Week 5: The fourth of The Four Great Efforts: Create conditions for continuity & cultivation of skillful qualities/wholesome states. Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about 28 min long focusing on exploring energy. Bellow is my talk from our class. It is about 20 min long. Practice Suggestions 1. It …
Week 4: The third of The Four Great Efforts: Create conditions for skillful qualities/wholesome states to arise. To establish what you sense is good. “We can’t add to or take away anything from what is happening in this moment. What we can do is be aware.” Sayadaw U Tejaniya Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the …
Week 3: The second of The Four Great Efforts: Letting go of unwholesome states that have already arisen. Creating conditions for letting go of reactivity. Here is Acharya Shantideva’s definition of enthusiasm (he translates viriya as enthusiasm): “Enthusiasm is finding joy in what is skillful.” Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about 25 …
Week 2: The First of The Four Great Efforts: Avoiding or preventing the arising of the unwholesome states or putting aside what is unhelpful. “So right effort is really no effort: it is very easy; just don’t expect anything from the practice.” – Sayadaw U Tejaniya Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about 29 min …
Week 1: Getting to know your energy and habits around applying effort Viriya: energy, strength, courage, heroism, vigor, vitality, enthusiasm, endeavor, persistence and perseverance “Better than one hundred years lived lazy and lacking in vigor is one day lived with vigor and exertion.” – The Buddha Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about 25 min long …
Week 4: Anatta as Not-Self, Non-Self or Emptiness (there is no solid self that is in control) Larry Rosemberg (senior teacher in our tradition) says that Buddha’s teachings on Anatta can be summed up as: under no circumstances attach to anything as me or mine. Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about …
Week 3: Dukkha as Mental & Bodily Pain, Suffering, Dissatisfaction, Unsatisfactoriness, Stress Contemporary definition of Dukkha: Disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish, anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom; deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness; hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety; love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction; parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness, vacillation, uncertainty. – Francis Story in …
Week 2: Anicca as Impermanence (Everything is in the process of change. Change IS.) Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about 25 min long focusing on noticing and noting arising and passing away. Formal Practice Suggestions “He abides contemplating the nature of arising in the body, or he abides contemplating …
Benefits of Letting go/Renunciation: Recognizing our goodness. Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about 25 min long focusing on renunciation. Reflections & Daily Life Practice 1. Last week you were asked to renounce something. Have you chosen what to renounce yet? If yes, what benefits/rewards have you noticed so far …
Making A Trade: What would be useful to renounce, let go of or give up? (Middle path = not denying ourselves sense pleasure, instead diminishing/moderating our consumption of sense pleasure) “Do everything with a mind that lets go.” – Ajahn Chah Formal Practice The recording bellow is the meditation we did in the class. It is about 25 min …
