How to radiate Metta for a difficult person.

Donald Rothberg first gives an account of the connection between the core of Buddhist practice and the nonviolent traditions of Gandhi and King. He then poses the common critique of nonviolence—that it doesn’t work with dictators, authoritarian governments, and situations of pervasive violence, that “it wouldn’t work with Hitler,” while telling some stories of actual highly effective nonviolent resistance against the Nazis. Tiffany Easthom, the Executive Director of the Nonviolent Peaceforce, an organization working to protect civilians and foster dialogue in situations of violence, then gives an extended account of the organization’s work, with a PowerPoint presentation (attached pdf file available at this site). She covers both the basic principles and strategies of the organization and a number of accounts of its work in various countries where there is violence, ranging from South Sudan to Syria to Myanmar.

Understanding our defensiveness and how to mindfully work with difficult emotions - can lead to freedom.

This talk offers reflections on how to navigate the judging mind.

Evan a finger snap of developing the perception of impermanence. "Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is unknown, and now is the knowing"

How contemplating and practicing with our mortality brings forward human maturity and allows us to appreciate this precious human life.

In the third foundation of mindfulness, the Buddha instructs us to bring awareness and clear seeing to the contents of the mind. In a nonjudgmental way, we are invited to be aware of whether the mind is affected by lust, ill will or delusion, and also when the mind is not affected by these states. Included in this practice are various experiences of concentration, expansion, and contraction in the mind. The section ends by including awareness of the liberated mind, even if this is only a temporary experience. The thrust of this section is to notice both the wholesome and the unwholesome qualities of the mind and by that very noticing increase the wholesome and decrease the unwholesome.