As always, we’re awakening to the way things are. So, what’s the mood of the mind if you didn’t sleep well? If it’s negative, then right from the moment you wake up, don’t believe in those negative thoughts.… Read the rest
If you consider how you develop interest–you’re stimulated by life in some way. So, if you like to read a novel and you find a really riveting storyline, the novel grabs your attention and you can’t put it down. Your attention is stimulated by something. Normally in life, we’re stimulated by events and suchlike. But here (on the retreat), we’re not stimulated in the same way. We don’t have objects of interest. We don’t have things that we’re absorbing into. So, we have to bring up energy from our own resources, not because things are exciting.… Read the rest
When I talk about listening, I’m not just thinking about audio. I’m using listening also as a synonym for awareness, beyond the hearing part through sound. So, when I suggest listen, then go to sound first, but just let go of sound as well, so there’s just pure awareness. So, we go to the heart and we listen from the heart.… Read the rest
One of the questions that comes up oftentimes is how much concentration do you need to do this work? So, you get various debates in Theravada Buddhism about how much you need to get to various levels and so on. Sometimes you’ll hear opinions about that, which are grounded in meditators’ own insights, or assumptions, or readings, or whatever. Obviously you do need some concentration. Concentration is a very important part of developing the mind.… Read the rest
Notice the mood of the mind right when you wake up. Just see how thoughts are generated by a mood. Then notice how the mind goes to these pre-occupations continually. Then learn to drop these pre-occupations with past or future.… Read the rest
Right from the moment you wake up, know the mood of the mind. Rather than trying to analyze your dreams, which can also be useful, you can just try to look at the tone or the mood. So if you wake up in a kind of an anxious state or a joyous state, just know the mood of the mind rather than the particular narrative.… Read the rest
Before we do the walking (meditation), just a note on these interviews. One of the things that happens in these retreat situations when we have interviews is that you start to rehearse. You start to think about what you’re going to say. So, what you might do then with this idea of dependent origination is to see that with interview as condition, this idea of a sense of self arises.… Read the rest
When we talk about mindfulness, one of the inherent things in the definition of mindfulness is recollection. You recollect the Dhamma. So, it’s not just being careful not to spill the soup when you carry it up the stairs; it’s more than just being careful. It has this idea of recollection–recollection of the Dharma.… Read the rest
When you have perceptions of people, judgements about a place, critical disparagements about yourself, that gets more complicated because there’s a strong sense of self-identity with that. You get born into the world of criticism or judgement or annoyance or fantasy or whatever it is.… Read the rest
I’d like to just do a guided meditation on the body. So, we’ll see how that works. I’ll basically just basically name parts of your anatomy and ask you to bring attention to those areas.… Read the rest
