Wandering mind; sleepiness; unpleasant body sensations; steps to first jhana; where to place attention when walking meditation; taking on practice in wilderness as a lay woman; chanting

[Begins 3:25] On this eve of New Year’s Day, Ajahn Sucitto recommends a Buddhist resolution: Look near, look far. We can use this to work with the hindrances. Look near: look right into your heart, into how the body and breathing are affected. Look far: consider the consequences, where contentment and happiness actually come from. The hindrances can help us adjust our lives, they tell us where we’re off track. [Ends58:45]

Meditation can be thought of as a process of rewilding. The unnatural, toxic ‘me’ sense is removed so that what is natural – good, true and beautiful – can arise. Sometimes conventional life isn’t so beautiful, but we can find conventions and systems that help us practice – sila and recollection of death for example. Take the convention and feel it in the heart. Enjoy it, steady it, extend it.

The retreat setting is structured to support our practice of restraint and withdrawal. As we re-enter our daily lives, we can consider what structures and practices to put into place to keep these going. Our ability to withdraw allows for the unification and strength needed for discernment, to know how to counteract the hindrances.

How to work with sexual desire/energy; self-guilt; what does ‘body in the body’ mean; mindfulness while sleeping; stepping back is a precursor to meditation; is inner chatter harmful; doing without tanha; what to do when mind becomes quiet; balancing doubt and faith

Grasping occurs when the citta is not comfortable. It gets overwhelmed by feeling and experience. The difference between sati and clinging – they both apprehend things – is sati is very patient. It simply bears things in mind with no particular goal. Sati can spread and expand to include the grasping, clinging reflex when it arises in the experience of embodiment. This is the place for realization.

This one slogan can be a reminder of how to sustain mindfulness as we leave the retreat. What we’ll notice is that most of the time, right now there is dukkha caused by the underlying ‘me’ sense. Meditation is an essential part of our spiritual training, but not the only part. Working in community is an invaluable aspect of spiritual training – it provided a context where we can get past the ‘me’ sense and get to the ‘we’ sense.