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.
As we embody our experience fully, the idea of what we think will bring relief from our unhappiness drops away, and allows us to drop into the true source of our happiness.
True practice is knowing that you are already a manifestation of compassion without trying. Knowing that, we let go of what is false and keep returning to our peaceful heart.
When we understand that our happiness and unhappiness depends on our actions, then we can act with intentions that are loving and generous. This is what brings about the happiness we long for.
Metta practice works it's magic by reflecting back our momentary experience so we can see where we are still holding. Embracing these parts of ourselves leads us to the boundless heart of metta.
If we learn to act from intuitive wisdom, rather than our ideas of how we should act, we can make wise choices that will lead to a balanced mind and a compassionate relationship to life.
We are constantly searching for that which will free us from our anxiety. By investigating the energy of grasping onto things, we can begin to let go and come to know deeply the difference between ordinary happiness and true happiness of the Buddha.
This talk invites us to use what is difficult in our lives to enhance
our practice. Compassion awakens within us through opening our hearts
to the challenging and painful. Approaching obstacles with a
receptive attitude, we can enter into life with more courage and
strength, and a deeper sense of connection
