As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
Sitting in a field of fifty to eighty people really starts my mind sparking. Since I don't prepare my talks ahead of time, I find myself listening to what I'm saying along with everyone else. This leaves a lot of room for the Dhamma to come up. Just having eighty people listening to me is enough to engage me, stimulate me, and create a nice flow of energy. The actual process of teaching evokes ideas that even I did not realize were being held somewhere in my mind.
Different teaching situations offer their own unique value. In retreat, you are able to build a cohesive and comprehensive body of the teachings. When people are not on retreat and come for one session, it opens a different window. They are more spontaneous and I'm given the chance to contact them in ways that are closer to their "daily-life mind." This brings up surprises and interesting opportunities for me to learn even more.
I'm continually struck by how important it is to establish a foundation of morality, commitment, and a sense of personal values for the Vipassana teachings to rest upon. Personal values have to be more than ideas. They have to actually work for us, to be genuinely felt in our lives. We can't bluff our way into insight. The investigative path is an intimate experience that empowers our individuality in a way that is not egocentric. Vipassana encourages transpersonal individuality rather than ego enhancement. It allow for a spacious authenticity to replace a defended personality.
Hindrances take us away from ground. Groundedness is an absolute requirement for skillful cultivation. Standing posture gives access to feet touching the ground to create a firm and steady foundation.
Meditation is about penetrating the roots of mental behavior. The primary doing is to settle and clear distracting influences so the mind becomes unified in purpose. A happy, firm mind leaves less traction for hindrances to take hold.
Dukkha is a natural part of our experience. When internalized it manifests as constricting and disjointed somatic states. When met from a clear and settled center, our responses can be guided by harmony and wisdom.
With a heartful attitude, set aside what is not necessary and make a continued deliberate practice around your Dhamma aspirations. Tuning into embodiment with interest and sensitivity, we can locate the missing piece, where harmonization of the mental and somatic domains occurs.
It’s natural for us to step out of our daily scenarios from time to time and take a break from suffering. Ask: “What’s most important now?” Find the hidden grooves that move towards destinations that don’t exist – permanence, sustained agreeable feeling, being in control – and establish ground in embodied awareness instead.
It’s possible for citta to review the 5 aggregates, not be stuck in them. Practice with sustaining a quality of awareness that’s open and receptive to shifting and changing. This awareness can be applied to your world.
Exploring the experience of consciousness and noting what occurs – through the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. Includes 15 min standing meditation.
Distinguishing dukkha as a characteristic and dukkha as a Noble Truth. Relax – nothing is under control. Acknowledging this is the start of a reset. Rather than meeting experience with pre-formed strategies, pause, expand awareness, and meet experience without jumping to conclusions.
Opening guidance - As we settle in and incline away from sense contact, our internal experience may seem chaotic. Stability comes from a relationship to this volatile, mundane, unglamorous stuff – one that accepts what arises without rejecting, adopting or adding to it. This relationship is what generates awakened intelligence – the wisdom of “It’s like this now.”
