Please take this week to more clearly discern the gratification & allure of sense experience and the drawbacks & limitations of sense experience. Remember, the practice is to collect honest data. The purification of view that the mind has toward sensuality does happen because we want to shift our view, rather, it happens because the data that the mind collects through being mindful overwhelms older views/beliefs about sensuality and allows for a newer, more refined, wiser view to arise in its place. One theme you might use for your small group sharing is, what if any data has this mind or heart, collected in the recent past that demonstrates the limitations and drawbacks of sense experience? Some Additional Readings for Week 4:

Shaila Catherine gave the second talk in the five-week series "Four Noble Truths." This talk explores the causes of suffering (in Pali dukkha), and explains how conditioned mental and sensory experiences are unsatisfactory and stressful. Craving causes suffering when our perceptions are accompanied by delight and lust. Practicing mindfulness reduces suffering, because when we are present we experience things as they actually are, and do not crave something different.

Mindfulness and compassionate action as they relate to our theme, "Reclaiming the Wisdom of the Mother of All Buddhas".

Though the 2nd Noble Truth points to craving as the cause of suffering, clinging – upadana – is inextricably woven into the experience of suffering. With craving we are reaching towards the object or experience, in clinging we are trying to hold onto it, and make it I, me or mine. Clinging is central to how we create a sense of self through the five aggregates, as pointed to in the first noble truth. We can bring awareness to the process of craving leading to clinging leading to the creation of a sense of self as depicted in the teaching on Dependent Origination, as it is often accompanied by physical energy we can recognize and certain types of thinking. Being mindful of this process allows us to respond wisely, decreasing or abandoning the clinging, and therefore not getting caught in the delusion of self.

When we are trying to control life, we are removed from presence, and act in ways that separate us from others and solidify the experience of being a insecure self. This talk explores our often unconscious strategies of seeking power, and the ways that mindful and compassionate awareness reconnects us to the source of true empowerment. When empowered we tap into the universal flow of love, wisdom and creativity. We are free to respond to life with “a heart that is ready for anything.”

General Instructions for Mindfulness Practice, review.

How we perceive the body from the inside and the outside, how mindfulness and compassion helps with physical and emotional pain.

To develop any skill, to fully cultivate any qualities in our lives, particularly on the Buddhist path, we need to engage with three kinds of intention that operate on different time frames. Cetana is the moment to moment intention, the urge to do, that we can bring into the field of our mindfulness practice. The next level, Adhitthana, is usually translated as resolve or determination, and is one of the paramis. The highest level is Samma Sankappa, usually translated as right or wise intention. This is the second path factor, after right view, so it is the kind of intention developed by right view. There are three kinds of Right intention - the intention towards renunciation, non-ill will, and non-harming. These skillful intentions can then inform our choices and actions (Adhitthanas) , which we keep in mind through awareness of moment to moment intentions, or cetana.

What is Mindfulness Practice? Mindfulness is the practice of opening to and accepting life just as it is - a constantly changing, conditioned process. To begin, we must make the necessary effort to calm the mind and body. Without this first step our intention to be present is often overwhelmed by our habits of reactivity and struggle - trying to fix or control the conditions of the moment. To calm the mind and body we practice connecting and sustaining our attention to ordinary experience in each moment; for example, the sensations of the breath coming and going or the sensations of lifting and placing each foot as we walk. This simple and clear patient knowing is at the heart of mindfulness practice. Tranquility arises by training the attention to return to the present moment experience over and over again. This training is directed by an understanding heart that appreciates that no matter how difficult it appears to be, our practice is to recognize what is happening and to gently return the attention to the conditions as they are in the moment. It is our persistent effort that calms the mind, energizes our practice and leads to insight. We can use ordinary experience, such as the breath, as a refuge - a place to keep coming back to. Over time, this capacity to be present becomes a great friend and allows us to relate to all experience with greater clarity, trust and acceptance. The ability to abide with the flow of experience creates the context for insight to arise. Wisdom, compassion and peace of equanimity are the fruit of these deepening insights.

Beginning Mindfulness Instructions

Cultivating self compassion and mindfulness. Bringing mind and heart together

Mindfulness is the data collection system for intuitive awareness and letting go of thinking

An exploration of how mindfulness supports creative expression and how art-making can be a mindfulness practice.

These regularly scheduled evenings will begin with a guided meditation and then open up to our practice questions allowing us time to deepen in Sangha through mindful community discussion.

We possess enough wisdom to review kamma and work through it. The process begins with noticing the effects on citta – that which makes up my subjective world – and meeting resulting feelings. Feelings that are felt, mindfully held, can be surmounted through wisdom and released.

In this retreat, you will immerse yourself in the beautiful qualities of mindfulness, investigation and insight.

Mindfulness of pain, experience and body

Understanding just what mindfulness is and how it works, as well as the attitudes that support its cultivation by learning to open to experience.

Meditation Instructions to develop the Retreat

Mindfulness and compassion meet the hindrances - recognizing, allowing, investigating with intimate attention and nourishing with compassion.

After twenty-four hours on a silent residential retreat we can already see the patterns of daily life being exposed. Too often we are lost and dominated by thought. Mindfulness practice allows us to see thought as transient experiences.

Cultivating path activity. Samadhi, inner refuge. First Foundation of Mindfulness. Putting down the burden.

Understanding mindfulness of body as a basis for liberating the mind

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.

Please Note: This series of talks is from a retreat led by Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee for experienced practitioners. The requirements for participation included some understanding of and working familiarity with practices of emptiness, samatha, metta, the emotional/energy body, and the imaginal, as well as basic mindfulness practice. Without this experience it is possible that the material and teachings from this retreat will be difficult to understand and confusing for some.