Discusses mindfulness and understanding of hindrances as doorways to freedom

Dharma Talk

Viriya is a quality of mind that is an essential aspect of our path; frequently mentioned by the Buddha. Often translated as “effort” we can easily confuse this quality with one of striving or “efforting” which leads to suffering. Viriya: patient courage supports mindfulness and wisdom.

Ways to use mindfulness to help with depression.

The Buddha said that we continue to live in hostility, with confusion, because we hold onto preferences. Mindfulness practice helps us recognize and trust that awareness has no preferences

How to work with the three fundamental attitudes or habitual tendencies of mind that obscure our ability to be present and how the mindfulness ultimately reveals and liberates these forces so we can abide more in the peace of our true nature.

Unlike the three Western monotheistic religions, Buddhism is not a religion of the book. Rather, Buddhism is based on the Buddha’s enlightened experience. More specifically, among other things, the Buddha was an early scientist. He said that if you reproduce his experiment by cultivating the Eightfold Path, your can replicate the same enlightenment result in yourself. There is no need for any beliefs, cosmology, dogma or creed. Indeed, all sentient beings are endowed by the luminous Buddha nature. The Buddha merely serves as a mirror for us to see our own enlightened nature. However, this means that we need to have the wisdom to see our true nature as it really is. This wisdom is described as the “right view” in the first step of the Eightfold Path. The problem is how can we see things as they really are when our attention is so scattered and our view is so obscured by poisons such as greed, hatred, delusion, pride and jealousy? The answer is through mindful awareness. Indeed, mindful awareness is something that we can learn even the first time we meditate. Eventually, we can reach a state of effortless awareness. This clear seeing allows our mindfulness to create some space between the stimulus and our response. Instead of knee-jerk, blind response, our mind has more time to choose a more skillful, intelligent response, thus, leading to more freedom and proactivity.

Class

An overview of the Eight Fold Path with emphasis on the ways we practice it on meditation retreats and with a special focus on effort and mindfulness.

Mindfulness or awareness is the foundation for development of seclusion, liberating insight and peace of mind. The distractions in practice makes the difference.

In the path of liberating our hearts we learn to be intimate with all things. This talk focuses upon the power of aversion to create alienation and division and the power of mindfulness to uproot ill will.

We explore in general the Seven Factors as a guide to our practice and as an experience of awakened being and presence. We examine each of the seven: mindfulness, investigation, effort, rapture or joy, stillness, concentration and equanimity, with suggestions of what to do to cultivate each quality.

We continue exploring the nature and methods of inquiry, the freshness, openness, interest and energy it can bring to practice. We explore (1) mindfulness – based inquiry, (2) deep listening, (3) working with teachings (here particularly the Four Noble Truths and Precepts), (4) radical questions and (5) deconstructing fixed beliefs, with more time on numbers 3 – 5.

Sometimes mindfulness of the body is neglected for more exalted meditation experiences. However, the first foundation of mindfulness points to the importance of grounding in the body as a central support for presence and connection to our experience, which allows for a deeper investigation into the nature of things.

Dharma Talk

In this second talk on inquiry, we review some of the material from last time, including the Kalama Sutta, inquiry as a factor of awakening, and the inquiry methods of (1) mindfulness, (2) deep listening and (3) working with teachings to help inquiry. Then we explore (4) radical questions and (5) deconstruction of fixed beliefs.