Tempel Smith spent a year ordained as a monk in Burma and teaches Buddhist psychology and social activism in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently part of the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program.
We are in an ever changing universe, yet conventionally don't understand this. Mindfulness brings us so much intimacy with things as they truly are that we wake up to this streaming nature. We have to let go of old habits of clinging to align with the stream we are in.
In every moment of subjective experience there is a quality of pleasure, displeasure or neutrality. Bring mindfulness to the quality of Vedana trains us how not to add suffering when pain arises or pleasure fades.
From the basis of our simple practices we can include mindfulness of how intentions and actions arise in reaction to what is pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral (vedana). The unconscious actions we take in response to vedana are the conditioning circumstances for our suffering. It behooves us to raise awareness to how our reactivity to vedana further conditions our patterns of craving, aversion, and ignorance.
As we further open our hearts to include even difficult people, it is very helpful to learn how to practice forgiveness. Often when deeply hurt our hearts hold resentments and yearn for accountability before it would be willing to risk opening again. And yet when others feel out resentment, judgment and the need for accountability they too shut down defensively.
Starting with a good friend whom you have a history of love and trust, or even your companion animals, you can build a path of forgiveness. Some times we will never get full accountability, yet we can move beyond the pain of resentment to heal ourselves here and now.
With the further settling of the mind we can deepen our intimacy with the breath and body. From a wakeful connection to the body and a sense of happiness we can explore areas of pain and mental activity. With the calming of mental activity we open to deeper samadhi.
The Buddha described detailed steps we can take when developing and deepening our practice of mindful breathing. This talk covers steps 1-8 out of 16 classical steps given in discourses on this meditation.
As an introduction to Insight meditation we start with physical and mental relaxation, and then finding a home base or anchor for our attention in the stream of sounds, body sensations or what sensation arise in the body as we breathe. The first step is establishing steady calm abiding in the flow of the present.
While we often discover samadhi (whole heartedness) first on retreat, it's finding samadhi in every day life which can give us the greatest joy. How can live with a more whole attention? And joy from within?
Following the talk on the 5 jhana factors and the 5 hindrances from the night before...
We welcome a sense of contentment in our starting conditions, take interest in our breath and remind ourselves it is all we need while meditating. From here, we aim and sustain our attention.
With mindfulness of breathing as a concentration practice we intentionally develop the 5 jhana factors. We also will definitely experience their opposites. - the 5 hindrances. As the 5 jhana factors become stronger we experience fewer hindrances.
Keeping your attention directly at the sense doors lets us cut through our habit of being lost in thought. As mindfulness increases, we can eventually by mindful of thought as it arises.
When we develop the Brahma Viharas, we also develop many beautiful qualities of heart named the Paramis, such as Generosity, Harmlessness and Renunciation.
Taking the most wisdom to access, the Equanimity Brahma Vihara practice gets is strength from a brave willingness to intimately see all truths. If we suspend out preferences for health and happiness, and away from pain and sorrow, we can bring our loving hearts in direct contact with what we see if true. Life is an ever changing and uncontrollable mix of gain and loss, pleasure and pain, and praise and blame. When we can rest in Equanimity Brahma Vihara we can hold all truths at the same time in one space of heart.
We have never met most of the living beings on our planet (and beyond), and many we have met we don’t know all that well. As we expand our loving kindness practice to include all beings we have to consciously learn how to actively care for those we don’t know well. Rather than having the typical challenge of reactivity, this group of beings is hard to love precisely because we don’t know them well. If we have learned to care for a larger group of friends and community members, then this next larger group is more accessible.
How does samadhi--the unification of the heart--develop with metta practice? And how can we use the absorption factors in metta practice to help us develop deeper metta adsorptions?
After learning to develop a kind and patient awareness of our breath and body, we have the basis to begin the traditional Loving Kindness meditation practice of repeating phrases of kindness towards our most easy being for whom we care.
To practice the divine abode of equanimity, we begin by reflecting on the need to be intimate with what is really happening. With this strength of heart we can soften our preferences and the fantasies they produce in order to bring out heart in steady contact with all unfolding phenomena.
There are two larger categories of meditation: samatha meditations and vipassana meditations. Samatha meditations are intended to calm, unify, balance and develop strengths of the heart, and vipassana meditations lead toward insight into our patterns of suffering, confusion, clarity and freedom. The samatha meditations can develop to the point where we are fully absorbed into our meditation subject. This talk describes this process.
A guided practice for letting go of specific objects or sense doors to practice open or choiceless awareness. For some people this is a more natural way of practicing. The intent is to become mindful of one’s mental activity as it is drawn to different experiences arising at any of the six sense doors. From this practice you can gain insight into how the mind works and find freedom no matter what the experience.
Inviting our heart to let go of all reservations and conditions to universal friendliness and kindness. This heart which can hold all beings in kindness becomes a refuge for our own well being and the well being of others.
Continuing from the Anapanasati sutta we turn to vedana, the 2nd foundation of mindfulness. With great courage. we can develop contentment no matter the pleasure, pain or neutrality of any give moment. In not understanding vedana we are forever imprisoned by our wrong views. When we can breath consciously in a greater range of pain, pleasure and neutrality we find the path to non-conditional contentment.
Instruction and guided meditation on the 2nd foundation of mindfulness called vedana (feeling tone). This is the factor of each moment of consciousness which is pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. Being able to be mindful of vedana allows us to cut off our reactivity.
An introduction to a careful and detailed practice of the 4 Elements meditation practice. Focusing on different kinds of body sensations, first independently and then in combination.
