My focus in teaching is to provide the support that students need to turn their life to the dharma, to truth, and to find ways to come out of their pain and suffering. The retreat experience is an invaluable aid to this exploration; however, what matters more is how one integrates this under- standing into everyday life.
I care that students see through the illusory wall between formal meditation and their daily life. Then, what remains is a meditative attitude to all that occurs.
Vipassana practice helps us to become respectful and caring towards ourselves and others. This generates the conditions of mind and heart that allow us to awaken to the truth of who we are, rather than believing in our limited assumptions. As we see the impersonal nature of our own mind, we then experience a deep engagement with life that allows for a complete transformation of the heart. When we know this deeply, we can no longer unconsciously engage in actions that will lead to suffering and the ongoing destruction of our planet.
As a teacher, I am accessible and able to meet people at an intimate level. I am interested in how the language that we use can show where we are holding on. I look to the concepts about reality that people believe in as the key that unlocks the door to liberating insight. People can easily discount their experiences and forget that they hold the seeds to liberation, that the wisdom is already within them. As people speak what is in their hearts, affirmation brings about the confidence needed to take the next step, which can often seem confusing and daunting as one walks into the unknown territory of the mind.
Unless we understand how we cling to the conditions of our mind and body as "me", we will live within a narrow and confined view and miss the revelation of our true beingness.
A simple and clear exposition on the Buddha's insights into releasing, grasping and suffering. This is the release that opens our heart to great compassion.
When we identify with our cruel inner critic, this undermines our capacity for kindness towards ourselves and others. Inclining the mind towards metta points us towards our own innate goodness.
First we find our outer refuge in sacred spaces in the triple gem, and through establishing a ground of trust we can let go, taking refuge in awareness itself where everything we need for awakening is available.
When we see the world through the veil of our ego, our love flows in distorted and confused ways. Through mindfulness and metta and insight we can begin to understand these conditioned patterns and transform them into love and connection.
To integrate our practice, we need to keep applying the wisdom of our insights we gain from our sitting practice, retreats, and life experience. In this way, we come to terms with the different aspects of our personality, the aaspects we like and don't like.
Realizing clearly that things don't bring lasting satisfaction, we become disenchanted with reaching out to things; the energy that was bound up with clinging is there, released towards liberation.
Our practice invites us to return to the present moment - yet in order to be here, we must let go of everything and enter this moment unburdened. Are we willing? If so, we will discover our true refuge - that which is utterly reliable.
