Dear Friends, Building on yesterday’s reflection about sustaining the sweetness of wholesome states, today I invite you to a practice that helps us connect with stability as a foundation for those states. In Guided Meditation: Unwavering, Gil Fronsdal guides us to cultivate stability and steadiness in meditation as foundational qualities for developing wholesome states of mind. Guided Meditation:… Read More »
Dear Friends, As we continue to explore the fourth wise effort of sustaining wholesome states, I found this advice from Gil Fronsdal on preserving moments of peace and joy very helpful: If you feel happy and unusually settled and peaceful, maybe it is not the time to get lost on the Web, or the news, or start doing… Read More »
Dear Friends, In exploring the third effort of cultivating wholesome states that have not yet arisen, I invite you to listen to a talk by Gil Fronsdal that weaves this teaching together with the brahma vihara of mudita (appreciative joy). In this talk, Gil highlights how the proactive effort to cultivate wholesome states can emerge from a foundation… Read More »
Dear Friends, Sharon Salzberg offers a wonderful perspective on the balance between relaxation and energy in meditation in a short talk. She highlights how meditation is about finding a middle ground—cultivating calm, peace, and relaxation while also strengthening energy, alertness, connection, and interest.The balance of relaxation and energy in meditation (4:24) Sharon explains that too much relaxation can… Read More »
Dear Friends, In a talk by Gil Fronsdal, he summarizes the four wise efforts as: If you’re not making it worse, don’t.If you are making it worse, stop.If you’re not making it better, make it better.If you are making it better, keep doing it. Talk: First Right Effort and Mettahttps://www.audiodharma.org/talks/9608?code=YLNL The first wise effort involves preventing unwholesome or… Read More »
Dear Friends, The eighth factor of the eightfold path is right or wise samadhi. Samadhi is often translated as “concentration”, but as Ajahn Sucitto writes: Let’s look at the idea of concentration, or samādhi. When you hear those four little syllables con-cen-tra-tion, what do they imply to you? … You probably get a sense of doing something, working… 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, In talking about right action, Gil mentions we can look at what we can refrain from doing, and we can cultivate the positive motivations. Ideally the negative and positive sides of Right Action work together. By restraining harmful actions, we have the opportunity to consider and experience behaviors that promote well-being for ourselves and others. For… Read More »
Dear Friends, In one of his talks, Gil says, “right view is the orientation, the frame of reference, the insight into the changing nature of this life of ours.” He then gives an example, that I often notice in my own thought patterns: I might think that I’m having a lousy day. And the concept of lousy days… Read More »
Dear Friends, The first factor is called right (or wise) view, sometimes also called wise understanding. A note about the word “right” in these descriptions: it’s not a moralistic “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude, but one of “what’s appropriate in this context”. If want to put a nail in a piece of wood, then the right tool… Read More »
Dear Friends, It’s all over the media how mindfulness can have a positive impact in our lives. We probably know that from our own experience. And yet, there’s more we can do to live happier lives! In 8 Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha’s Path, by Bhante Gunaratana writes, “Mindfulness can much improve our lives, but the… Read More »
Dear Friends, Thank you for choosing to be part of this January email offering. This is the ninth year I have been doing this, and I continue to be inspired by the teachings, and by knowing you are here with me on this journey. I’m looking forward to exploring the eightfold path with you this month. We’ll start… Read More »
Dear Friends, Thank you for being part of this month-long exploration of the five faculties. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to dive deep into the topic, and I hope you found it interesting as well. Special thanks to the teachers and poets who generously post recordings (and sometimes transcripts) of their teachings online for us to follow… Read More »
Dear Friends, Over the course of the month, we have looked at each of the five faculties and their progression, as described in a series of talks from Gil Fronsdal. Whenever there are lists like this, it can feel overwhelming, like we have to study for an exam in order to pass. If that’s arising for you, please… Read More »
Dear Friends, The fifth kind of wisdom Gil discusses is what he calls liberative wisdom.https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11207 We start practice often from a place of suffering – we initiate practice from this motivation to find freedom from suffering. As we practice, there is more clarity and we can start to distinguish what is happening. That gives us more capabilities to… Read More »
