Meditation can reveal the dynamic process of emotional life. In this talk, Shaila Catherine explores relationships between mind and body, between thoughts and emotions, and between present moment experience and concepts. Emotions are not avoided in meditation, instead we engage in a balanced and wise investigation of emotions and see their changing, impermanent, and empty nature. Transformative insight into impermanence may come through understanding the functioning of mental states, without worry about difficult emotions such as anger, grief, or fear. We will learn to respond, act, and speak with wisdom as we learn to open to the full range of emotional life.

All about the Tibetan teaching on the four reminders: preciousness of life, impermanence, karma, and the defects of samsara.

An exploration of the Buddha's teaching on the characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self.

Leaning on circumstances, conditions loss. The importance of disillusionment, seeing impermanence reveals the undying.

Supporting our practice with four reflections that highlight the meaning of our life: Precious Human Body, Impermanence and Death, Law of Cause and Effect and the Imperfections of Life.

Recognizing the changing nature of experience and the insecurity of human existence allows us to open to the preciousness of life in this moment.

The buddha said that the perception of impermanence, when cultivated, leads one to liberation. This talk explores some of the ways that we do not recognize this characteristic of existence.

Building on the last two sessions, we explore three inter-related aspects of ignorance or confusion: 1. How we move away from direct experience, especially because of reactivity. 2. How we develop, personally and collectively, unconscious material;and 3. How we do not fully understand impermanence, the roots of suffering and the nature of the self. We suggest ways to practice with all three forms of ignorance.