Lately, my own practice is moving more and more into the monastic world. As I teach out of that nourishment, I find people hungry for the traditional, solid forms of the Dharma. I see people's lives changing when they engage in these forms. Certainly, as I deepen my own Sutta study, I find the traditional ideas so helpful it encourages me to delve further.
In this, I am learning how to ride the edge of a question, instead of reaching for answers. When I let the question hang there, as a living presence, its very aliveness stimulates movement toward an answer, an opening.
Some key factors imprint my teaching. The fact that I'm a purely Western-produced Dharma teacher, without the influence of Eastern traveling, and that I'm a middle-aged Western woman with a psychological background. Also, my years in a Christian practice now translate into my engagement with such ideas as embodiment: how do we take the practice and live it? What is practical in the Dharma, a sort of Buddhist Householder Hints.
From my perspective, the world is in serious trouble. We have separated ourselves from all other beings, and in the process do a lot that keeps us from being present. It is so urgent that we learn to be present and see what is true about our being here, that we live with kindness and compassion for all beings. Vipassana supports these intentions and helps us all heal, no matter what the eventual outcome may be.
The judgmental mind is painful and difficult. We can bring the practicies of the Brahma Viharas to it, to melt away the judgment and to develop a kind and spacious heart.
Just as we garden, tending out plants and pulling weeds, so we need to cultivate the ground of heart and mind. Uprooting obscurations and dealing with hindrances are part of this work.
The Buddha teaches both about the cycle of suffering and another cycle leading to liberation. When we willingly encounter our suffering directly, conviction arises and leads us deeper into our practice.
How can we open our hearts?
This talk explores the practices of forgiveness and compassion, as well as that of gratitude. The Metta Sutta provides the background for this exploration.
We need places of refuge in our lives and we need an inner place of stillness.
Curiosity, confidence and contentment as we develop mindfulness can be useful in developing inner refuge.
We often live inside of our stories and react from them. When we begin to perceive our experience as it is, we can respond rather than react and end the cycle of suffering.
Lots of good stories!
