We can use the occasion of puja to cultivate signs of purity, beauty, liberation. You’ll feel it changes the rhythm of the mind – heart opens, thinking mind slows down and bodily presence wakes up. Anxieties and agitations are held in this open presence, felt in the body, and allowed to pass and dissolve.

We need to train and tame thought so we can use it carefully for inquiry and investigation. Steering away from the conceived, find out how citta is being affected. Supported by embodiment and qualities of goodwill and compassion, the tamed, trained thinking mind gives rise to insight – it’s a liberator.

The powerful COVID-19 virus teacher has brought us to the brink of widespread systems change and deep uncertainty about how things will unfold. There is a hunger for a more profound understanding of the links between ecosystem collapse and public health threats, between patterns of economic domination and racial injustice. Systems thinking and Buddhist views together offer skillful means for making sense of these interlocking calls for action.

Those who are familiar with the practice of mettā, or lovingkindness, know that it is one of four divine abidings of the heart according to the Buddha’s teachings. One way that this quality can be cultivated—as traditionally and so frequently taught—is through the recitation of phrases. However, without a deeper understanding or familiarity with the subtle expressions of mettā, or the alternate doorways into cultivating this profound and limitless quality, lovingkindness meditation can mislead us to binary thinking, as in: "I am loving and kind” or “I am not loving and kind." In our daylong together, we will explore the various doorways into cultivating mettā, as well as the spectrum in which it can come alive in our daily lives. All levels and experiences welcome.

A half-day of samatha and vipassana practice on letting go of obsessive thinking and views

Understanding the truth of impermanence supports the practice of equanimity and cultivating equanimity strengthens our understanding of impermanence. We are often conditioned to want things to be different from how they are. Whenever we find ourselves thinking that things would be better if they were different, we are in our egos or separate selves. This creates suffering. This meditation is an invitation to explore first bringing compassion to the experience of dukkha, then opening to equanimity as space and acceptance of how things are in the present moment.

The 5 indriya are known as the Dhamma protectors. The complimentary qualities of devotion and discipline balance our approach to cultivation. Recommended is collecting oneself in body which provides leverage on restraining the thinking mind. Embodied intelligence – the inner, esoteric Dhamma – can then be accessed.

The tool of wisdom cross references thinking, emotion and body. Body helps reveal the heart. Use it to sense and handle emotion. This is using embodied wisdom for the purposes of calming and revealing. It’s how you get to know the bits you don’t know.

Is citta/mindfulness always present; who is attending to the citta; where does citta’s luminosity land; eyes opened or closed in meditation; thinking during discernment; use of cooling and warming in relation to what’s arising.

Meditation is about opening up to the subjective aspect of our experience – the sense of knowing. Practice with placing attention on something very lightly, then listening with heart. Without force, without judgment, just aware of the sensations, emotion, energies, mental patterns. The quality of knowing gives rise to a tremendous immediate clarity.