A short meditation to help people arrive for the start of the retreat, settling into the body sitting and breathing

How to approach the online retreat format

Beginning by establishing a kind relationship to technology, then people on the screen, then settling into the body and orienting to ease

Cultivating stability as one of the beneficial conditions htat supports insight to arise

Short reflections on the preliminary processes of this retreat: orienting to steadiness and stability, and noticing what gets in the way; sensitising ourselves to the stress of self-referencing thought-patterns, and to the ease that becomes available when they're released.

Establishing awareness of the body sitting, then experience of breathing, attuning to the rhythm of receiving and releasing, and gently letting go of involvement in thinking

Bringing awareness to how we're paying attention, allowing it to be relaxed and easy as we steady our mindfulness on the experience of breathing

The importance of cultivating dharma joy or well-being, which includes qualities such as ease, warmth, happpiness, contentment, gladness, delight, bliss, as supports for the path to freedom

Beginning by orienting to appreciation as a support for settling the body, heart and mind into well-being (note: due to a technical glitch, the recording stopped after the first set of instructions and the ending instructions weren't included)

Progressing from mindfulness of breathing to mindfulness of the body, bringing awareness to physical sensations

Exploring how body sensations can be an early warning system that reactivity is taking over; and the benefits of bringing mind and body into harmony with each other

Exploring the third of the three conditions that support insight: confidence, or dharma confidence

Reflecting on the day's themes and practices of mindfulness of the body and dharma confidence, exploring these through the practice of standing meditation

Bringing awareness to emotions and using the acronym RAFT to stay present with the experiences in the body and the mind

Practising recognising, allowing, feeling and teasing apart emotions (RAFT)

Having respect for our emotions helps us be upright in the middle of it all, and that still, quiet attention gathers what's good in us

Exploring insight into anicca or inconstancy

Exploring the quality of mindfulness itself, and the benefits of using different modes of mindfulness to keep the mind in balance

Beginning by steadying awareness on the breath, then physical sensations, then opening to sounds

Understanding how we're relating to our thinking, and learning how to not be bothered by our thoughts

Exploring our relationship to suffering and its causes

Meeting dukkha with mindfulness and compassion

Bringing awareness to awareness itself, and notice if we're adding anything extra to it

Cultivating simple, clear and spacious presence

Simplicity of awareness highlights what is extra and not needed, for example ideas of me, my and mine

Learning to see more clearly what takes us out of the stream of the present moment, and how preoccupation with self-referencing keeps us stuck

Beginning with the body, then gradually opening up awareness to include the space beyond the body

Beginning with the body and breathing, opening to emotions and thoughts then awareness itself

Anukampa as the capacity to care is a natural expression of our practice deepening