Suggested Homework: 1. Daily meditation: 10-20 minutes. 2. As with last week, choose a routine activity and practice mindfulness whenever you do this activity. This week specifically focus on mindfulness of body while doing the activity. 3. Try eating a meal mindfully. Consider doing this once per day or a few times this week.

We begin by hearing from two members of the community about how they are experiencing and responding to what's happening in the larger society and world in our times. Donald then discusses how we might respond on the basis of our practice, identifying the three areas of training--in wisdom, meditation, and ethics. Guided by wisdom teachings, we can see the society and world as both manifesting greed, hatred, and delusion, and also awakened qualities. In our meditation, we can practice on many levels, including working with challenging emotions, seeing through social conditioning, and bringing mindfulness to our thoughts, emotions, and bodies. We focus especially on "ethical practice," re-framed as developing caring and compassionate responses. We briefly outline the five ethical precepts, and then focus especially on the guideline of non-harming, clarifying how this is understood both more individually and socially, identifying teachings from the Buddha, King Ashoka, and Thich Nhat Hanh. We ask what our practice of developing "caring and compassionate" responses might look like, bringing in also material from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including his nonviolence and understanding of interdependence, and Elie Wiesel, including his commitment always to speak up whenever there is suffering.

This dhamma talk, guided meditation, comments, questions and responses was offered on 24th of January, 2026 for “How do I apply the Dhamma to THIS!?!” From January 4th to April 2nd 2026 the regularly scheduled Saturday morning program taught by Ayya Santussika, will take many of the suttas referenced in "Mindfully Facing Disease and Death" by Bhikkhu Anālayo as their basis.

Attuning to the energetic effects of breathing in and breathing out

Mindfulness isn't about pretending to be peaceful, it's about being real. Don't be afraid to be completely yourself. You are good and the world is waiting for you to stop believing otherwise.

This dhamma talk, guided meditation, comments, questions and responses was offered on 17 January, 2026 for “How do I apply the Dhamma to THIS!?!” 00:00 - GUIDED MEDITATION 19:37 - DHAMMA TALK 56:14 - COMMENTS, QUESTIONS & RESPONSES From January 4th to April 2nd 2026 the regularly scheduled Saturday morning program taught by Ayya Santussika, will take many of the suttas referenced in "Mindfully Facing Disease and Death" by Bhikkhu Anālayo as their basis. For those who want to dive deeply into this material, you may want to read the book as we discuss the suttas, listed below. Jan 10 SN 22.1 Nakula’s Father Chapter 2 Jan 17 SN 36.6 An Arrow Chapter 3 Jan 24 SN 22.88 With Assaji Chapter 10 Jan 31 SN 22.89 With Khemaka Chapter 11 Feb 7 AN 10.60 With Girimānanda Chapter 12 Feb 14 SN 3.22 Grandmother and SN 47.13 With Cunda Chapters 13 & 14 Feb 21 MN 143 Advice to Anāthapiṇḍika Chapter 16 Feb 28 SN 55.3 With Dīghāvu and SN 55.54 Sick Chapters 17 & 18 Mar 7 SN 36.7 The Infirmary (1st) Chapter 19 Mar 14 AN 6.56 With Phagguna Chapter 20 Mar 21 SN 35.74 Sick (1st) and SN 41.10 Seeing the Sick Chapters 21 & 22 Mar 28 DN 16.31, 34-36 The Buddha’s Last Words Chapter 23

Day 1 sitting instructions. Very short practice suitable for beginners emphasizing relaxed relationship to the objects of attention, balanced attitude, and how to set appropriate expectatioins about unintentional thinking during meditation.