Through a greater self understanding brought about through mindfulness, we can live in alignment with anicca, dukka and anatta. Becoming aligned in the New Paradigm allows our frustrations with life to cease arising.

Patience, one of the paramis, is a quality that we don’t often appreciate, even though it is tremendously important in our practice and our lives. To be patient is to be fully present for what is, to be with difficulty and challenge without resistance. Patience allows mindfulness and wisdom to deepen, as we meet our experience without agendas or expectations.

with Susan Kaiser-Greenland

"The aim of my presentation will be to investigate what mindfulness practice is about according to the early Buddhist discourses. These discourses have been preserved in the Pali Nikayas, in the Chinese Agamas, and at times also in Sanskrit fragments and sutra quotations preserved in Tibetan. From a historical viewpoint, these discourses represent the earliest layer of Buddhist textual material and thus take us back as close as possible to the original instructions delivered by the Buddha. In these texts, we find two basic expositions: 1) the fourfold establishment of mindfulness taught in general; 2) the threefold establishment of mindfulness associated with the Buddha himself. First, I will examine the fourfold establishment of mindfulness, based on the way it is depicted in the different extant versions of the Discourse on Mindfulness and the Discourse on Mindfulness of Breathing. Then, I will compare these to the threefold establishment of mindfulness. Through such comparison, I hope to arrive at key aspects of Buddhist mindfulness practice according to the earliest available textual sources at our disposition."

with Susan Kaiser-Greenland

Openness, the willingness to meet what arises, is one of our basic resources as human beings. The ability to open what is pleasant and unpleasant alike, knowing we can benefit, learn from it, gives a certain confidence. Mindfulness of body is our workshop to cultivate that ability to open to and bear with painful feeling. Not resisting or fighting it, just sustaining awareness and knowing it for what it is.

Mindfulness means looking more carefully. As we sustain attention on an object, we can begin to discern how we get caught and how we get free. Body as a foundation for mindfulness can mean mindfulness of breathing in and out, the elements, walking up and down, the unattractive parts, or contemplating a dead body. A review of several of these practices is given.

A reflection on the faculty of energy and how to apply it skillfully. Energy for investigation that leads to wisdom, energy for devotion and aspiration that uplifts the heart, energy for mindfulness of body that results in calm and insight.

We sometimes think that if we are experiencing aversion in our practice, that insight must be out of reach. Yet the Buddha teaches us that the path unfolds through understanding suffering. When we bring mindfulness to aversion itself, the understanding that develops can be very freeing.

These 5 faculties when cultivated and developed merge in the deathless. Faith, energy, concentration, mindfulness, wisdom. These are faculties we all have, but they may be poorly developed. Guidance is given for how to touch into these and strengthen them.

Practicing meditation, we inevitably encounter the wandering mind. Rather than considering this experience to be a "problem", if we explore this phenomenon with mindfulness, we can learn a lot about our minds.

Through mindfulness of the breath and body we can develop the Five Jhana Factors, leading to deeper states of absorption.

The mind of a Buddha is at peace because of the absence of reactivity. Can we discover that place of rest in our own minds? Mindfulness of vedana, the feeling tone of experience, exposes the ways we try to control our experiences from our likes and dislikes. What does it mean to open to the way things are?

Mindfulness of Senses in the Body

Through mindfulness of breathing we can develop a deeply unified mind, heart and body. The beauty of the breath takes us into meditative absorptions, heals the mind and body, and opens insight and full liberation beyond the patterns of suffering.

Mindfulness of the Body. 32 parts of the Body. Death can come at any moment.

These two classes cover the basic instructions for Buddhist mindfulness (vipassana or insight) meditation. The first class explores the attitude we bring to meditation that makes it rewarding, and the training that helps us in "coming back" from thoughts. The second class guides us in "being here," in cultivating a mindful awareness that recognizes and accepts what is happening in the present moment. Both classes include guided meditations and valuable reminders that can support you in developing a rich meditation practice.

Mindfulness can alter the conditions supporting the moment by moment creation of suffering by: 1. Changing WHAT the mind processes; 2. Changing HOW the mind processes; and 3. Changing the VIEW of what the mind processes.

The Buddha describes the dialogue between mindfulness and wise effort in the face of intractable patterns.

To be able to enter deeply into relationship, it is necessary to be able both to forgive and to assert yourself skillfully. Forgiveness and assertiveness support each other. Forgiveness clears out ill will so you can assert yourself with compassion and Wise Speech. Self-assertion takes care of your own needs so forgiveness can emerge without the sense that you are a doormat. This experiential workshop will get into the nitty-gritty of how to bring the Buddha’s profound teachings on interrelatedness, lovingkindness, and virtue (sila) into the messy real world of relationships with family members, lovers, friends, bosses, and co-workers. This workshop - led by a world renowned expert on forgiveness, and by an experienced couples and family therapist and meditation teacher - will offer user-friendly information with lots of practical methods. We'll cover: -- The Buddha’s teachings on non-harming, wise speech, compassion and kindness, and releasing ill will -- as well as his teachings on self-care, respecting your own needs, and looking out for your own happiness -- The primacy of relationships in evolution, and the deep capacities for both loving altruism and fearful aggression -- The neural machinery of emotional reactivity and developing grievances with others -- Why forgiveness and assertiveness are both important -- The foundation of basic mindfulness, precepts, Wise Speech, compassion for oneself and others, and emotional self-care -- Forgiveness practices -- Assertiveness practices There will be some voluntary paired activities as well as time for questions and discussion. While the teachings are appropriate for use in health care professions, no background with psychology or meditation is needed. Also please know that this workshop is not psychotherapy or any substitute for professional care.

This talk also includes John Teasdale and Jenny Wilks. This is the introductory talk for a retreat that is particularly relevant to those teaching or training in mindfulness-based applications. The retreat explores the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, as taught in the Satipatthana discourse given by the Buddha.

These two classes cover the basic instructions for Buddhist mindfulness (vipassana or insight) meditation. The first class explores the attitude we bring to meditation that makes it rewarding, and the training that helps us in "coming back" from thoughts. The second class guides us in "being here," in cultivating a mindful awareness that recognizes and accepts what is happening in the present moment. Both classes include guided meditations and valuable reminders that can support you in developing a rich meditation practice.