Tag Archives: Shaila Catherine

January 11 – A practical guide to abandoning the unwholesome

Dear Friends, As we continue exploring the practice of abandoning unwholesome states, I would like to offer a recording of a meditation, talk, and Q&R with Shaila Catherine, titled Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind.https://sangha.live/dharma-library/beyond-distraction-five-practical-ways-to-focus-the-mind/ The first 30-ish minutes is a guided meditation that focuses on cultivating mindfulness and meeting thinking with interest, for the… Read More »

January 24 – Saying yes or no with wisdom

Dear Friends, The third form of wisdom Gil discusses is “decisive wisdom.”https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11192 As we sit and practice, there is more clarity in the mind to see what is happening, and we start to see what is helpful and what is not helpful, and the consequences of our actions. When we see the what is happening and we have… Read More »

January 14 – Transforming challenges to objects of meditation

Dear Friends, Yesterday’s post listed five common categories of challenges we may encounter in our meditation — and in life. Today, I’ll offer a few ideas of ways we can work with these challenges. The first thing is to recognize that these are habitual states of mind, so we don’t have to make this a problem. We do… Read More »

January 15 – The willingness to take the next step

Dear Friends, Continuing with Kamala’s talk, “The Five Spiritual Faculties’ relationship to Equanimity“ Kamala gives a brief overview of the five faculties, and then delves into each in more detail. Today, we’ll look at the overview and touch into the first – in Pali, it’s called saddha, which is often translated as faith. Kamala’s talk describes how the… Read More »

January 13 – How feelings arise

Dear Friends, I’ll start with this quote, often attributed to Viktor Frankl: Between stimulus and response lies a space. In that space lie our freedom and power to choose a response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness. Yesterday, I invited you to turn your attention to the “flavor” of an experience – to notice whether… Read More »