Mei Elliott is a Dharma teacher in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, who practices at the intersection between Zen and Vipassana. Mei began training as a Zen monk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 2014, and has spent eight years living at Zen temples and monasteries. During this time she served as the director of San Francisco Zen Center and the guiding instructor for Young Urban Zen. Mei was authorized to teach by James Baraz and is currently a participant in Insight Meditation Center’s Dharma Teacher Training. She now resides at Insight Retreat Center where she serves as Managing Director.
This talk explores how the three supports (faith/confidence, well-being, and stability/concentration) provide the necessary conditions for insight into the three characteristics (impermanence, suffering, and not-self). In doing so, a map of the development of practice is unfolded, covering how insight occurs, what the insights are, and how they culminate in liberation.
This dharmette and guided meditation provides an introduction to the Brahma Viharas and metta practice, as well as guidance on metta for the "easy being."
The 12 links of dependent origination describe how we get caught in suffering. Through exploring 4 key links of dependent origination, we can come to learn how to be free and at ease regardless of how difficult or unpleasant aspects of life may be. By studying the vedana (feeling tone) of our experience we can learn how to break the cycle of suffering without reactivity.
