Dear Friends, Courage is an essential quality on this path. It empowers us to face challenges, stay present, and remain committed to our growth. Here is a talk and meditation from DaRa Williams, titled “Reflections, Guidance, and Courage.” DaRa explores the many dimensions of courage, drawing from a framework that includes physical, emotional, social, moral, intellectual, and spiritual… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the penultimate track from this retreat, The Awakening Poem, DaRa reads a reflection which is sometimes attributed to by Sonny Carroll, although the wording on various websites isn’t always consistent. You can read a version fairly close to DaRa’s recitation here:https://www.michaelppowers.com/wisdom/awakening2.html The poem didn’t really resonate with me, though there are some useful life lessons… Read More »
Dear Friends, In Questions and Answers, Jill and DaRa respond to some of the questions that participants had written. Today and tomorrow, I’ll pick out a couple of their responses that have resonated with some of my own questions about the practice. One question was about the hindrance of doubt: Confusion is at times, natural. For example, not… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the track titled Poem, DaRa reads “She Let Go” by Safire Rose. This poem expresses another way we can bring equanimity to our experience. The theme of the New Year’s retreat I did with Susie Harrington at the beginning of the month was about the stories we tell ourselves – the views we cling to,… Read More »
Dear Friends, In Guided Meditation – Mudita, DaRa offers some opening comments, then sparks some generosity and gratitude through a story and reflection, and leads an appreciative joy practice that radiates joy to beings in all directions. She says we’re up to something radical here by intentionally cultivating joy, gladdening the heart. There are many joyful moments in… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the latter part of the talk on Sympathetic Joy, Mudita, DaRa describes some of the impediments and allies of mudita, appreciative joy. The impediments include judgment, comparing, prejudice, demeaning, envy, avarice, selfishness, boredom. Thinking about boredom as an impediment to mudita is interesting! When we stop paying attention to the little things in life, and… Read More »
Dear Friends, Today and tomorrow, I’ll turn to DaRa’s talk on Sympathetic Joy, Mudita. Mudita is a way of cultivating joy. It’s sometimes translated as sympathetic joy, appreciative joy, altruistic joy, empathetic joy. It’s a joy that arises when we can resonate with someone’s happiness and success. Here’s a little story that wakes up this quality of joy… Read More »
Dear Friends, DaRa continues the exploration of mindfulness of mind states in the talk on Working with Emotions. She starts by giving a bit of a tour of the tools covered so far – sitting, walking, body, including all the sense experiences and breath, feeling tone (pleasant/unpleasant/neutral), working with thoughts, and heart practices of goodwill and compassion. And… Read More »
Dear Friends, After Jill’s broad tour of the various qualities of heart we can cultivate (discussed in the Jan 5 post), the talks we’ll review today dive deep into metta, loving kindness. DaRa sets the stage for practice by offering a few words on setting up for practice – checking in with posture, the breath – inviting a… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the latter part of DaRa’s talk on The Five Hindrances, she describes 5 aspects of practicing with them, based on an acronym coined by Gill Fronsdal. B.E.L.L.A. Gil describes these steps more fully in this post:https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/hindrances-to-mindfulness-and-clarity/ Gil says, BELLA [is] the Italian word for “beautiful.” When the hindrances are overcome and mindfulness is strong, the… Read More »
Dear Friends, DaRa’s talk on The Five Hindrances looks at what the hindrances are, and then she shares a technique to work with them. So we’ll unpack that today and tomorrow. As we sit to meditate, we will certainly come across any number of challenges that get in the way of mindfulness and concentration. There’s a typical list… Read More »
Dear Friends, In listening to Morning Instructions with DaRa, I was inspired to be more spacious with my day. This phrase in the talk caught my attention: “The more we experience every moment is worthwhile, the more energy there is.” (at around 11:50 in the talk) On this frigidly cold winter day, I have noticed my resistance to… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the second recording from the retreat I’m using for inspiration this month, DaRa Williams guides a meditation (Guided Meditation on Anchors, 17 minutes), inviting “appreciation and gratitude for the time and the wisdom to spend, coming to know oneself. Coming to understand this nervous system, body, breath.” Many of us are inspired to meditate to… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with the talk by Kamala Masters titled, “The Power of Patience.” Kamala talked about a period of time she practiced as a nun because she wanted to live a simple life for a while. She describes her experience: “I just did the practice in a simple way. When something arose, just being able to see… Read More »
