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Retreat Dharma Talks

Ajahn Sucitto, Firm Centre Open Heart Retreat

12-18 February 2020 | Buddhist Retreat Centre | Ixopo, South Africa

One of the principle aims of meditation is to experience greater warm-heartedness – towards others and oneself. The absence of this is a major source of suffering, linked to anxiety, depression and mistrust. On this retreat, we will be cultivating the inner strength that supports and protects the heart so that its natural kindness and compassion can illuminate our lives.

2020-02-12 (7 days) Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, South Africa

  
2020-02-14 Q&A 1 64:12
Ajahn Sucitto
Physical pain; draining tension through the body; meeting the agitation of being on retreat; dealing with demons and emotional chaos; are liberation practices and goodwill compatible; is goodwill readily available through study and reflection; what thoughts to let pass, what to examine; definition and experience of full knowing; is noting necessary for Vipassana?
2020-02-15 5 Indriya 39:11
Ajahn Sucitto
The mind gets taken over by defective programs causing imbalance. This imbalance is called dukkha. The Buddha introduced a graduated way to shift this imbalance. This process brings up indriya, spiritual faculties. These help to mediate the tendencies of craving and clinging and result in a greater sense of harmony and balance.
2020-02-15 Walking Meditation: Open and Moored to a Firm Center 5:08
Ajahn Sucitto
Practice with keeping the front center of the body open, as if the skin boundary is feeling and reading the movement through space. Mind opens, drops some of its congestion. Thought patterns can be ventilated. Most important is to remain open and moored to a firm center.
In collection: A Moving Balance
2020-02-15 Content and Container 64:41
Ajahn Sucitto
All content needs a container. Content of heart shapes the container of experience. Supportive tones/perceptions are skilful content. They encourage a generous, spacious and cool container that allows tangled mental content to unravel.
2020-02-16 The Causal Field and the Escape from It 54:23
Ajahn Sucitto
All experience is caused by something – it’s conditioned. We act based on these causes and conditions, reinforcing their hold. But there are particular actions that can bring about release from this causal continuum.
2020-02-16 Awareness Has No Boundaries 65:30
Ajahn Sucitto
Meditation is based on the fact that mind can open and encompass the whole world of experience. Gathering energy and awareness into the here and now, and unhooking from the contents of consciousness establishes a very firm center that is also open. The result is unbound awareness.
2020-02-17 Guided Meditation: Sweeping Energy & Space around the Body 35:47
Ajahn Sucitto
It takes time for the bodily energy to unfold upon waking. Don’t go into your mind. Give attention to extending and spreading the body’s energy field. Pay particular attention to the sense of space.
2020-02-17 Addressing the Causal (Energy) Field 65:52
Ajahn Sucitto
Commands and pressure compress energy. The result is the cannonball drive through life – unreceptive, driven and numb. Learn to cultivate energy properly. Go to the body – extend, widen, soften. View the causal field as it is, not as self.
2020-02-17 How I Became a Monk 40:04
Ajahn Sucitto
In response to yogi questions, Ajahn Sucitto recounts how he became a monk.
2020-02-17 Q&A 2 46:06
Ajahn Sucitto
Environmental crisis; addictive patterning; kamma; firm center; fear and pragmatic security.
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