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, As we open to the experience of emotions, sometimes, it’s enough to label them, to get a gap between the experience of the emotion and our habitual response. There’s a poem by Rumi, “The Guest House,” that reminds us that emotions are normal: This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival. A joy,… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with the talk from Kamala Masters, “Equanimity-Seeing the World with Quiet Eyes“ Kamala poses a second question we can ask ourselves.How can we stay aware yet compassionate towards ourselves when we do react? She says, We oftentimes judge ourselves after [reacting]. Then we’re paralyzed again, because we did or said something, it caused a kerfluffle,… Read More »
Dear Friends, From Shantideva, an eighth-century Buddhist master: There’s nothing that does not grow light Through habit and familiarity. Putting up with little cares I’ll train myself to bear with great adversity. In chapter 5 of True Refuge, Tara Brach suggests a way of dealing with these “little cares” through a process she calls “light RAIN” – a… Read More »
Dear Friends, The Buddha gave advise on bringing mindfulness to states of mind (thoughts, emotions): “And how does a monk remain focused on the mind in & of itself? There is the case where a monk, when the mind has passion, discerns that the mind has passion. When the mind is without passion, he discerns that the mind… Read More »
