Instructions on letting go of the anchor in meditation on day 10 of monthlong retreat.

How to bring the energy of the mind and heart together in unification or concentration. What are the causes for samadhi. How we can live with nondistractedness and what are its benefits.

Begins with a 30m meditation and is followed by a Dharma Talk

In this talk, Gullu reviews prior week's teachings on Wise Effort, including what supports initiating effort, the middle way between extremes, and the four wise efforts using the acronym PACE: (P)reventing unwholesome states from arising, (A)bandoning unwholesome states that have arisen, (C)ultivating wholesome states, and (E)xtending (sustaining) those wholesome states. He then briefly discusses the Seven Factors of Awakening (Satta Bojjhaṅgā)—mindfulness, investigation of dhammas, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity—emphasizing that energy naturally arises from Mindfulness and investigation. He concludes with a quick overview of the Four Bases of Power (Cattāro Iddhipādā): chanda, viriya, citta, and vīmaṃsā. Particular attention is given to viriya as the engine of awakening and to vīmaṃsā as the spirit of ongoing discernment and refinement in practice. NOTE: Group discussion has been removed.

Learning to discern pleasant, unpleasant, neutral in sense experience. Developing awareness of our habitual reactivity to each, which is unnecessary and stressful.

When strong experiences such as fear, grief, shame or desire become predominate in our awareness, we can meet them with mindfulness and interest. Asking “what is happening?” rather than “why is it happening?”. With mindfulness we can feel emotions as ripples of sensations within the body that arise, peak and fade when we dont feed the story in the mind. At times we need to fortify mindfulness by turning to other parts of the body such as feet or hands to allow for more space around intense sensations. This helps us not get caught in aversive tightening in response to the emotion.

Dhamma as nature and learning to align ourself with what is true. Taking refuge and our path to liberation.

Describing the Relationship Between Metta, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity.

Begins with a 30m meditation and is followed by a Dharma Talk