How does clear mindfulness of the body and mind lead to insight and liberation?

As we practice mettā meditation we will have waves where the practice feels easy, intuitive and validating; and we will all have waves where we struggle. There are five very common states which visit us in meditation practice called the "five hindrances". These are commonly named in English as craving, aversion, dullness, restlessness, and doubt. For steady mettā practice our first response to these challenges is to practice more carefully with patience determination. The second response is to offer ourselves kindness and compassion during challenging times. For mettā meditation and for the other three brahmaviharas, our third response to challenging times is to turn wakefully towards the qualities of the challenge and see them as only temporary conditions. We can greatly reduce the experience of suffering in the hindrances when we have mindful experience of them.

What it is and isn't. How it works. How it works with other path factors. How to cultivate it. The role it plays in liberation.

Incessant thinking is like a vehicle whose wheels have left the ground. Presence can be anchored by mindfulness of the body; this allows the heart safety from agitation and reduces addictive longing for sense stimulation.

meditation on mindfulness of breathing. Bhante's trip to Sri Lanka. Q+A: Buddhist view on the body. Spiritual sadness (nirāmisa domanassa). Buddhist view on the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Facts about first bhikkhuni ordination at Ajahn Brahm's monastery. Meditation and difficult emotions.

Rest in the reality of the present with mindful, loving awareness. Sit like a Buddha, steady and kind, with heart open, gracious and wise in the midst of it all. You are the loving witness; you are the steady one.

In India, when people greet one another they put their palms together and bow, saying namaste, “I honor the divine within you.” It is a way of acknowledging your Buddha nature, who you really are. When I was training as a Buddhist monk, I witnessed an aura of straightforwardness, graciousness, and trust around my teacher Ajahn Chah. Here was a community dedicated to treating each person with respect and dignity. In the monastery, the walking paths were swept daily, the robes and bowls of the monks were tended with care. We learned to value ourselves and others equally. Whether practiced in a forest monastery or anywhere else, mindfulness practice begins by deliberately cultivating respect, starting with ourselves. When we learn to rest in our own goodness, we can see the goodness more clearly in others.

Mindfulness of mind states.

Similes of mindfulness.

The five indriya are intimate allies that allow for a full and profound liberation - faith, persistence, mindfulness, concentration and discernment. They are conditioned but help us to cultivate the path towards the unconditioned. (Les cinq Indriya sont des alliés intimes qui permettent une libération pleine et profonde - foi, persévérance, pleine conscience, concentration et discernement. Ils sont conditionnés mais nous aident à cultiver le chemin vers l'inconditionné. )

Anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) and the simile of the wood turner: how we relate to our meditation object.

Retreats require a commitment to the process of surfacing subtle energies through mindfulness of the body. Ajahn reviews basic sitting posture and it's utility. (Les retraites nécessitent un engagement dans le processus de faire émerger les énergies subtiles grâce à la pleine conscience du corps. Ajahn passe en revue la posture assise de base et son utilité.)

Mindfulness of thinking

The Buddha gave a teaching on five different methods he recommended to work with disturbing thoughts. When we are mindful of the thinking process it's possible to see thoughts simply as mental fabrications. However, when we get caught in them and the body gets activated, we spin out in the story and are caught in a negative emotional response. We become identified with those mental formations and can more easily get lost. When that happens, the Buddha offers these five strategies as skillful techniques to deal with the confused mind.

Brief instructions for exploring mental qualities in relational practice

Beginning by establishing mindfulness of the body and breathing, then opening to sounds and the experience of thinking

Introduction to the Third Establishment of Mindfulness, mindfulness of mind

Exploring how feeling-tone conditions reactivity when there's no mindfulness, and how mindfulness gives us a choice about how we respond

Bringing a relaxed approach to practising mindfulness of breathing, noticing the subtle energising quality of the in-breath and the relaxing aspect of the out-breath

Exploring mindfulness of breathing with a relaxed and receptive approach, to help strengthen sati / mindfulness and samādhi / stability of mind

Mindfulness of breathing has been the most widespread meditation in Buddhism since its beginning. It is included within mindfulness of the body and offers specific benefits as well. The talk also describes some of the obstacles practitioners may encounter with this technique.

Since so many of us struggle with self-judgment, what practices and tools will help us find more self-compassion and cultivate more joy? In this talk we explore the roots of self-judgment, and the ways in which mindfulness, loving kindness, and the recognition of our shared humanity and inner goodness can work together to alleviate the critical mind and promote joy and resilience.

This first day instructions guides students who are just starting out with their practice. We learn to find our meditation anchor and work with distraction.

Developing facility with the indriya – faith, energy, mindfulness, collectedness and discernment – supports awareness of skilful states flowing and fulfilling themselves within a mindful embodiment.

Self massage helps body awareness arise. With mental intention, alternately directing and releasing activation energy around the body, we increase connectivity and provide a broad basis for mindfulness.

We start by acknowledging the mass shooting in Texas that occurred yesterday, in the context of our practicing with fear, following up an earlier guided meditation and sharing (not recorded) related to the shooting. We then look generally at the three core ways of practicing with fear, going into some depth on each: (1) cultivating mindfulness and clear seeing (wisdom), (2) working with the heart practices, and (3) acting skillfully. We then focus on how the process of awakening typically involves at each new stage an opening to fear, and also mention some of the dynamics of the "Dark Night of the Soul." Lastly, we look at how to explore and work with fear related to our social world, in terms of the three ways of practicing with fear. There follows a period of discussion.

Hindrances can be cleared through ‘mindful direct awareness’ – sati sampajañña. Such working through what blocks the potential of citta, demands humility, since it is not one’s personal self doing the work. Body is a key and potent resource.

Sati-mindfulness, or bearing in mind – is the third indriya. It is a powerful ally for liberation. With this we come out of old habits and find freshness, meaning, potency. You feel where your strength arises.

Exploring what Awakening or Nibbāna means, then exploring some words by Thomas Hubl to explore how sangha or community can develop mindfulness, mutuality and mirroring as a support for insight

We review briefly some of what we covered in the last session (April 27) on practicing with fear. We then explore the various types of fear reported in the group, what we find bringing mindfulness to hear, particularly what's experienced in the body and in the mind, and the importance of having antidotes to fear, when the level of fear is at a high level and our usual practices are not effective. We also point to the way that as we develop and move into new areas of learning, we also often open up to new fears that are part of the new territory. We close with a period of questions and sharing.

mindfulness of breathing with particular emphasis on becoming aware of pauses and beginnings

When I first entered the monasteries in Thailand and Burma, I was taught everything is anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory), and anatta (no-self). The reason these were repeated over and over again is because if you see these, you see with the eyes of wisdom. Because everything is changing, the more you cling and hold on, the more you suffer. To free ourselves, we need to quiet the mind through some mindfulness in meditation. Then, instead of identifying with the changing conditions, we learn to release them and turn toward consciousness itself, to rest in the knowing. My teacher Ajahn Chah called this pure awareness, "the original mind," or resting in "the one who knows." As the Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “It is the truth that liberates, and not your efforts to be free.” With practice, we discover the selflessness of experience; we shift identity. We can be in the midst of an experience, being upset or angry or caught by some problem, and then step back from it and rest in pure awareness. We let go; we release holding any thought or feeling as "I" or "mine." We release the whole sense of identification, and the conditioned world is just anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory), and anatta (empty of self) -- it has nothing to do with our true nature. We learn to trust pure awareness itself. This is one of the ways Ajahn Chah taught about liberation. Awakening is always here and now. Practicing this way, your life is transformed.

How the nothing of feelings becomes the something of objects and further exploration of the third and fourth foundations. Plus a guided meditation on the third foundation

These two ancient sutras fuse seamlessly together/explore how the body (form) becomes formless when we don't infuse the body with knowledge or remembrance

How something becomes nothing with the release of knowledge and remembrance.

After a brief review of last week's exploration of the relationship of Buddhist practice to Passover, Easter, and Ramadan, we explore a theme that is part of those holidays, and central to our practice--how we work with fear and anxiety. We look at the centrality of such practice, and the different types of fear, distinguishing the unskillful aspects (such as confusion, reactivity, and the continual repetition of negative narratives) from the at times skillful aspects (such as recognizing danger). We then suggest ways of bringing mindfulness to fear, as well as ways of understanding and responding to fear.

Fully established mindfulness that is aligned with the dharma allows the mind to become so still that an intuitive felt sense of awareness can arises that knows it knows awareness is like this...

From Harris Park. Meditation on mindfulness of the breath. Dhamma talk about Mahasi techniques e.g. noting, where to watch the breath, influence of Japan in early twentieth century Buddhism, Satipattana Sutta parts, Mahasi and the evolution of the stages of insight.

Not an economic critique, but looking at the basic moral attitude of greed/acquisitiveness and antagonistic competition and the consequences. And the role that Mindfulness, especially Mindfulness and Stress Reduction plays.

The Buddha suggested reflecting regularly on five aspects of life called the Five Reflections (also called the Five Remembrances). This talk focuses on what he called "the most supreme of all meditations": mindfulness of death or maranasati. Although contemplation of one's death might seem unsettling or scary, when undertaken as a conscious practice it can be extremely enlivening and even liberating.

Bringing awareness to the quality of mindfulness itself, and as needed, infusing it with kindness, compassion, appreciation or equanimity

Instructions about mindfulness of emotions and difficult mind states.