In this Equanimity retreat, instructions are given to include the breath and body with a special focus on seeing the impermanent nature of experience as a support for cultivating Equanimity.

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.