Contact with the world causes citta to lose its sense of ground, space and rhythm. Use of body is recommended as a meditation theme. We practice to carefully meet contact impression, training intention and attention to be for one’s welfare.
The teaching on the four ennobling truths speaks to our lived experience. It addresses the existential fact of facing suffering, pain, stress, and conflict in our lives and offers a way to understand the causes and conditions that lead to suffering and to the end of suffering. The four ennobling truths can guide us in our practice.
The unawakened worldly mind seeks to accumulate. It generates a sense of self from holding on. The Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta points to release and letting go. We practice standing back from phenomena, allowing things to move and shift without reacting to them. Just witnessing and awake – this is liberation.
We are encouraged to understand saṇkhāra, the programs that take hold of us and result in unskillful states. It is possible to not act on these programs, release some of their pressure, and turn the citta towards skillful states.
An exploration of ways of practicing with perceptions of the five elements - earth, water, fire, air, space - so as to cultivate samadhi, realize non-self (anatta) and understand the appearance and fabrication of perception and intention.