Annie Nugent has practiced since 1979 and was an IMS Resident Teacher, 1999-2003. Her teaching style aims to reveal how all aspects of our lives can help us come to a clear and direct understanding of the Truth.
Do we really need to talk about this in such detail? Yes - through understanding suffering we also come to know freedom from suffering...it is a happily ever after story in the end.
Seeing the 8 fold path within life shows us that the dharma is always available to us when we recognize it's presence. If we do, confidence prevails.... we know that we can live the dharma in each moment, no matter what may be happening.
Attending unwisely to the moment keeps us trapped in the delusion that experience is personal, me and mine. Wise attention keeps us on our toes - for example: we are not pulled into those little thoughts, believing them to be real. Check to see in any moment are you attending wisely or unwisely?
Our sneaky friend Mara, “The Tempter” needs to be seen in all his guises so that he doesn't fool us. This talk looks at the 10 Armies of Mara that might be operating at any time when we are not being mindful.
Pointing fingers at others, we miss the fact that we are simply caught in our views and opinions. I am better than you... I am worse than you... all opinions and comparisons that keep us living in a very small world of delusion.
In connecting with the ordinariness of this moment we can taste the simplicity of life. Just the six sense doors not being grasped at or pushed away, but known as they are.
As practice strengthens, it can be helpful to know more about the details of mindfulness. This talk unpacks each the four foundations, giving us a glimpse of the fullness of what our experience entails. It also shows that there is nothing left out...mindfulness covers it all.
Do we have an aspiration in our practice? The Buddha tells us that the quality of aspiration plays an important role in keeping our practice alive and moving in the direction of freedom. This talk looks at the meaning of this quality and how it shows itself as our practice unfolds over time.
The teaching of “no-self” often leads to the mind trying to figure it all out. Using the simile of the chariot this talk helps to turn the investigative mind, rather than the thinking mind, towards dispelling this wrong view of who we think we are.
