The contents of the mind become the preoccupation, but there’s another reference point – the framework. Mindfulness is this frame. Don’t go into the content. Bear with the turbulences of mind within the frame of sympathetic awareness and just know, this the heart affected by feeling.

This talk explores different aspects of mindfulness and qualities that support it as well as offers encouragement on the first day of the retreat.

Samatha and vipassanā; dullness and hindrances; samādhi for lay people; witnessing cruelty; awareness and mindfulness

Chant followed by guided meditation

Skin, flesh, and bones body scan.

How Mindfulness Transforms Suffering with what we view, how we view it and in what view.

An appropriate topic for this time of year. Many subthemes fall under this theme, such as how to be mindful of abundance and scarcity, feeling connected with others, and the nourishment of renunciation.

Wisdom is a natural feature of the mind. With its cultivation comes the ability to discern skillful from unskillful. But just knowing things are unskillful doesn’t stop the mind from doing it, we have to develop skillful means. We use mindfulness to be able to see through ignorance and stand back from the unskillful pulls of mind.

Modern modes of attention, information and meaning-making cut us off from our natural intelligence. Mindfulness of body and breathing puts us back in touch with the tonality, naturalness and rhythm of embodied intelligence. We use this way of meditation to re-educate us.

Settling in the first foundation of mindfulness using breath, body and sound

Following last week’s initial inquiry into our experience of time, and, for many, a week of practice related to time, we explore (1) further aspects of the nature of the ordinary conditioning related to the experience of time, bringing some of our own findings as well as material from philosophy, physics, and psychology; (2) some further material on how the Buddha and other awakened beings teach about time and the timeless; and (3) several main practices that help us to explore and transform our conditioning related to time, including developing mindfulness in the moment, opening to “flow” states, and exploring impermanence.

Guidance generally on mindfulness practice, followed by guidance on several ways to explore time, including being in the present moment, noticing patterns to time, and opening in different ways to the impermanence of experience.

In this talk, Shaila Catherine suggests that everyone is responsible for their own state of balance. She explores several practical areas for cultivating a balanced approach to practice including: aligning the body posture with the force of gravity, recognizing how mindfulness brings a balanced relationship to sensory experiences, and cultivating a non-reactive attitude toward both pleasant and unpleasant feelings. We learn to quickly restore our emotional balance whenever we find ourselves entangled in stories or personal dramas. We refine our ability to apply balanced effort in the way that we engage with meditation. And we continuously refine the powerful balance in the meditating mind by perceiving how the five spiritual faculties and the seven awakening factors are affecting our attention and understanding.

Whatever we incline our minds toward will affect us. Where do I want to give my attention? Where do I want to commit my time? These are helpful reflections. The mind is our home. Practicing with themes of restraint, mindfulness and careful attention, we have a chance to brighten and purify it.

This talk discusses how to practice mindfulness externally as a participant in the world. Buddhist principles for social engagement are reviewed

Turning point in the Buddha's life. Reflections on mindfulness of breathing. Supports of samadhi. The great return, discovering the treasures of the heart.

In past weeks I've been pulling inspiration from the Satipatthana Sutta, the foundational teachings on mindfulness. I've been linking them to some of it's underpinning truths of change, impermanence, suffering, and freedom from it. I'd like to continue on this thread for tomorrow's talk and bring in the third foundation, the foundation of the mind.. We'll explore how, when we aren't lost in it, the mind is a fascinating subject for our attention. When we understand our mind more fully, we can more fully understand who we are. We'll use this theme to understand better the truth of self and not-self.

Weekly Sunday AM guided meditation

Weekly Sunday Morning Q & A only

mindfulness of the body and how it helps us understand and navigate change

Compassion for self and others is fundamentally the same. Mindfulness, kindness, and our common humanity

Mindfulness of feelings (vedana)

This talk reviews the role continuity of practice has in strengthing mindfulness. The practice day is reviewed, with specific places of opportunity identified.

Chant followed by guided meditation

The pathway to inhabiting our full presence is including, with mindfulness all parts of experience. This guided meditation explores how we can open, without resistance to the changing flow of sensations, feelings, thoughts and sounds, and discover the boundless awareness that is our true home.

When we are stuck in blame or resentment we are in a trance – the other person becomes an unreal bad other, and our own sense of being contracts into a victimized self, an angry self, a righteous self. Using the acronym RAIN, this practice guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to our inner experience, and then to viewing the other with a more open and clear heart. By awakening from the trance of blame, we are able to respond with intelligence and care to the unmet needs that underlie all conflict.

Like dust, defilements creep into the mind and build up. We live in a dusty world, it’s not a personal failing. The normal response is to be vigilant about sweeping – sustain mindfulness. Persistence, energy, and right attitude are required.

The True Promise of Mindfulness

Born of desire are all things. Ruled by mindfulness are all things. Yielding deliverance as essence are all things. Turning the mind to the deathless.

Week 5 of a 6 week introductory course to Mindfulness Meditation. Includes 30 minute meditation followed by talk and discussion with the class.

Mindfulness of breathing, 16 steps, four tetrads, Fulfilling the four foundations of mindfulness

The mindful heart that relinquishes, withstands the impact of the world

This is a lightly guided, mostly silent meditation from the Friday night practice offered by Ajahn Karunadhammo. “Many of us approach Buddhist practice believing that the point is to learn mindfulness meditation. Yet there's so much more to understand and practice. The eight factors, or the eightfold path, allow for a complete and fully integrated program, leading toward liberation.”

Starting with chanting, this is the talk from the Friday night practice offered by Ajahn Karunadhammo. “Many of us approach Buddhist practice believing that the point is to learn mindfulness meditation. Yet there's so much more to understand and practice. The eight factors, or the eightfold path, allow for a complete and fully integrated program, leading toward liberation.”

Week 4 of a 6 week introductory course to Mindfulness Meditation. Includes 30 minute meditation followed by talk and discussion with the class.

date estimated

How mindfulness activates wholesome states of mind, including energy and concentration, that lead to full awakening.

In his new book From Suffering to Peace – The True Promise of Mindfulness Mark Coleman, author and senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, weaves together contemporary applications with mindfulness practices in use for millennia. His approach to mindfulness and meditation empowers us to engage with and transform the inevitable stress and pain of life, so we can discover genuine peace — in the body, heart, mind, and the wider world. In this evening talk, Mark will lead brief mediations and explore the aspects of his book to help practitioners, of all kinds, access and benefit from the “true promise of mindfulness”.

In his new book From Suffering to Peace – The True Promise of Mindfulness Mark Coleman, author and senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, weaves together contemporary applications with mindfulness practices in use for millennia. His approach to mindfulness and meditation empowers us to engage with and transform the inevitable stress and pain of life, so we can discover genuine peace — in the body, heart, mind, and the wider world. In this evening talk, Mark will lead brief mediations and explore the aspects of his book to help practitioners, of all kinds, access and benefit from the “true promise of mindfulness”.

Week 3 of a 6 week introductory course to Mindfulness Meditation. Includes 30 minute meditation followed by talk and discussion with the class.

Exploring trust as an element of practice, as well as the remaining faculties (energy, mindfulness, concentration & wisdom).

In our fourth exploration of how to practice with conflict, we examine four practice resources, inviting listeners to keep in mind, as we explore the resources, a conflict (whether an inner conflict, an interpersonal conflict, or a larger social conflict); conflict is understood as a difference of, or tension between, positions or values or needs. The first resource is that of the tools of our inner practice: mindfulness practice, heart practices such as compassion, lovingkindness, and forgiveness, and ways to work with difficult emotions and thoughts such as anger, fear, sadness, frustration, the judgmental mind, etc. The second resource is that of the "win-win" or "both-and" model of conflict transformation, in which the aim is to move from an "either-or" or "win-lose" framework toward the "win-win" way of meeting the underlying values or needs of both sides; at times, we may need to move away from the "win-lose" framework through "avoidance" (time outs, cease-fires, etc.) or compromise, on the way, if possible, to "win-win." The third resource is that of empathy, taken as a practice central to working with conflicts of any kind. The fourth resource is that of working with attachments to fixed views that typically arise in conflict situations of any kind, especially through through mindfulness, inquiry, empathy, and heart practices.