The Buddha invites us to 'Live in Joy', touching its source in our own hearts. Mindfulness allows us to clearly see subtle joys and how to cultivate them: joy sustains the heart and leads to liberation. This retreat explores reliable kinds joy that are accessible in every moment, opens our eyes to unexpected sources of joy, and explore the role joy plays in temporary awakening. Knowing the doorway to this nourishment can support us in daily life, and in the challenges of our times.

Land acknowledgment, lineage honoring (homage to the ancestral roots), ancestral honoring. Precepts/taking refuge. The song Honoring, humming.

We will explore ways to engage with the precepts-as prescriptive prohibition; as compassionate inquiry; and as a description of Buddha's mind. To support San Francisco Insight Meditation Community, please go here: sfinsight.org/donate

Welcome Forming the container Brief overview Refuges and Precepts

Looking at ethical actions in terms of the five precepts, exploring the two aspects of restraint and cultivation; while exploring the impact of various feeling tones on our impulses and attitudes.

Ajahn provides a way to hold and use precepts

We start by reviewing briefly the two times' accounts of the foundations for practicing with differences and conflicts, first giving a definition of "conflict" as a difference of values, goals, or strategies, and not necessarily involving hostility or aggression. There's an invitation to focus on a conflict in one's life that is in the moderate range of difficulty, and bring this to mind as we work with ten foundations of skillful practice with conflict. We look again briefly at the multiple reasons why bringing our practice to conflicts is often difficult, and then review the more "inner" four foundations of skillful practice with conflict (1-4). We then bring in six further foundations which are more "outer," including (5) developing guidelines and agreements, especially in groups or organizations, but also with individuals; (6) clarifying a vision of a "win-win" or "both-and" approach to conflicts that meet the underlying interests or needs of all concerned; and (7) developing empathy. We offer two brief empathy practices, including one done in the context of one's own conflict. Three further foundations are offered: (8) grounding in Buddhist ethics, particularly the precepts and the understanding that one should bring care and kindness to all, and that all have Buddha Nature; (9) skillful speech (part of ethical training); and (10) the bringing of these ethical dimensions into collective life, through nonviolent action and the concept, in Dr. King's work, of the beloved community. After the talk, there is a discussion.