Laura Bridgman began her Dhamma practice in her early teens, and eventually ordained as a nun with Ajahn Sumedho in 1995. She was resident at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries for eighteen years until moving out to live as a solitary nun in 2010. She has spent extended periods of time with the Burmese teacher Sayadaw U Tejaniya. In 2015 Laura left the monastic tradition to pursue the Diamond Heart (Ridhwan) spiritual path alongside her Vipassana practice. There is much over-lap as it incorporates Buddhist principles and practices.
00:00 Q1 What clings? 11;13 Q2 Laura, can you speak more about moving back and forth between the path and the world. 16:51 Q3 What is meant when a person says someone is their teacher? 19:43 A poem by Rabindranath Tagore is read. 21:00 Q4 How to skilfully help others in our lives to get them to slow down and be more present? 27:14 Q5 How to let go of regrets and uproot the self? 36:08 Q6 Please distinguish taking ownership of karma and clinging to everything else.
When a habit of ignorance is seen in consciousness, seeing prevails. Using faith and hope, we become more aware of the mind’s interactivity that creates a ‘me’.
(Questions are précised and read later into the file to protect participants’ anonymity) 00:11 Q1 I’ve felt a lot more alive and sensitive over the retreat, experiencing a lot of inwards and outwards connectivity. How does that affect the deepening of practice? And also are the experience of chi and piti related? What about after leaving the retreat, is the loss of sensitivity inevitable? 13:20 Q2 Can you say more about “the imaginal practices”? Please expand on how chanting can re-pattern emotional energy. 23:20 Q3 I’m having new meditative experiences that make me excited and even a bit fearful in seeing consciousness as impermanent. Can you advise please? 23:03 Q4 Is it automatic that samadhi will lead to discernment?
Understanding suffering is like loosening a tangled ball of threads. The Indriyas help us find balance and navigate even the most subtle mind states that arise.
Questions are précised and some are read later into the file to protect participants’ anonymity. 00:00 Q1 How wide can the space of embracing you spoke of be for people (like prisoners for example) who may not have the present capacity for insight and who seem not ready to face trauma. Perhaps they will never be ready. O1:44 Q2 When and how in meditation and life, should we put boundaries around unhelpful things without a pushing away quality? 06:10 Q3 Could you say more about the relationship between the composed part and the part that’s in disaray as more important than either of the two. 8:52 Q4 Could we hear more about jealousy please and the associated difficult shame reactions. 16:09 Q5 Does any kind of volition disrupt bodily alignment or subtle bodily energies, or can the well instructed person conceive or even act without resultant misalignment?
