lost and dominated by thought. Mindfulness practice allows us to see thought as transient experiences.
Often times we think of the spiritual path as a journey to an idealized place or state, but really, the spiritual path is a journey home to where we always have been.
Dedicated to the memory of my friend Shawn Lucas who passed away while I was on retreat.
The 3 Pillars of the Dharma that are the foundations for the Sure Heart's Release:
1. Dana, the practice of giving.
2. Sila, living in harmony.
3. Bhavana, the development of concentration and wisdom.
After an intensive Metta (loving-kindness) retreat we get the great opportunity to take our practice home. In our daily lives the practice of metta supports sila (harmlessness) and dana (generosity).
We combine a review of the nature of reactive judgments related to social conditioning (particularly related to social hierarchies such as those connected with race, gender, class, sexual orientation, etc.) with an outline of some ways to transform these judgments (pointing to the need also to transform the associated power structures).
Loving-kindness practice can be used to unify the heart and mind in deep contentment. To develop this unity we need to ripen the five jhana (absorption) factors.
