Dear Friends, Gil’s final talk on the faculty of samadhi first reminds us that this is something closer to our natural state when we relax all artifice. “We just settle into a very relaxed, deep, attentive way of being.”https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11157 The progression discussed so far has gone from the initial ways we begin, over and over, to center the… Read More »
Dear Friends, Gil’s fourth talk on the faculty of samadhi considers the state of the mind “when we are fully present, fully engaged in what’s happening.”https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11153 He talks about some of the more refined states of concentration, often called ‘absorption’ – although he clarifies that this state is not one where we are losing ourselves in the experience.… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing the examination of samadhi, Gil brings in a couple of related words that bring out other dimensions in this practice and faculty. Rather than it being a laser-like focus, there’s a sense of “placing something together, bringing together, unifying, gathering together.”https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11146 We can settle into our experience – gathering all the fragmented parts in our… Read More »
Dear Friends, The next talk on samadhi looks at two movements of concentration practice – to initiate through connecting with an object and to engage with a sustained attention.https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11141 The two Pali words for these are vitakka (wi-tah-kah) and vicāra (wi-chah-rah). Normally I don’t worry about the pronunciation in my writing, but Gil does a bit of play… Read More »
Dear Friends, The fourth faculty is samadhi. This word is often translated as “concentration,” but as Gil mentions in this first talk on the topic, “it somewhat limits what samādhi means in the practice we do.”https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11137 Gil looks at samadhi two ways: as a capacity of the mind, which can become strong as it is used, and the… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the first recording from the retreat I’m using for inspiration this month, Jill Shepherd provides some general background that can create a useful context for the rest of our month together. The style the approach to meditation that we’re doing here is insight meditation or vipassana. Just as a very simple beginning definition of what… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with Kamala’s talk, “The Five Spiritual Faculties’ relationship to Equanimity,” and the fourth faculty of concentration. Several teachers, talks, and articles on this subject frequently comment that the word “concentration” may not be the best translation for samadhi. When I was on retreat with Susie Harrington last August, she said that the word “concentration” has… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away. Yesterday, we looked at the first three of the seven factors: mindfulness, investigation, and energy. Today, we’ll look at the next three: joy, tranquility, and concentration. Joy As our mindfulness deepens, we investigate, and then that rouses… Read More »
Dear Friends, At work, we have monthly lunch sessions where we get together and listen to a TED talk together, and then we have opportunities to discuss the topic and how it applies in our workplace. On Wednesday, we listened to Brené Brown’s talk called The power of vulnerability (~20 minutes). I’ve listened to her talks several times.… Read More »
