Dear Friends, Joseph Goldstein suggests reflecting on the preciousness of this human birth as a way to support the first effort of preventing unwholesome states from arising. He reminds us:“It’s precious because now we have the opportunity to weaken and eventually uproot these latent defilements that have been with us throughout our lives.” (page 392) Ajahn Sucitto offers… Read More »
Dear Friends, The eighth factor of the eightfold path is right or wise samadhi. Samadhi is often translated as “concentration”, but as Ajahn Sucitto writes: Let’s look at the idea of concentration, or samādhi. When you hear those four little syllables con-cen-tra-tion, what do they imply to you? … You probably get a sense of doing something, working… Read More »
Dear Friends, Yesterday, I shared Christina Feldman’s idea that with mindfulness, we “turn towards” experience, and then with kindness, we can “stand beside” it. (Some of us may remember Jeanne sharing teachings on this approach too.) With this attitude, aversion doesn’t have to go away – wow! Christina says, “we learn to bring an attitude of kindness to… Read More »
