It's always inspiring to support people through an intensive period of silent retreat. James knows many of you have already had that experience so you know how impactful it can be. He shares from his own experience guiding students for many years, how he sees the process of transformation and his understanding of how it works. The talk is followed by a discussion.

By practicing the Noble Eight Fold Path we can experience greater joy, happiness and freedom

Short Reflection & Guided Meditation including a poem by Judith Morely | Earthworm Practice for the Anthropocene IV | Online Wednesday-Morning

We begin with a general sense of how our practice is both grounded in tradition and responsive to the needs of our times, with reference to Thomas Merton’s similar perspective. Sharing images from his recent teaching and travels throughout the talk, Donald focuses initially on the traditional sense of three forms of training—in wisdom and discernment, meditation (especially concentration, insight, and heart practices), and ethical practice. We review the most central teaching of the Buddha, about dukkha (understood in its most important meaning as reactivity) and the end of dukkha, and point to practice as involving both deep inner work and skillful outward action, with the key in both contexts being “appropriate response.” We then examine the nature of compassion and how to be skillful in our response to the “pain of the world,” connecting compassion and the figure of the bodhisattva with equanimity.

After a short introduction to how we develop equanimity and compassion in our practice, the main themes of this session (of both meditation and the talk), we begin with settling and cultivating concentration. Then there is a period of mindfulness, followed by two practices developing compassion, one with phrases and one the short self-compassion practice developed by Kristen Neff.

Taking the refuge in the Buddha Dhamma and Sangha plus undertaking the five training guidelines can provide a firm foundation for our practice.

Ayya Anandabodhi explains how taking refuge in the Triple Gem of Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha can be seen in light of taking refuge in the mind’s natural capacity for awareness, the teachings on impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self evident in our current bodies and minds, and the wisdom that motivates us to keep practicing in the face of hardship.