Establishing mindfulness.

How do we know when we are being mindful, and what will help us get there?

How to use the great invitation of mindfulness and loving awareness to awaken amidst all things.

Our inability to stay with unpleasant feelings causes us to dissociate and split off. Attention to breathing provides the anchor to stabilize volatile emotions and creates an agreeable abiding that paves the way towards unification (samadhi).

Accessing the gift within takes a particular kind of attention that is light and sustained, like an open hand. This is the attention that ripens into mindfulness and deepens into samadhi; from this wisdom can arise.

This daylong includes general talks on the theme of cultivating equanimity into your dharma practice. In addition to the talks and discussion, I offer the following practices with instructions that can be used to incline the mind toward equanimity (edited to remove lengthy periods of silence during the guided meditations): Practice #1 - Seeing things as they are Practice #2 - Looking through the lens of impermanence Practice #3 - Looking through the lens of vedana (feeling tone; 2nd foundation of mindfulness) Practice #4 - Equanimity with Big Mind meditation Practice #5 - Equanimty using traditional Brahma Viharas phrases