A short explanation of how Brahmavihara practice supports insight and vice versa and then a guided meditation easing into cultivating kindness.

This meditation cultivates a gentle, wakeful presence in the body, with the “smile down” and then guides us to resting in a home base of sensations or the breath. We then open to whatever arises with a clear and inclusive attention, saying “Yes” to the life that is here.

Arriving in our body, heart, breath and experience, in an open and friendly way.

Guided mettā meditation to develop positive emotions, directed towards self and all beings. Dhamma talk on dependent origination in simple terms. Dependent origination answers the question: How does rebirth happen without a soul? We are neither completely fixed or completely fluid in how we are - we are conditioned; a continuity that connects past, present, and future. The Buddha’s great insight was that everything is conditioned. Daily life, high states of meditation, rebirth, and all kinds of experiences all follow the same processes. Ignorance and craving are the drivers of these processes.

Q1 OO:04 Does kamma in its wider implication presume the concept of rebirth? Q2 17:09 Doesn’t the need for goal orientedness in life work against practice? Q3 21:34 During meditation can I approach a personal issue that requires attention? Q4 26:17 Is it possible to be fully present with an open heart? Could you explain that please? Q5 29:35 Does slow mean mindful? Isn’t it intention that’s important? Q6 33:58 Could you talk more about annata and self please? Q7 20:14 Q8 Why does standing meditation seem more effective than sitting? Is there a time or situation where standing is recommended over other postures? Q9 43:58 How can I give back living more than I take living in Switzerland? Q10 45:22 In developing samadhi, is it possible to have periods where we have to refocus more on bodily sensations and drop the external? Q11 48:19 How can we reflect on God and Christ in dhamma practice? Q12 51:09 Restlessness is my most frequent hindrance. How do I deal with it? Q13 52:19 I contemplate death daily and often get a heavy heart about being separated from my two children. How can I come to peace with that? Q14 57:38 Could you do a brief summary of your top five wisdoms? Q15 1:03:52 If QiGong is so relaxing and low energy why do I sweat?

This meditation establishes an atmosphere of loving kindness with the “smile”; relaxes and awakens through the body; and guides us into a spacious presence. We then rest in that presence, letting go of any controlling, and simply allow life to be as it is. It’s in “letting be” that we come home to the luminosity and tenderness of natural awareness. We close with a verse from Mary Oliver…

Meditation instructions are often interpreted as paying pointed attention. But wide attention allows energy and mind to decompress. Cultivating a cool awareness of the body is the key to this.

The mind’s energies and activations may contradict each other but what unifies them is the body's energy, its life force and understanding them is key to meditation and the development of mindfulness.

Meditation on the arising of desire, the drivers of thought rather than getting caught in thought. Dhamma talk Part 4 on Satipaṭṭhāna: Principles (dhammā). The 5 hindrances and 7 awakening factors common to all versions of Satipaṭṭhāna. The novelty of this section builds on the previous sections and introduces causality; where the arising of things like desire come from, as well as how they come to end, and how they don't arise again using both observation and inference. Dhamma as natural principles that describe how the world works.

We use the body to help the heart open from withdrawn states. What is felt, what is sensed? Linger in that territory and keep noticing.

Beginning with mindfulness of the body and breathing, then making space for whatever experiences arise, orienting to acceptance and letting go of trying to control the process in any way

A guided practice on open awareness and the nature of the mind.