What has always engaged me is working with practitioners who are deepening their commitment to the Dharma and then seeing them take a quantum leap in their understanding. My contribution to this commitment is working towards conveying a Theravadan practice with a Mahayana spirit.
The Theravadan practice of vipassana provides simple, direct instructions that can be immediately understood and applied in daily life as well as retreat practice. The Mahayana spirit has the beautiful attitude that we practice not for ourselves alone, but for all sentient beings. Between the two, the unfolding of liberation for ourselves and others becomes a simple, down-to-earth practice that anyone can do.
It is fun for me to take the most difficult concepts and put them into accessible language, to unwrap the mystery. So I try to find ways to explore the breadth of concepts like "emptiness" -- to see how the entire path can be explained in terms of this synonym for nibbana. One of my aims is to bring the goal of freedom into the here and now. This way practitioners get a taste of freedom, so they know what they are heading toward on their journey to liberation.
The tools of mindfulness and lovingkindness can be picked up by anyone. They are easy to understand and they bring immediate benefit to our lives. The essence of vipassana is ideally suited to western society, especially to the resonance between our psychological turn of mind and our quest for spiritual understanding.
It's very helpful to reflect on the way we experience change in the course of our human life, including our own aging and death. But even more freeing is discovering the direct insight into the momentary arising and passing of all phenomena through our practice of mindful observation.
The talk explores action and its results. It also looks at how karma and not-self are a mutually necessary way to understand personality and the path of practice leading to the end of karma.
This talk explores fear as a form of craving and also several particular fears, such as death, judgement, and emptiness. It concludes with practical instructions on working with fear in meditation, which can lead to a fearlessness with all difficult states.
Dharma practice has two functions: First it makes us healthy, then it makes us free. The talk explores both these phases, as well as their accompanying attitudes, and explores the process of healing in relation to fear.
When we engage with metta practice we receive either metta (purity) or the inner obstacles to metta, which provide the material for the purification of heart. This talk describes how to relate with self-judgement and fear through metta, as well as the supportive factor of concentration, another aspect of innate purity.
The practice of metta brings five wonderful qualities into our Dhamma practice. It makes the heart softer and more responsive; it purifies the heart; it brings us into connection with all of life; it develops concentration; and it leads to happiness. Lovingkindness is the quality of friendliness toward oneself and others developed through the practice of metta. This talk describes how the practice works as a protection, a healing, a purification of heart, and a boundless state of mind.
This talk discusses the nature of samadhi, or concentration, in our practice and how to recognize its presence. It also touches on the benefits of samadhi and ways to develop this wholesome quality.
Harsh judgements of ourselves in practice and in life may be connected to an underlying sense of not being good enough. The talk explores remedies in the moment (mindfulness and reflection) and long term (metta, selflessness).
Mindfulness is our doorway to reality, or nature, which reveals its truths to us. The qualities of mindfulness, effort and concentration, are at the heart of the meditative path. As they develop, they bring our hearts and minds ever closer to the awakened mind of the Buddha. Only
mindfulness can stem the tide of conditioned thought patterns that sweep us into sorrow.
