As retreat comes to an end, consider the cooperative boundaries that allow Dhamma to flourish. Establish reasonable boundaries related to behavior, moral integrity, restraint. Remember that bhāvanā is more than meditation, cultivate throughout the day. Restore the source of energy, know its boundaries.

Guided Meditation, New Year's Retreat at Applegate Jesuit RC, CA

Sitting and walking instructions and cell phone renunciation ceremony.

New Year's Retreat at Applegate Jesuit RC, CA

Wisdom makes life more manageable, more fun. We can find how we’re generating stress by knowing feeling: “all dhammas converge on feeling.” Trace activations to their roots, identify the feeling, widen to the place where it isn’t. There is a wider domain to feeling, an end to experiencing feeling, both pleasant and unpleasant.

New Year's Retreat at Applegate Jesuit RC, CA

This talk and guided meditation includes reflections on how cultivating compassion towards ourselves is essential for our own well-being and happiness—and a key to opening our hearts to the suffering of others. It concludes with a guided self-compassion meditation.

PLEASE NOTE: 'The Mirrored Gates' is a set of talks (recorded by Rob from his home) attempting to clarify, elaborate on, and open up further the concepts, practices, and possibilities explained in previous talks on imaginal practice. Some working familiarity with those previous teachings will provide a helpful foundation for this new set; but a good understanding of and experiential facility with practices of emptiness, samatha, the emotional/energy body, metta, and mindfulness is necessary and presumed, without which these new teachings may be confusing and difficult to comprehend.