What is Metta? Introduction to self and benefactor

Much of our meditation practice in the west has been focused on individual practice, in silence and often solitude. While there are many traditional Buddhist resources for taking relational, communicative interactions as practice, there is also a need for developing forms to deepen such practice. We identify the Buddhist resources for this practice and offer some beginning exercises.

When practicing meditation we can observe different sensations in the body, feelings, states of mind, and mind objects. They are as they are – and we need to recognize and understand that.

Making your meditation, your heart and your life a sanctuary.

Our life experience is shaped by the stories we tell ourselves and the underlying belief that "something is wrong with me." Meditation allows us to recognize and release the grip of the stories that confine our sense of wholeness, peace and inner freedom.

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.

Deepening our understanding of impermanence with implications for our meditation practice and our lives.

After an overview of the Bodhisattva path, and of the perfections of vow – intention, patience, and meditations, we look at the perfections of wisdom and skillful action. We end with an experiential exercise designed to a different situation.

In this second session, we first review the path of the Bodhisattva, exploring both the Theravada and Mahayara roots and the qualities (paramis, paramites) developed. We focus on vow – intentions, patience, and meditation, looking at how to make the Bodhisattva training real in our daily lives.

This Talk is an overview of the meditative path. It includes working with pleasant and unpleasant sensations in thoughts, emotions and awareness itself

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.

Our meditation practice encourages letting go of what is familiar and secure to allow a deeper intimacy with the way things are. As we do this, we open the door to love, trust and the mystery of the unknown.

A guided meditation leading to an exploration of the first foundation of mindfulness. Questions addressed include: why focus on the body and how the body relates to the other foundations.

What activates the desires and fears we have when we come into contact with another? Meditation is about seeing things as they actually are, the operation of the heartmind intra and interpersonally. The mind will then incline towards what is wise. The heart is moved by contact with another. However there is pressure/tendencies of the mind to move into agitation and confusion on contact with others. What activates the fears and desires of interpersonal interaction? Hunger (tanha) pressurises thoughts and feelings so that the mind doesn't settle. It is like fuel or an electric current for the system (personality) that is in place. All thoughts/actions/speech are conditioned by past habits and occurrences (sankhara conditions namarupa). Hunger/craving fuels/energises the system to generate more constructs along the same lines as previous ones. (These can be wise or unwise habits) There are three hungers: 1) Hunger for sense desires which includes social desires as well e.g. avoidance of loneliness which is like a death of the self. it might be seeking pleasure from others, seeking approval from parents, or in a Buddhist rebirth sense of driving from life to life. 2) Hunger to be seen, to become. 3) Hunger not to be seen e.g. interacting whilst performing a role, wearing a mask so the 'real you' is hidden, limiting contact with people, or having contact defined procedurally so it is blinkered - again a form of 'hiding'.

Dharma Talk