Do we know the truth of what we are? If not, how can we love unconditionally? When the heart abides in loving-kindness, the misery of fear, anger and despair is vanquished. If we look for unconditional love outside of us, we will never find it. Nor can we know it by thinking. The mind must grow in silence and stillness, in unsullied conscious awareness. Then we can see what we truly are – intuitively, beyond thought, in the quality of this very breath, this moment. We pierce through the dust of lifetimes to know the core of our being, to wake up – here and now. Just to live in that kindness is the truest life of all.

Some skillful means to employ in the process of developing a wise relationship to thoughts and thinking.

Instructions and guided meditation

What frees us from fear, anger, sorrow, chaos and all the many other sufferings of the mind? Beneath the rubble and ruin we may feel, in the silent depths of our own heart, there is a treasure. It may be hidden but it is there. And we can know it. Sitting in the still, pure presence of conscious awareness, turn away from thinking, worry, all those mental habits and the heartaches of life. Moment by moment, dive deeply into each breath – not to change anything but to know, to understand what is there. Bow to the silence and let go fleeting worldly pleasures. Just see the heart's intuitive dimension revealed. Listen, know Reality and rejoice.

This talk offers some basic tools and reflections to help meditation students with Depression and Anxiety. You will learn to recognize the optical illusions of mind, label distorted thinking patterns, and unblend from difficult mindstates.

Behind the activity of thinking, and the ever-changing flow of sounds, sensations and feelings, there is a great and awake silence that holds all that unfolds. This space of awareness is our formless essence. Learning to open and rest into this alert, knowing vastness has the blessings of homecoming.

Talking about emotions from the Dharma perspective of Two Sorts of Thinking, and using Plutchik's psychological Wheel of Emotions as a way of understanding with non-identification to encourage a creative response.

Inviting a sense of mystery as we practice can bring further aliveness, presence, and openness, and help us go beyond our habitual patterns of thinking and practicing. In the talk, we explore seven ways of practicing with mystery, with the aid of a number of poems. The talk is followed by discussion.