Metta is love free from dependency on connection. Love explores family, service, intimacy, nature and creativity. It is a force for change in perception.

Watch any tendency to lean into a problem or situation. Is the leaning motivated by a resistance to the situation or by a desire to push your own agenda? Are you willing to drop what you want and ask, Where is the vertical stance in this moment? Start by finding easier ways to practice this vertical posture (standing in a slow-moving line at a grocery store or frozen in traffic), and then progress to the more difficult situations (with family or at work). What is the value to yourself and others of standing vertically rather than pushing forward or leaning backward?

Describes the way in which concentration through lovingkindness soothes the mind, is the antidote to the hindrances and allows for the clear understanding of the suffering inherent in life, the fact that all beings desire happiness, and the sense of communion that comes from the awareness of that empathy.

Instructions - Mudita Practice. Short reflection with oneself - good, helpful, skillful things we've done. Mudita phrases with - some it's easy to rejoice for/with--------and a benefactor, a friend, a family member, fellow yogi, all yogis on retreat.

given at the Family retreat: the acceptance of impermanence/change opens the door to liberation and the deepest compassion.

given at the Family retreat: the possibility of transformation in the midst of the many hues of our emotional states.

Contemplating family as family is a fifth foundation of mindfulness for householders.

traversing the landscape of our practice in whatever forms it takes - our family life - parenting as practice as well as "on the cushion". The fadctors of mind/heart needed for awakening are available in any moment.

Mindfulness and wisdom in the midst of family life.

OPENING FAMILY TALK ON 8/4/94, 2 STORIES OF SHARING ON 8/5/94

dissolving the conditional value structures of self and family