The pathway to inhabiting our full presence is including, with mindfulness all parts of experience. This guided meditation explores how we can open, without resistance to the changing flow of sensations, feelings, thoughts and sounds, and discover the boundless awareness that is our true home.

When we are stuck in blame or resentment we are in a trance – the other person becomes an unreal bad other, and our own sense of being contracts into a victimized self, an angry self, a righteous self. Using the acronym RAIN, this practice guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to our inner experience, and then to viewing the other with a more open and clear heart. By awakening from the trance of blame, we are able to respond with intelligence and care to the unmet needs that underlie all conflict.

Like dust, defilements creep into the mind and build up. We live in a dusty world, it’s not a personal failing. The normal response is to be vigilant about sweeping – sustain mindfulness. Persistence, energy, and right attitude are required.

The True Promise of Mindfulness

Born of desire are all things. Ruled by mindfulness are all things. Yielding deliverance as essence are all things. Turning the mind to the deathless.

Week 5 of a 6 week introductory course to Mindfulness Meditation. Includes 30 minute meditation followed by talk and discussion with the class.

Mindfulness of breathing, 16 steps, four tetrads, Fulfilling the four foundations of mindfulness

This is a lightly guided, mostly silent meditation from the Friday night practice offered by Ajahn Karunadhammo. “Many of us approach Buddhist practice believing that the point is to learn mindfulness meditation. Yet there's so much more to understand and practice. The eight factors, or the eightfold path, allow for a complete and fully integrated program, leading toward liberation.”

Starting with chanting, this is the talk from the Friday night practice offered by Ajahn Karunadhammo. “Many of us approach Buddhist practice believing that the point is to learn mindfulness meditation. Yet there's so much more to understand and practice. The eight factors, or the eightfold path, allow for a complete and fully integrated program, leading toward liberation.”

Week 4 of a 6 week introductory course to Mindfulness Meditation. Includes 30 minute meditation followed by talk and discussion with the class.

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How mindfulness activates wholesome states of mind, including energy and concentration, that lead to full awakening.

In his new book From Suffering to Peace – The True Promise of Mindfulness Mark Coleman, author and senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, weaves together contemporary applications with mindfulness practices in use for millennia. His approach to mindfulness and meditation empowers us to engage with and transform the inevitable stress and pain of life, so we can discover genuine peace — in the body, heart, mind, and the wider world. In this evening talk, Mark will lead brief mediations and explore the aspects of his book to help practitioners, of all kinds, access and benefit from the “true promise of mindfulness”.

In his new book From Suffering to Peace – The True Promise of Mindfulness Mark Coleman, author and senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, weaves together contemporary applications with mindfulness practices in use for millennia. His approach to mindfulness and meditation empowers us to engage with and transform the inevitable stress and pain of life, so we can discover genuine peace — in the body, heart, mind, and the wider world. In this evening talk, Mark will lead brief mediations and explore the aspects of his book to help practitioners, of all kinds, access and benefit from the “true promise of mindfulness”.

Week 3 of a 6 week introductory course to Mindfulness Meditation. Includes 30 minute meditation followed by talk and discussion with the class.

Exploring trust as an element of practice, as well as the remaining faculties (energy, mindfulness, concentration & wisdom).

In our fourth exploration of how to practice with conflict, we examine four practice resources, inviting listeners to keep in mind, as we explore the resources, a conflict (whether an inner conflict, an interpersonal conflict, or a larger social conflict); conflict is understood as a difference of, or tension between, positions or values or needs. The first resource is that of the tools of our inner practice: mindfulness practice, heart practices such as compassion, lovingkindness, and forgiveness, and ways to work with difficult emotions and thoughts such as anger, fear, sadness, frustration, the judgmental mind, etc. The second resource is that of the "win-win" or "both-and" model of conflict transformation, in which the aim is to move from an "either-or" or "win-lose" framework toward the "win-win" way of meeting the underlying values or needs of both sides; at times, we may need to move away from the "win-lose" framework through "avoidance" (time outs, cease-fires, etc.) or compromise, on the way, if possible, to "win-win." The third resource is that of empathy, taken as a practice central to working with conflicts of any kind. The fourth resource is that of working with attachments to fixed views that typically arise in conflict situations of any kind, especially through through mindfulness, inquiry, empathy, and heart practices.

What mindfulness is and why mindfulness of breathing is such a valuable meditation in our tradition.

Week 1 of a 6 week introductory course to Mindfulness Meditation. Starts with a 15 minute guided meditation followed by a 30 minute Dharma Talk followed by another 30 minutes of guided meditation and finally 15 minutes of discussion/Q&A led by Mark Nunberg

Mindfulness of feelings (vedana)