Gulwinder “Gullu” Singh is a corporate real estate attorney who regularly teaches both secular and Buddhist classes and groups at InsightLA and at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, has taught mindfulness at the University of Southern California and has been a guest lecturer on mindfulness at UCLA Law School. Although he was exposed to meditation as a child, he found his own practice when he started his legal career, working at firms where the mindsets where insane and as a result, the job was extremely stressful.
Gullu spends several weeks per year teaching silent meditation retreats and has done over 200 nights of silent retreat practice including a 2-month retreat in 2017. Gullu is deeply inspired to share meditation as an antidote to stress, a way to cope more effectively with the challenges of work and live and to inject more sanity, compassion and wisdom into this world.
In this Opening talk, the teachers offer a land acknowledgement, introduce themselves, and Kaira Jewel gives a short talk on what metta is, how to practice metta and how we can take refuge in the retreat container.
This talk explores the Buddha’s teaching of Anattā (Not-self) and ways to practice with the world experience or perception of self and how we can notice with mindfulness how this sense of self ebbs and flows with conditions. The Buddha also suggested beneficial ways to engage the self such as to use conceit as a tool to generate faith.
In this talk, Gullu reflects on the ancient practice from the Buddha of the 5 subjects for frequent recollection which invites us to contemplate that we are of the nature to age, get sick, to die and be separated from all the dear to us (one way or another) and yet, we have agency to develop qualities of mind and heart that allow us to move through these innate difficulties of life with more grace. Awareness of death can bring a sense of spiritual urgency (samvega) which is useful in cultivation practice.
In this Talk Gullu covers the basics of the 4 Noble Truths, both in terms of the insights and the practice instructions. Some real time inquiries are offered to begin the connect Dukkha with patterns of clinging. Then Gullu talks about motivation for practice and the spiritual urgency that comes with the 5 Recollections.
