The habit of believing we're different from others leads to a painful sense of isolation. Both vipassana and metta reveal a deep inter-connectedness to all of life that takes away our feelings of separation.
When we believe thoughts coming from a contracted mind we are in dukkha. When we see them clearly as empty and not self, there's wisdom.
This talk also explores the 4 Iddhipadas-different temperaments and sources of motivation in practice.
We look at the importance of the different parts of our practice - intentions, ethics, mindfulness, wisdom and grounding in the body - for responding to difficult situations- individual, interpersonal and related to the wider world. We then look at how to develop and practice compassion in difficult situations.
