Dear Friends, Setting a New Year intention can be a powerful practice to align your actions with deeper values and aspirations. An intention is not a rigid resolution but a guiding principle to cultivate mindfulness and growth throughout the year. Christina Feldman discussed a way we can work with this by noticing intentions: Intention and viriya (energy or… Read More »
Dear Friends, The sixth factor of the eightfold path is right or wise effort. Gil Fronsdal describes this factor succinctly as follows: Right Effort involves four different ways we can apply ourselves. When it comes to our inner thoughts, feelings, and states, we can (1) prevent, (2) overcome, (3) arouse, or (4) maintain these inner experiences. Far from… Read More »
Dear Friends, The closing paragraph of Christina Feldman’s Boundless Heart gives us the big picture of where/why/how these practices from this month matter: The noble abidings of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity becomes immeasurable and unshakeable when rooted in profound understanding. Step by step and moment by moment, a home is established in the qualities that ennoble our lives… Read More »
Dear Friends, As this month of reflection draws to a close, I’m going to circle back to the beginning of the book, where Christina Feldman presented how these practices work together to support one another: Kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are a family of qualities that support, strengthen, nourish, and balance one another. Immeasurable kindness teaches us a… Read More »
Dear Friends, Christina Feldman closes out her chapter on equanimity by looking at its aspect as “the fruition of kindness, compassion, joy, and understanding in an unshakeable liberation of the heart.” (page 127) In this section, Christina digs into the process of perception, and how there can be tendencies in this process where we may lose equanimity. She… Read More »
Dear Friends, This weekend, I sat a retreat led by Jeanne Corrigal. The topic was “Coming Home: to dharma, to love, to ourselves, and each other”. It was a beautiful retreat that brought together teachings from Buddhist and Indigenous traditions. One of my key takeaways was in reconnecting to the wisdom that comes from an embodied knowing –… Read More »
Dear Friends I’m on retreat this weekend, but I’ve queued up this message to keep you company until I’m back on line on Monday. There’s a poem I appreciate from Kay Ryan: The Niagara River As though the river were a floor, we position our table and chairs upon it, eat, and have conversation. As it moves along,… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat this weekend, but I’ve queued up this message to keep you company until I’m back on line on Monday. The “worldly winds”, the vicissitudes – these terms describe what most of us have experienced. There’s a standard list of eight, listed in opposing pairs:Pleasure and PainGain and LossPraise and BlameFame and Disrepute I… Read More »
Dear Friends, We now get to dive into the fourth of the brahma vihāras, equanimity. Christina Feldman describes some of the meanings associated with this term: The Pali/Sanskrit word [commonly translated as] “equanimity” finds a number of different translations that endeavour to capture its meaning: “to look over,” “to be a guardian of,” to see with patience and as… Read More »
Dear Friends, The practice of muditā is an empathetic joy that celebrates the good fortune, happiness, and joy of others. Oren Jay Sofer describes it this way: This is mudita: feeling the happiness of another. The capacity for empathic resonance is innate. When empathy meets the happiness and the success of another, when there’s no craving or constriction,… Read More »
Dear Friends, We’ll look at another couple of ways we can incline our hearts towards joy – confidence and gratitude. Confidence There was some level of confidence that brought you to the practice of meditation – maybe you met someone who inspired you, or read about it, or some other way that sparked your interest. You’ve probably experienced… Read More »
Dear Friends, There’s a poem that Susie Harrington often recites at retreats I’ve attended. It has become a bit of a touch-point for me – anytime I need to reconnect to the “why am I doing this”… Bhuta Thera: No Greater Contentment When the thundering storm cloud roars out in the mist,And torrents of rain fill the paths… Read More »
Dear Friends, Christina Feldman outlines several foundations of joy. We’ll look at two of them today – integrity and appreciation. Integrity What do we mean by integrity? Christina says, “Integrity is not a set of rules laden with value judgments of right and wrong, good and bad. The Buddha described integrity as thoughts, words, and acts rooted in… Read More »
Dear Friends, Christina Feldman reminds us, “Life brings many joyful moments, yet if our hearts are closed and contracted, these moments do not touch us.” (page 87) Part of our practice is remembering to open our hearts to whatever is present. Nature is a great teacher in this regard, as are moments of stillness. Richard Wagamese has some… Read More »
Dear Friends, Chapter three of Christina Feldman’s Boundless Heart delves into the heart quality of joy. She explains that joy can be cultivated, that joy can be a place where our heart rests. One master of describing joy was Mary Oliver, a poet who managed to capture in words the beauty and wonder of this world. In honor of… Read More »
