Teja guides the process of connecting with Integrating Embodied Mindfulness as essential to Dharma and meditation practice.

Our healing and freedom unfolds as we bring radical acceptance – a mindful, allowing presence – to our moments. This interview looks at how we wake up out of the stories that keep us in fear and self-doubt and discover a true intimacy with ourselves and our world.

As the path unfolds, mindfulness and concentration lead naturally to the development of wisdom. Wisdom understands the difference between what is skillful and unskillful, perceives things as they are and knows suffering and its end.

Our practice aims at awakening (and awakened beings help others awaken). We review briefly the nature of awakening for the Buddha and later Buddhist traditions, and the centrality of the teaching of the Seven Factors of Awakening. We then explore the two foundational factors--mindfulness and equanimity--identifying their core qualities, as well as how to practice to cultivate each of these factors, both in formal meditation and in the movement of daily life. There is a talk and then discussion.

Four Brahma Vihara as a support to developing mindfulness and wisdom. A talk given to students of the Mahachula International Buddhist College Nov 29, 2021.

00:12 Dispassion; 03:45 How do dispassion, disengagement and relinquishment reconcile with activism; 12:39 Body time versus clock time; 15:23 How should I teach mindfulness of breathing; 17:42 Joy and poignant sadness; 19:38 What is one then to be sensitive to in the third stage of the feeling tetrad; 25:55 Could you say that the citta is the deathless?

Your intimate environment is not about time, it’s about kamma. Enter into this embodied world with patience, resolution, goodwill and mindfulness, holding it steadily. There’s an aware intelligence that gets stronger and wiser when you can let go of the stories; it will work for your welfare.

00:35 How to work with painful memories; 08:33 Difference between pīti and sukha; 11:06 Style and benefits of your QiGong; 15:51 Awareness of bodily energies and sensations; 23:27 Feeling body from the inside vs. outside; 25:40 Which practices are precursors of satipaṭṭhāna practices; 27:43 How to shift from (uncomfortable) sensation to energy; 30:51 Reflective capacity of citta; 34:51 Mindfulness with pleasant but faint sensation; 36:57 Drowsiness with samādhi.

An overview of the Ānāpānasati Sutta, the first three tetrads having to do with samatha – steadying and opening the energies of body and – and the fourth having to do with vipassana – onlooking, contemplating what samatha brings to light. Right view, right attitude, right mindfulness are the guiding factors.

Like the waves of the ocean, the breath rises and falls. Bring loving awareness to the breath. Shift your attention from the breath to all the sensations in your body. With mindful loving awareness, notice the whole field of sensations. If there are areas of pain or stiffness, bow to them and hold them with kindness. Hold them as you would a child who is going through a hard time. Notice how this kind loving awareness allows for the tension and knots to soften in their own way. Now as an expression of gratitude, say thank you to your own body for caring so much, for holding so much as you move through the days and nights. Tell your body, “I’m ok just now—you can relax. You can rest.” Now bring your attention to your heart that carries so much. Notice all that your heart has been holding: longings, fear, love, worry, frustration, excitement, sadness, appreciation, doubt, deep love. Say thank you to your heart for caring so much, for trying to help and protect you. Tell your heart, “I’m ok just now—you can relax. You can rest.” Let your heart be at ease. Now bring your attention to your mind that produces a stream of thoughts, images, pictures, plans, memories, ideas. Feel the energy of the mind, creative, sometimes obsessed, analyzing, exploring, opening. Say thank you for working so hard to take care of you, to protect you. Tell your mind, “I’m ok just now—you can relax. You can rest.” Notice that you’re not your body, feelings, thoughts. You are the loving witness, you are consciousness itself. You are the loving awareness that acknowledges the body, heart and mind. Relax into loving awareness. You are the silent, vast witness to it all.

This talk addresses in broad terms the first foundation of mindfulness. The main points include recognizing our innate wisdom and slowing down to listen to it.

First Day. Overview of Path: Sila (Virtuous Restraint), Samadhi (Collectedness), Panna (Wisdom). Patience and kindness in cultivating mindfulness of breathing. Buddho - Sacred word and moderating thought.

Using mindfulness as a basis for the cultivation of meta (loving kindness0, karuna (compassion), and mudita (appreciation)

When we meditate, we are alone and yet with all the world. Thoughts intrude from all sides. But we land softly, secluded within, protected, serene. Gently we open the door to the heart with unassailable trust. We bend and bow silently, observing the breath with an empty mind. Then what’s the result of that? Giving our full attention to this moment, we are absolutely present, feeling every nuance of the ground beneath us or the pressure of each breath. Mindfulness deepens our awareness. Now we truly know the boundless peace of the mind's radiance.

A short reflection of mindfulness of mind - the third establishment of mindfulness

Only when we face our fears can we discover the freedom to love without holding back. This talk looks at how unprocessed fear contracts our body, heart and mind, and on a societal level is the cause of othering and violence. We then explore how arousing mindfulness, compassion and prayer can enlarge our basic sense of Being. As we deepen attention to the nature of awareness, we discover a refuge that is timeless…a refuge that is our true home.

Structures can be helpful, but they only get you so far and then you have to trust something more deeply felt – mindfulness internally and externally, conscience and concern. That’s the ultimate system. The qualities of this spiritual intelligence then blend into something affirmative and potent. We can begin to relax who we think we are, focus instead on these spiritual qualities that merge into the deathless, and allow the unbinding of that fixation of self.

In this guided meditation, Shaila Catherine leads you through the first step of Anapanasati, also known as mindfulness with breathing. This first step is a great way to settle yourself during a meditation session, or out in the world.