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.
Our nature is love, yet through ego identification, this love becomes distorted. By following wholesome impulses, we strengthen our natural inclination to love.
The Buddha points the way to uncovering our essential goodness, here, exploring the five spiritual powers that turn our mind towards the beautiful; how to become intimate with all of life's experiences.
A talk given by Sharda Rogell, Anna Douglas and Howie Cohn teaching on the importance of practicing and following the path to wisdom and compassion as taught by the Buddha.
How does love express itself in the awakened heart/mind. And how does that love get so distorted that it can turn to hatred, cruelty and envy. How can we release our confusion and be free?
We can actively engage in our healing & transformation by gathering skilful and wise intentions and consciously directing them. In this way we strengthen the creative potential of our mind. We can consciously direct our wise and skilful intentions in order to actively engage in our healing and transformation. In this way, we reinforce and strengthen the creative potential of our mind.
We have a tendency to fixate on things through attaching and resisting. By knowing deeply the impermanent nature and relaxing our grip, we come into a wise relationship with the conditions of our life and open to the way things really are.
The Buddha says that the way of undertaking things that is pleasant now and ripens in the future as pleasure dispels darkness with its radiance. Cultivating prajna (or higher wisdom) guides us to make choices that bring about more happiness in our lives.
Teachings on Anatta (not-self). Our self-image is only an image in our own mind. It’s not all of who we are. Who am I then, when I’m not bound by the limiting beliefs of my mind?
