Dear Friends, As mentioned earlier, right intention includes the intention for non-cruelty, and to aid this intention, we can cultivate compassion. Compassion also guides our actions in this world. Here is a beautiful meditation from Jack Kornfield, which I find helps my heart open to compassion for others. Heart Wisdom – Ep 125 – ‘Just Like Me’ Guided… Read More »
Dear Friends, Gil Fronsdal brings out a third aspect of saddha that I hadn’t really considered before, that of conviction.https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11059 He does note a caution with this word – that there are some people do things out of a sense of conviction without regard to the impact on others. We’ll talk about balancing the faculties more later this… 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, Continuing with Jill’s talk on Compassion, Karuna, today we turn the ways to practice compassion, what sort of obstacles might arise, and how to work with them. One of the ways we can practice developing compassion is through the repetition of phrases. Jill give us her four phrases, and explains what each phrase means for her.… Read More »
Dear Friends, I like to start off the month talking about intention. For me, this has a different flavor than a resolution. In a recent post, Jack Kornfield wrote, We all know about New Year’s resolutions and how short-lived they can be. Consider setting a long-term intention. … Setting a long-term intention is like setting the compass of… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with Sally Armstrong’s talk, “Facets of Equanimity,” continuing this exploration of equanimity as an expression of wisdom, and in particular into the notion of karma (kamma). Both Sally and Kamala have mentioned this teaching from the Buddha: Whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become an inclination of the mind. ~ Two Kinds… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with Sally Armstrong’s talk, “Facets of Equanimity,” looking at equanimity as an expression of wisdom, and in particular into the notion of karma (kamma). I appreciate that Sally spends a bit of time debunking some of the misunderstandings around the Buddha’s teachings on karma. I recall a meme that was circulating a while ago that… 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, Turn on the news, and you’ll likely read about some manifestation of hatred, aversion, ill-will, fear, or variations thereof. Wars, crime, violence. Maybe not as news-worthy, you might have your own internal messages that come from that same source – impatience, judging, blame, harsh self-talk, and so on. We can even have aversion to aversion! “I’m… Read More »
Dear Friends, As another January draws to a close, I want to thank you for your words of encouragement, your comments and emails, and your dedication to your practice. It’s so much easier to sit on the cushion each day, knowing that many of you are joining me in that practice. A practice of gratitude is a support… Read More »
Dear Friends, We will spend the next few days looking at the third way of establishing mindfulness – mindfulness of mind. In Chapter 8 of The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante Gunaratana first explores the nature of mind and consciousness. First a side-note: “mind” in this context is a translation of the Pali word citta, and it… Read More »
Dear Friends, Well… here we are, at the end of January, and thus at the end of this month-long adventure. I’ll close this month of sharing with a reflection on gratitude from Jack Kornfield: https://jackkornfield.com/meditation-gratitude-joy/ Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small, an appreciation of the moments… Read More »
Dear Friends, In A Path With Heart, Jack Kornfield mentions a Tibetan practice called “Making Difficulties into the Path” and he shared a prayer that is recited before each step of practice: Grant that I may be given appropriate difficulties and sufferings on this journey so that my heart may be truly awakened and my practice of liberation… Read More »
Dear Friends, In Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, Jack Kornfield explains the first hindrance of desire as follows: The first hindrance is desire for sense pleasure: pleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes, bodily sensations, and mind states. What’s the problem with desire–what’s wrong with it? Nothing, really. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying pleasant experiences. … But they fool us.… Read More »
Dear Friends, If we’ve had a chance to do a joy practice together on a Wednesday night, you’ll know I have two dogs, Savanna (rough collie) and Reece (lab mix). So I really relate to the following quote from Pema Chodron, which describes developing the quality of steadfastness in meditation (and in any difficult situation in daily life):… Read More »
