Dear Friends, So far we have explored the energy to get started (initiating effort), the way we can decide where to put our effort (right endeavor), and today, we will review what Gil calls Continuous Effort.https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11099 As he surmises, the phrase “continuous effort” brings up for me a tightness, a striving, a gotta-get-this-right feeling. And that is quite… Read More »
Dear Friends, In Equanimity, Upekkha, Jill illuminates the qualities of equanimity, and the way wisdom is supported by equanimity. It’s another rich talk, so I’ll parse out some of the qualities today, and the wisdom aspects tomorrow. Then we’ll have another couple of days looking at the heart quality of equanimity. I could use a little extra shot… Read More »
Dear Friends, In a short story called “A Painful Case,” James Joyce wrote that the main character, Mr. Duffy, “lived at a little distance from his body.” As we sit with our devices at hand, reading these words, perhaps some may notice that we too live at a little distance from our bodies. I have certainly noticed that… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with Kamala’s talk, “The Five Spiritual Faculties’ relationship to Equanimity,” and the third faculty of mindful awareness. Kamala reminds us that sati, the word often translated as “mindfulness” has as it root an aspect of memory – of remembering to be mindful. She calls it a “powerful” mindfulness because it’s the type of present moment… Read More »
Dear Friends, Chapter 9 of The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English is titled “Mental States”, and it delves into the specifics from the discourse, where we are instructed to know whether the mind is greedy or not greedy hate or not hateful deluded or not deluded contracted or distracted (or not) great or narrow surpassable or not… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the Entering the Path lecture on contemplation of feelings, Bhikkhu Anālayo describes the “function” of these feelings we’ve been considering these past few days… Imagine a prehistoric human is walking through the forest when something comes up in front of them: that human had to quickly decide: is this something to hunt and kill, or… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’ll start with this quote, often attributed to Viktor Frankl: Between stimulus and response lies a space. In that space lie our freedom and power to choose a response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness. Yesterday, I invited you to turn your attention to the “flavor” of an experience – to notice whether… Read More »
