Starts with one of John's poems describing the currents that push and pull us as we begin this journey -- coupled with one of his India stories from 40 years ago..
Review of the 3 characteristics and 5 precepts. Exploration of faith and refuge as we leave retreat. Explanation of 'karooke' as appreciation practice.
After a review of our first two sessions, we explore, both through an overview and through experiential exercises, bodily-based practices to help cultivate equanimity.
All about walking meditation as seen through the lens of the Eightfold Path to Freedom.
NOTE: There are some audio quality issues for the first 18:36 minutes...clean thereafter.
A continued exploration of the nature of equanimity, how we cultivate it in formal practice and in action. with a particular focus in the last part of the talk on "The Eight Worldly Winds"
To deepen our meditation practice we need to work skillfully with whatever is a disturbance -- whether it's the gross forms of the hindrances, or the subtlest manifestations of restlessness. This subtle restlessness often comes from a primal anxiety. We need to recognize this and find the stillness in our experience. Then we can truly be with things as they are.
The practice of samadhi requires commitment to wise effort towards concentration. it requires overcoming resistance to concentration, to be willing to feel intimacy with teh object. The fruit of commitment to concentration is one-pointed equanimity. Concentration can be considered om five different qualities from dedication to steadiness.
Deepening concentration moves on two axis - horizontal and vertical. Continuity, or staying over time, is the horizontal axis. Intimacy, or the movement toward dissolving the subject/object, is the vertical axis. Together concentration deepens.
We explore how mature equanimity is expressed through wisdom, the open heart, and the body. We examine some of the qualities of equanimity and how we develop it in the midst of action, as well as on the cushion.
Concentration can be explored as a function of mind, as an essential and distinct part of the path of liberation and as a "felt experience" in this very moment. Each exploration deepens understanding and empowers concentration.
Since the Greeks, Heraclitus-flow and change but Parmenides' view won out: THINGS, matter, stuff, leads to power OVER.
But systems view more modern-energy/mind flows, information flows more important view.
We explore through stories, teachings and poetry two basic ways of transforming judgments:
1. through mindfulness, reflection, inquiry and other tools we directly investigate judgments and their roots.
2. through developing the awakened mind, heart and body we come to rest more in our deep nature, helping in multiple ways to transform judgments.
The Three Stories of: 1) business as usual, 2) the great unraveling, and 3) the great turning.
Exercise-7 generation present meeting future with questions and mike passed for reactions.
Through personal stories, practical techniques and humor, the talk outlines five areas for working with judgments:
1. Mindfulness of Body
2. RAIN Practice
3. Heart Practices
4. Learning about patterns
5. Value of wise friends
Using mindfulness and insight we can expand the range of experiences we can stay conscious within. Freedom arises as we move beyond our attachments and preferences, and into things just as they are.
Exploration of the major themes of a just completed retreat, including focusing on the essentials of life, practicing fully and opening to the deeper truths.
How do we take the wisdom, clarity and insight and the depth of meditative experience into our lives, relationships and all that we do. At the same time, knowing that it is all a seamless continuity of mindful awareness.
Joy is an essential factor of awakening and every step of the Buddhist path supports an opening to happiness, joy and peace -- all the way to Nibbana -- the greatest happiness.
How do we turn towards and open to the inevitable pain and suffering in life? This talk explores how to meet our difficulty with a kind loving presence and patience and in doing so create a freedom, peace and ease in our hearts.
What is investigation as a factor of awakening? How do we cultivate it, what supports it and how do we apply it to our direct experience in meditation.
This talk explores faith within the context of the 5 spiritual faculties and also the 3 kinds of faith.
Moving stories from the speaker's personal life are shared.
