The Buddha said the one reflection to always keep in mind is Impermanence, Anicca in Pali. When we have a deep understanding of impermanence we are more able to let go. However, there is an upside to impermanence too. No matter how difficult things are they will change. Often overlooked, this aspect of impermanence can give us courage and resolve in the face of hardship. Opening to the truth of impermanence deepens our capacity to be balanced in the face of change. This talk will explore this topic and how we can apply it in our lives.

The Buddha emphasized the importance of seeing impermanence in many of his teachings. Reflections on the three wisdoms and how they relate to insight into change.

This talk explores the gentle transition from shamatha (calm abiding through concentration) to vipassanā (insight), inviting us to cultivate stillness not through effort but through nourishment, (as The Budha did) curiosity, and kindness. It reminds us that the mind’s obstacles—dullness and agitation—are gateways to balance and presence. From this grounded calm, clarity naturally arises, revealing the truth of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. In resting with things as they are, stillness ripens into seeing, and seeing reveals freedom.

After a brief general account of the three ways of liberating insight, we look at each of the three--insights into impermanence, dukkha, and not-self--with a longer treatment of insight into not-self. There is an emphasis especially on how we practice in order to come to these insights. We close with a passage from Ajahn Chah pointing to the unity of developing samadhi and cultivating insight. The talk is followed by discussion.

A guided meditation from Settling the Body, the breath and the mind in its natural state Shamatha to Vipassana , in this case observe the three ways that liberate us, emphasizing this morning on the inmeditae direct experience of impermanence through breath , body sensations, sounds, mental objects realizing how all are transient as our lives and selves.

This talk explores the way wisdom develops and focuses on the three characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and not self. It touches on not clinging, dropping bananas, two arrows, and how love fits into it all.

We begin with a review of how the Buddha saw "ignorance" of the basic nature of things (not so much of facts or information) as the basic problem of human life; we are as if asleep, caught in dream-like living, and need to "wake up." For the Buddha, we are especially ignorant about impermanence, dukkha (or reactivity--grabbing at the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant or painful and believing that this is the way to happiness), the nature of the self, and nirvana or awakening. We bring in a brief report of the experience of attending the previous week's EcoDharma retreat at Spirit Rock, emphasizing especially the pervasiveness of a sense of separation--from the earth, other living beings, and each other--and the connection of such sense of separation with our systemic problems. Indigenous teachers at the retreat particularly emphasized living without such separation. The second part of the talk, we focus on the teaching of not-self (anatta), and ways of practicing that deepens our understanding of not-self, as well as how we hold this understanding of pervasive human ignorance with compassion and kindness, including in our responses to the manifestations of ignorance. The talk is followed by discussion.

We begin with about 7-8 minutes of developing stability of attention and less distraction, through concentration practice or some other practice. We then explore several aspects of how we "construct" experience. We look at impermanence in several ways, noticing the arising, staying and changing, and passing away with (1) the breath, (2) body sensations, (3) sounds, and (4) the open flow of experience (about 3 minutes). Then there is a period of mindfulness practice with the additional instruction of looking out for a moderate or strong sense of self. We close with a short period of a heart practice such as lovingkindness or compassion.

The Buddha saw the core problem in human life as "ignorance"(avijjā), not an ignorance of facts or information, but rather a not-knowing about the basic nature of reality and our experience. The Dalai Lama tells us: "There is a fundamental disparity between the way we perceive the world, including our own experience in it, and the way things actually are." We explore how similar understandings of a core human ignorance are found in Plato, Christian and Islamic traditions, and in later Buddhist traditions. The Buddha said, in particular, that we are ignorant about impermanence, dukkha (or reactivity), and the nature of the self. We look into some of the main habitual constructions of experience, including a sense of permanent, stable, separate external objects, and a sense of a separate, independent self, pointing to ways of exploring such constructions meditatively. We also point to experiences in which we go beyond such constructions, in meditation and also in "flow" experiences. The talk is followed by discussion.

We begin with about 7-8 minutes of developing concentration, becoming more settled and less distracted. We then explore the impermanence in several ways, noticing the arising, staying and changing, and passing away with (1) sounds, (2) body sensations, and (3) the open flow of experience (about 2 minutes). Then there is a period of mindfulness practice with the additional instruction of looking out for a moderate or strong sense of self. We close with a short period of a heart practice such as lovingkindness or compassion; brief instructions are given for self-compassion practice (as developed by Kristen Neff).