Dear Friends, In the next recording, Jill brings in reflections on feeling tone, vedana. Feeling tone arises when a sense organ makes contact with an object. Light waves bouncing off an object meet the eye – and sight arises – and also a flavour to that contact – pleasant, unpleasant, or neither pleasant or unpleasant (simplified as neutral).… Read More »
Dear Friends, So now that we’ve zipped through four weeks of material, and we’re nearing the end of January, I thought we could take a step back and have a big picture of what we’ve been cultivating this month. 1 – What’s your why – setting an intention can help us stay oriented in our practice and life… Read More »
Dear Friends, One of my favorite retreat traditions is to drive down to Shelter Cove, California, to go on a retreat with Susie Harrington and her co-teacher at a special place along the Lost Coast. After the retreat, I have a lovely drive back. I camp along the way, and at the retreat site. The last time I… Read More »
Dear Friends, My dog, Reece, has interesting habits. When I’m in the kitchen and I open the treat door, no matter where he is in the house, he will come running. However, if I turn on the toaster oven, he will run to another part of the house. If I’m washing the dishes, he may or may 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, We’ve spent 10 days looking at the first way of establishing mindfulness – mindfulness of the body – including mindfulness of breathing, body postures, actions of body, speech and mind, body parts, elemental qualities, and the changing, impermanent nature of our bodies. The second foundation of mindfulness is often called mindfulness of feelings. In English, the… Read More »
Dear Friends, Did you try the 10 bite experiment? I tell you how it went for me. The first bite, I really savored the fresh bread and nutty and subtly sweet flavor of the cheese on the sandwich I made for supper. The second bite was still good. But I’m not sure I made it to three… I… Read More »
Dear Friends, Here’s a short exercise to bring mindfulness to the changing nature of feeling tone. Mark Coleman, in week 8 of the on-line course Essential Buddhist Teachings 1, said, “Another thing about pleasant experiences is how quickly we acclimatize.” For this exercise, he suggests that you eat one of your favorite pieces of food, and notice the… Read More »
Dear Friends, After yesterday’s email, Rod reminded me of one of my favorite Sesame Street mindfulness memes: “Today me will live in the moment unless it’s unpleasant, in which case me will eat a cookie.” ~~ Cookie Monster This ties in nicely to the second foundation of mindfulness – the pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral “feeling tones” (“vedana” in… Read More »
