Q1 [from an online participant] I bumped into some Jehovah's witnesses on a walk sometime and they asked me what do Buddhists believe. How would you answer this question? Q2 09:15 When I'm doing Qigong I feel a lot of heaviness in my feet and after a while pain. Is this normal? Q3 11:07 I enjoy solitude to limit sensory input and unnecessary chatter. Is there such a thing as too much solitude? Q4 29:47 can I please ask about how you start an end your days? Do you have intentions you set? Any specific recollections or practices? Do you practice mindfulness of sleep and dreams?

Mindful reflection along with one's virtues such as observing the 5 precepts can lead to joy, happiness and fuel the path to freedom.

Suggested Homework: 1. Daily meditation: 10-20 minutes. 2. As with last week, choose a routine activity and practice mindfulness whenever you do this activity. This week specifically focus on mindfulness of body while doing the activity. 3. Try eating a meal mindfully. Consider doing this once per day or a few times this week.

We begin by hearing from two members of the community about how they are experiencing and responding to what's happening in the larger society and world in our times. Donald then discusses how we might respond on the basis of our practice, identifying the three areas of training--in wisdom, meditation, and ethics. Guided by wisdom teachings, we can see the society and world as both manifesting greed, hatred, and delusion, and also awakened qualities. In our meditation, we can practice on many levels, including working with challenging emotions, seeing through social conditioning, and bringing mindfulness to our thoughts, emotions, and bodies. We focus especially on "ethical practice," re-framed as developing caring and compassionate responses. We briefly outline the five ethical precepts, and then focus especially on the guideline of non-harming, clarifying how this is understood both more individually and socially, identifying teachings from the Buddha, King Ashoka, and Thich Nhat Hanh. We ask what our practice of developing "caring and compassionate" responses might look like, bringing in also material from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including his nonviolence and understanding of interdependence, and Elie Wiesel, including his commitment always to speak up whenever there is suffering.

This dhamma talk, guided meditation, comments, questions and responses was offered on 24th of January, 2026 for “How do I apply the Dhamma to THIS!?!” From January 4th to April 2nd 2026 the regularly scheduled Saturday morning program taught by Ayya Santussika, will take many of the suttas referenced in "Mindfully Facing Disease and Death" by Bhikkhu Anālayo as their basis.

Attuning to the energetic effects of breathing in and breathing out

This recording includes a brief talk followed by a guided meditation on The Arriving Sequence, which is an important way we establish sati (mindfulness) in the "Naturally Arising Practice Method," which was created by Phillip Moffitt. The Arriving Sequence cultivates grounded presence and includes: arriving in the present moment, becoming available to the felt sense in the present moment, aligning with our aspirations.