PLEASE NOTE: 'The Mirrored Gates' is a set of talks (recorded by Rob from his home) attempting to clarify, elaborate on, and open up further the concepts, practices, and possibilities explained in previous talks on imaginal practice. Some working familiarity with those previous teachings will provide a helpful foundation for this new set; but a good understanding of and experiential facility with practices of emptiness, samatha, the emotional/energy body, metta, and mindfulness is necessary and presumed, without which these new teachings may be confusing and difficult to comprehend.

Shaila Catherine discusses the importance of developing mindfulness of emotions and mental states. Human beings have the capacity to experience a wide range of emotions—they may be subtle or intense, unwholesome or wholesome. Working with emotions requires energy and courage to be willing to face the raw fact that this mental state is present. We can become aware of, and work skillfully with, any emotional state including anger, hate, gratitude, fear, sadness, calmness, insecurity, contentment, grief, tranquility, lust, compassion, loneliness, jealousy, envy, restlessness, peacefulness, faith, love. Emotions are changing mental states that arise in conjunction with every perception. When we are mindful of emotions we drop the conceptual narrative of the story line and investigate how the mind operates. What conditions nourish each mental state, and what conditions cause them to end? How do these mental states affect the clarity of our perception? We can observe the dynamic interaction of emotions and the body, and learn to work with emotions in conjunction with their somatic manifestations. We might gather ideas for investigation by reviewing the detailed Abhidhamma categories of mental states and the factors that constitute each state, or we might simply observe the arising and ceasing of mental states in activity and our meditation.

PLEASE NOTE: 'The Mirrored Gates' is a set of talks (recorded by Rob from his home) attempting to clarify, elaborate on, and open up further the concepts, practices, and possibilities explained in previous talks on imaginal practice. Some working familiarity with those previous teachings will provide a helpful foundation for this new set; but a good understanding of and experiential facility with practices of emptiness, samatha, the emotional/energy body, metta, and mindfulness is necessary and presumed, without which these new teachings may be confusing and difficult to comprehend.

PLEASE NOTE: 'The Mirrored Gates' is a set of talks (recorded by Rob from his home) attempting to clarify, elaborate on, and open up further the concepts, practices, and possibilities explained in previous talks on imaginal practice. Some working familiarity with those previous teachings will provide a helpful foundation for this new set; but a good understanding of and experiential facility with practices of emptiness, samatha, the emotional/energy body, metta, and mindfulness is necessary and presumed, without which these new teachings may be confusing and difficult to comprehend.

PLEASE NOTE: 'The Mirrored Gates' is a set of talks (recorded by Rob from his home) attempting to clarify, elaborate on, and open up further the concepts, practices, and possibilities explained in previous talks on imaginal practice. Some working familiarity with those previous teachings will provide a helpful foundation for this new set; but a good understanding of and experiential facility with practices of emptiness, samatha, the emotional/energy body, metta, and mindfulness is necessary and presumed, without which these new teachings may be confusing and difficult to comprehend.

PLEASE NOTE: 'The Mirrored Gates' is a set of talks (recorded by Rob from his home) attempting to clarify, elaborate on, and open up further the concepts, practices, and possibilities explained in previous talks on imaginal practice. Some working familiarity with those previous teachings will provide a helpful foundation for this new set; but a good understanding of and experiential facility with practices of emptiness, samatha, the emotional/energy body, metta, and mindfulness is necessary and presumed, without which these new teachings may be confusing and difficult to comprehend.

This talk distinquishes Sati and Sampajanna.

PLEASE NOTE: 'The Mirrored Gates' is a set of talks (recorded by Rob from his home) attempting to clarify, elaborate on, and open up further the concepts, practices, and possibilities explained in previous talks on imaginal practice. Some working familiarity with those previous teachings will provide a helpful foundation for this new set; but a good understanding of and experiential facility with practices of emptiness, samatha, the emotional/energy body, metta, and mindfulness is necessary and presumed, without which these new teachings may be confusing and difficult to comprehend.

Shaila Catherine offers this 20-minute teaching on impermanence and not-clinging in the mode of guided meditation instructions. We practice being unattached to pleasant and unpleasant feelings and releasing all clinging connected with sensual desire or aversion. To cultivate non-clinging, first notice the experience of clinging, perhaps by observing physical tightness, mental contraction, or a sense of separation. As you become mindful of the changing nature of experiences, allow yourself to deeply accept this fact of impermanence. Allow experiences to arise and be known, and also let them end.

While fear is a natural and intelligent emotion, when fear goes on overdrive, we are in a trance of fear that contracts our body, heart and mind. Our resistance to the direct experience of fear sustains the trance and leads to decisions and behaviors that harm ourselves and others. Only by facing fear with mindfulness and compassion can we awaken from trance and reconnect with our capacity for creativity and full aliveness, wisdom and love.

An exploration of the 3rd Establishment of Mindfulness.

TBD

Mindfulness is one particular aspect of awareness that is shining through us all the time. As we tune into awareness, we connect with a spacious perspective that counteracts the solidification of a small separate self and opens us to connection with all things and true freedom.

The hindrances are part of the inner landscape on the journey to wholeness and awakening. When we recognize them with mindfulness, they don't need to be a problem.

Our breath can be a home base that allows us to meet life with a relaxed, wakeful presence. This meditation helps us calm and settle the mind with long deep breathing, and then establishes a mindful presence with our natural breathing. When distracted, we learn to relax back again and again, learning the pathway of homecoming to the aliveness, openness and mystery that is always Here.

While fear is a natural and intelligent emotion, when fear goes on overdrive, we are in a trance of fear that contracts our body, heart and mind. Our resistance to the direct experience of fear sustains the trance and leads to decisions and behaviors that harm ourselves and others. Only by facing fear with mindfulness and compassion can we awaken from trance and reconnect with our capacity for creativity and full aliveness, wisdom and love.

Back to basics: What is mindfulness? How does it function? And how much mindfulness do we need to practice?

Unification of Body, mind, and Heart. The functions of Samadhi. The Buddha's 4 guidelines on mindfulness of the breath: The long breath, the short breath, experiencing the whole body, and calming the body as you breathe in and out.

This talk offers some reflections on mindfulness of the body and its intersection with embodiment.

The primary qualities of a healing and freeing presence are being alert, open and tender. This meditation arouses these qualities by engaging a mindful awareness of the breath, and then a relaxed, gentle attentiveness to the changing experience of the moment. It ends by bringing lovingkindness to ourselves and all beings.

Using inspiration techniques and exercises developed by Joanna Macy, along with guided mindfulness meditation, we will explore the many ways we are connected to each other and to the life of the planet.

This talk introduces the practice of opening to and meditating upon the chanting of the Satipatthana Sutta, the discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. It utilizes the chanting of Ven. Dr. Omalpe Sobhita Thero.

Morning Instructions: Mindfulness of Thoughts

The two aspects of mindfulness, general comprehension and bare attention. General comprehension understands our purpose, the refuge of why we are being attentive contextualizes our attention and knowing with wisdom and caring.

Anger is natural, intelligent and necessary for surviving and flourishing. Yet when we are hooked by anger, it causes great personal and collective suffering. This talk explores how to transform patterns of reactivity by bringing a mindful and compassionate attention to the unmet needs that underlie angry reactivity. When we learn how to pause and connect honestly with our inner experience, we are then able to respond to others from our full intelligence and heart. “Getting angry with another person is like throwing hot coals with bare hands: both people get burned.” Buddha

Through the practice of mindfulness and wisdom, we can begin to understand the gratification, danger and escape in case of sensual pleasure.

Shaila Catherine concluded our lecture series on the Great Disciples, with a talk about the Venerable Mahakaccana. He was a monk famous for explaining difficult and perplexing teachings. The Buddha sometimes gave brief teachings that left the listeners confused. Sometimes the disciples did not ask the Buddha questions to clarify their doubt. Instead they sought out another monk to elucidate the matter and explain the detailed meaning. The Pali Canon preserves several insightful discourses in which initial enigmatic teachings by the Buddha are systematically explained by Venerable Mahakaccana. He addresses profound topics including the construction of I-making and mine-making, craving, conceit, views, mindfulness of sense perceptions, obsession with thoughts of past and future, and overcoming desire and lust. His methods of exposition became the basis of early commentary, and Mahakaccana became known as the first Buddhist commentator.

Here and now, how the deepening levels of Mindfulness and Loving Awareness can free the heart and mind.

Meeting our defenses with mindfulness and understanding can help us to let go of difficult emotions and attain peace, happiness, and freedom.

The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (usually translated as the Foundations of Mindfulness) offers a complete description of the practice of mindfulness, beginning with the direct awareness of the breath and the body, progressing through mindfulness of vedana or feeling tone, to the more subtle object of the Third Foundation, mindfulness of mind states. The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness represents the culmination of this series of practices, and can be seen as a direct pointing, again and again, to the possibility of freedom through direct awareness of where we get caught, and how to turn the mind towards liberation. This talk is an overview of the practices of the Fourth Foundation, which can be seen as both the last in the sequence of practices, and as a progression in itself. It also covers how the Fourth Foundation can be skillfully interwoven into our practice of the other foundations.

The Buddha has much to say about wise speech as a cause for living with integrity and building wholesome community, and as a direct opening to what the Buddha calls the bliss of blamelessness. In this workshop we will look at the Buddha’s teachings on wise speech in terms of all the relationships we navigate in our lives. We will explore the radical question, what does speech look like when it is not being motivated by greed, anger or delusion? The Living the Practice Workshop Series is designed for people who have an ongoing mindfulness practice and want to integrate the practice more thoroughly into all aspects of life.

Understanding our defensiveness and how to mindfully work with difficult emotions - can lead to freedom.

In the third foundation of mindfulness, the Buddha instructs us to bring awareness and clear seeing to the contents of the mind. In a nonjudgmental way, we are invited to be aware of whether the mind is affected by lust, ill will or delusion, and also when the mind is not affected by these states. Included in this practice are various experiences of concentration, expansion, and contraction in the mind. The section ends by including awareness of the liberated mind, even if this is only a temporary experience. The thrust of this section is to notice both the wholesome and the unwholesome qualities of the mind and by that very noticing increase the wholesome and decrease the unwholesome.

Combination of the core guidelines for Wise Speech offered by Buddhist Tradition, as well as the contemporary discipline of Nonviolent Communication. Part 2 of 2 (afternoon)

Combination of the core guidelines for Wise Speech offered by Buddhist Tradition, as well as the contemporary discipline of Nonviolent Communication. Part 1 of 2 (morning)

Great is the matter of Birth-and-Death. Life passed swiftly and is quickly lost Awaken! Awaken! Do not waste your life... Exploring mindfulness of death in Theravada Practice. Looking at the reality of human death in the world today and at the time of the Buddha. The paradox and potential of opening to the reality of death as part of life and Buddhist practice.

Continuation of the last talk: using intention, mindfulness, difficulties, and gratitude as supports to greater well being in practice.

In this meditation instruction Shaila Catherine shares a Discourse of the Buddha (AN 3:101) in which he employs the simile of a goldsmith to teach skillful ways to deepen concentration. From time to time meditators adjust the quality of attention to periodically increase calmness, intensify energetic effort, or observe with a relaxed and non-interfering quality of mindfulness. This meditation instruction offers practical meditation skills for strengthening concentration.

Vedana, or the feeling tone of pleasant, unpleasant or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant that arises with each sense contact, was considered important enough by the Buddha to be a foundation of mindfulness, one of the five aggregates, and central to the teaching on dependent origination. It is also at the heart of the Dart Sutta in the Samyutta Nikaya, where the Buddha talks about the two common responses to suffering: to bemoan and lament the fact that suffering is happening, but often to try to avoid the unpleasant by chasing after the pleasant. This talk looks at these different teachings to help us understand the importance of bringing mindfulness to vedana in our practice and in our lives.