The Buddha taught, “Whoever is addicted to society and worldly bustle, they will not partake of the happiness of renunciation, dispassion, peace, and awakening.” Wisdom and awareness practice is an invitation to wholeness and intimacy. We practice opening and receiving the activities of the mind and body with a wisdom that discerns the futility and stressfulness of attachment. The renunciation of attachment is a natural result of seeing things as they are, that all experiences arise and pass lawfully following impersonal causes and conditions. Renunciation, letting go, or letting be, is a profound giving of the heart to the moment just as it is.

Instructions on cultivating compassion by starting small and gradually building to an expansive orientation of the compassionate heart.

Drawing on the Buddha's Simile of the Cloth (MN7), this talk explores how greed, aversion, and delusion stain the mind and obscure clear seeing. We look at how these defilements manifest in meditation and everyday experience, and how to meet them with awareness rather than resistance.

Short Reflection & Guided Meditation with a poem by Mark Nepo | Earthworm Practice for the Anthropocene IV | Online Wednesday-Morning

An introduction to the retreat theme of Awakening the Pure Heart.

After some personal stories from Donald about his father, who was a veteran, and about Donald’s experiences growing up at the time of the Vietnam war and being introduced to nonviolence, we explore the three main dimensions of our practice (training in ethics, meditation, and wisdom) related to the holiday. We focus on the ethical teachings about killing and nonviolence, including the complexities of these teachings; the importance of bringing mindfulness to grief, loss, and sadness, and of grounding in kindness, compassion, and love; and the wisdom and insight teachings about seeing the roots of violence. The talk is followed by discussion.

Guided Loving-kindness instruction after a brief description of the potential of the Brahmaviharas in daily life.