This sharing explores teachings from the book, Difficult Conversations.  This book examines the ways conversations we care about can so easily get "hijacked," and ways to help us stay grounded in having the conversation we want to have instead.

The is a meditation on bringing care to our internal "bad student"-- i.e. meeting the part of us we want to get rid of, the part we see as disrupting our meditation. This willingness to meet our troublesome, annoying, distracted, angry, worried, tired, or any other version of the "bad student" is ultimately the path of our freedom.

This is a practice of grounding in the physicality of here and now in a way that naturally allows a connecting with our experience in alignment with our deepest values.  This basic practice of the Arriving Sequence comes from Phillip Moffit. It is a beautiful practice, useful not only in formal meditation but also as a means of re-grounding in all of life.

We explore three necessary steps for a healing, empowering acceptance that more deeply engages us with meeting life as it is.

How does welcoming things as they are-- not as we want them to be, but as they actually are in this moment now-- open to healing? This meditation is a chance to explore working with a radical, freeing "welcoming" of our own selves as a first step.

Acceptance is a mind/heart quality that is so easily misunderstood... What is the difference between a reactive (i.e. fight/flight/freeze) misunderstanding this quality and an empowering opening to life? How might engaging with "acceptance" actually release some old story that holds us back and thereby free us for a transformative new understanding of life and how we might most powerfully engage?

We use the Arriving Sequence (Arriving, Being Available, Aligning) to ground ourselves in order to open to an exploration-- what does it mean somatically, emotionally with curiosity to be accepting in this moment now?

Contemplating our "elemental" nature is a powerful way of breaking apart a sense of a separate self and understanding how fundamentally we are part of a flow of all things.

This meditation again explores the "Arriving Sequence" from Phillip Moffit and Dharma Ground. These 3 steps of 1) arriving, 2) being available and 3) aligning with our values and what inspires us is such a useful practice for formal meditation and for life in general.

In this version of a loving-kindness practice, we pay particular attention to how we meet our moments of distraction.

Night time worries, sleeplessness and morning "dread" are all prevalent as we deal anxiety in our changing world.  In this sharing, we will explore a neuroscience based understanding of why this is so common and how mindfulness practice offers a clear antidote.

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

— Rumi

One useful way to settle into a practice is to use the breath to attune or "resonate" compassionately with whatever is present in the body/mind/heart.

This sharing invites a grounded reflection on the 2 basic fears of impermanence:  that we can’t hold on to what we want and that what we don’t want will last forever.

Through a meditative inquiry, we explore how insight into the naturalness and ever moving flow of change offers a path of release for working with these fears.

A mountain meditation is a beautiful opportunity to explore a sense of a calm abiding mountain strength unmoved by the the endless natural changes of passing seasons, years and eons of time.  It helps teach us about tapping into that kind of mountain calm abiding strength for flowing with the endless natural changes of our own lives.

Wise understanding of the true nature of impermanence is akin to learning to swim in the ocean's ever changing waves.

 

 

*Please note: technical difficulties throughout this podcast. We are working on it.*

We tend to think of ourselves as solid separate entities but just a bit of investigation into our true nature we find we are part - physically, not metaphorically - of a flow of changing elements related to everything else around.

Last week we looked at Bhikkhu Analayo's understanding of sati or mindfulness as a good friend always available to us.  This week, we come back to this with a personal reflection or contemplation practice for examining-- what do I do when seeking to be "mindful?"

Right away from the moment of waking up in the morning our good friend sati can already be there, as if waiting for us. She is ready to accompany us throughout the rest of the day, encouraging us to stay receptive and soft, and open, soft and understanding. She never gets upset when we happen to forget about her. As soon as we remember her, she is right there to be with us again.
 
-Bhikkhu Analayo, Satipatthana Meditation

Being aware of the physical elements of Earth, Air, Sun and Water in the body can be an opening to seeing into a more intimate relationship with ourselves and all around us that is naturally wise and compassionate.

This sharing draws from teachings of Andrew Olendzki's lovely short article, What's In A Word, Sati, from Tricycle and Bhikku Analayo's book, Satipatthana Meditation, both of which make clear that our usual understanding of the word mindfulness is inadequate for opening the true radical transformative potential inherent in the opening of a "mindful" mind.

(Please excuse my misnaming of Bhikku Analayo as Ajahn Analayo in the talk. thanks!)

Drawing from a teaching from Bhikku Analayo, respected Buddhist scholar and monk, on a feminine nature of mindfulness, this meditation is an opportunity to explore mindfulness as an open, understanding receptivity to whatever arises:

Right away from the moment of waking up in the morning our good friend sati can already be there, as if waiting for us. She is ready to accompany us throughout the rest of the day, encouraging us to stay receptive and soft, and open, soft and understanding. She never gets upset when we happen to forget about her. As soon as we remember her, she is right there to be with us again. 
 
- Bhikku Analayo, Satipatthana Meditation

(Please excuse my misnaming in the meditation of "Ajahn Analayo" instead of "Bhikku Analayo.")