An incredibly important aspect of mindfulness is to direct attention to "vedana" which is the tone of every moment which is either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. This one tone of conscious experience is at the very root of all suffering and therefore all liberation from suffering.

Seeing deeper into the true nature of body while cultivating the first two awakening factors of mindfulness (sati) and inquiry (dhamma vicaya)

5 mins for chanting refuges and precepts, then a careful guided meditation on mindfulness of thought. We create a base of being mindful with the breath and body to allow us some perspective on thought as a direct stream of phenomena.

Week Three Homework: 1. Daily meditation: 15-30 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. At least 2/3 to easy being or benefactor and self, then someone neutral. Experiment with single words/short phrases or gestures to build stability/concentration Always okay to return to where it’s easy, or switch to mindfulness. 2. Micro-practice: offer pulses of kindness, privately, to strangers or neutral persons in the course of each day

With a more receptive mindfulness, we settle into tasting the truth of each moment

Guided practice of tuning into mindfulness of the body with breath as a possible anchor.

Homework for this class is: Daily meditation: 15-20 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. --At least 2/3 metta for easy being/benefactor & self. (start with easy being if it’s helpful). --Up to 1/3 mindfulness (or end with a bit of mindfulness). --If it gets challenging, return to where it’s easy. 2. Micro-practice: Stop, notice, appreciate, kindness/positive regard for self or others: Appreciation, gratitude, or inspiration as a form of mindfulness. If you don’t notice in daily life, recall/write down a few in the evening. Due to a recording error, the second mini lecture was not recorded. The topic was the Buddhist and Scientific rationales for cultivating lovingkindness for oneself. The scientific study referenced is entitled "Open Hearts Build Lives," by Barbara Fredrickson, et al. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=-0XLchUAAAAJ&citation_for_view=-0XLchUAAAAJ:geHnlv5EZngC

There is a transcendent Reality – inaccessible to the thought world – but to be known with right mindfulness and its accompanying powers of mind, patiently developed and polished day by day. These skills we learn provide tremendous traction to cultivate the mind, like gardeners watering the seeds of awakening. At the root of this uplifting spiritual training is the fundamental premise of our mortality. But are you ready to sit at the altar of the sublime and to have your illusions shattered? Like the hollow reed that becomes a flute, empty yourself of fear and be the pure love you seek.

Settling in to the body sitting, breathing, balancing the overall energy through the rhythm of breathing in and out Closing with short instructions for maintaining continuity of mindfulness

Week One Homework: 1. Daily meditation: 15-20 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. 2/3 appreciating & offering, 1/3 mindfulness (if you have practiced mindfulness) 2. Micro-practices: notice/recall feeling or offering kindness. Notice kindness between others.

Talk on the third foundation of mindfulness

After guidance in developing concentration and mindfulness, we practice in silence. Then there is guidance related to mindfulness of the feeling-tone (the Second Foundation of Mindfulness), particularly the pleasant or the unpleasant (and whether there is reactivity, grasping after the pleasant and pushing away in some way the unpleasant), related to the theme of the talk given after the meditation.

Instructions and guided practice on meditating with strong emotions - light RAIN with somatic experiencing using orienting, titrating, and pendulating.

There is tremendous power in being mindful in the midst of the hindrances

This talk centers around the mindfulness of death.

Short talk followed by a guided meditation on working with vedana in the mind. How to practice with thoughts and their machinations in the third foundation of mindfulness from the Satipatthana Sutta.

When we bring mindfulness and non-identification to difficult mind states such as the hindrances they become less of an obstacle and more of doorway to freedom.

Retreat is an occasion in which to repair, reset. In terms of life and meditation practice. In this process, mindfulness is accompanied by atapi - ardour, keeping things fresh - and various forms of clear comprehension (sampajano): to sense what is appropriate and fitting. Through referring to what arises in terms of objects one cultivates comprehension of purpose: to know objects as they are, and not self. This is comprehension in terms of non-delusion. There is also comprehension in terms of context (gocara), both internal and. external. This cultivation brings stillness in the midst of conditions, and if we keep this going results build up. Through sustaining clear comprehension one realizes an openness that is stable, alert and all-encompassing

We start with basic instructions in developing (1) concentration and stability, and (2) mindfulness, and then practice developing these two qualities. With mindfulness practice, we notice the main patterns of thoughts, emotions, and bodily experience. In the second half of the session, we work with being aware of the feeling-tone (linked with the Second Foundation of Mindfulness), noticing moderate (or somewhat greater) pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tones, and what occurs after we notice them. We also attend for a short period of two minutes to the moment-to-moment feeling tones of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, and then go back to basic mindfulness practice for the last part of the session.