Meditation can empower us as we learn to access our potential for stability, strength and openness. This meditation calls on the image of a mountain as we awaken our body and mind to a full, vibrant presence. Closes with a metta (loving-kindness) prayer.
Bhante Sujato on meditation – "citta bhāvanā" – leading towards independence, responsibility, wisdom – "khema", safety, a sanctuary. Breath meditation guided by Bhante Sujato. Bhante Akāliko on how to deal with those parts of us we don't like. Q+A: two different meanings of 'paṭigha'. Vipassana. Pain in meditation. Awareness conditioned by hindrances, or their absence. Puthujjana.
This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings.
Breath meditation guided by Bhante Akāliko. Upakkilesa Sutta: how to hold a bird. Dhamma talk by Bhante Sujato on the meaning of the Pali chanting at the beginning of each Friday session.
When we are stressed, our conditioning is to tighten our body. We tense against our moment-to-moment experience. This meditation is a powerful practice of de-conditioning this reactivity by learning to relax back into presence, and to respond to difficulty by saying “yes.” Through relaxing back and saying “yes,” we discover our heart’s capacity for unconditional love.
We start with the intention to cultivate awakened qualities, then have a period of settling, followed by opening up experience and particularly noticing any reactivity (habitual grasping and pushing away) and awakened qualities, such as mindfulness, concentration, equanimity, joy, etc.
Beginning by settling the body, before orienting to compassion for a good friend, then extending that compassion to oneself, closing with compassion for all beings
Breath meditation guided by Bhante Sujato. Simile of the cops chasing kids in stolen cars. Dhamma talk by Bhante Akāliko: how to listen to the Dhamma, and its benefits (Dhammassavana Sutta, AN 5.202). Q+A: Bhante Sujato on today's epistemological crisis.
