This is an examination of the steps in the Gradual Training as represented in MN 39 The Longer Discourse at Assapura. Here the Buddha includes beautiful similes for the five hindrances and the experience of the four jhanas. Our study has the aim to deepen our own practice and progress on the path.
Using the Buddha's advice to his son, Rahula, on developing different types of meditation, starting with meditating on the earth element internally and externally, and meditating "like the earth."
Nature teaches us so many things about the nature of reality, including how profoundly interconnected and interdependent we are with all life. By sensing this directly, it profoundly shifts and dissolves belief in the reality of a separate, independent self.
