Identifying the appearance of the 7 Awakening Factors in meditation with Mindfulness of In-and-Out Breathing as a basis.

A few sentences of summary on the morning reflection on Nibbana and the Path.

How do we extinguish the fires of greed, hatred and delusion that burn within the mind? The Buddha has thrown us a lifeline. We grab hold of it right here and now – one moment at a time. Free yourself from relentless conceptualizing and the suffering that comes of it. Stop and be aware –  again and again. What is happening within you? The Buddha's first aid is just this – see each moment of turmoil or fear that is assaulting us as impermanent. Witness these feelings of despair or darkness arise and pass away – not what you are. Breathe free. Breath by breath, we let the heart heal – at peace.

The talk begins to give the "big picture" about the nature of our practice, and how we come, in a way suitable to our times and places, to manifest wisdom, love and compassion, and skillful responses in our lives, increasingly more of the time. We reflect first on some of the challenges of our times, and how Buddhism, as it has moved to different cultures, has always taken new forms. A main part of the big picture, which is our main focus today, is a model of how meditation develops. We articulate a model involving three main forms of practice (that we can find in multiple Buddhist traditions): Developing samadhi (concentration), opening to liberating insight, and opening to awakened awareness. We explore each of the three and their relationship to each other. The talk is followed by discussion.

We begin with guidance to develop samadhi (concentration). About mid-way through, we move to mindfulness practice, cultivating insight, and then to two important areas of liberating insight--insight into impermanence and insight into reactivity (the most fundamental meaning of dukkha).

Readings from chapter 8 of the Udana (1-4) on Nibbana, followed by reflections on the path and practice.