00:06 Q1 Several questions about meditation experience. Posture, disappearance of part of the body, whether it's worthwhile. 10:33 Q2 When I got up from reclining my sitting didn't feel very good. 12:07 Q3 Can you say something about addictive behaviours and desires? 14:30 Q4 Can you differentiate cultivation, practice and contemplation? 17:06 Q5 Could you expand on the analogy that Buddhist practice and the self was like a murmur of sparrows or shoal of fish swimming together. 29:51 Q6 Is citta also annica, dukkha, anatta? What is the origin of citta? 33:20 Q7 How do we know we're progressing? 34:23 Q8 Is Luangta Maha Bua's 'buddho' mantra which he apparently used to sit for a full 10 hours overnight, a little bit too forceful and willful? 37:27 Q9 This retreat has helped me to practice citta viveka. In my normal life it seems the world is coming at me. And sometimes I feel the heart will burst out of my chest which produces more anxiety. Do I have to quit my job!? 42:41 Q10 Somebody was giving a talk on secular Buddhism and I was to introduce them, but I don't really support the idea of secular Buddhism. How might I have handled this?

Im Mittelpunkt des Dhamma steht die Einsicht, dass alles bedingt entsteht. In der Honigkuchen Sutta wird aufgezeigt, wie das, was wir wahrnehmen, zu ausufernden Denken, die in Konzepten münden und aufgrund unseres Anhaftens zu üblen unheilsamen Zuständen führen, zu Streit, Zank, übler Rede etc. Am Anfang steht die reine Sinneserfahrung. Können wir uns auf sie zurück beziehen und beim Gesehenen, Gehörten etc. verbleiben, kommt es nicht zum ausufernden Denken. Ein weiterer Hinweis auf diesen Zusammenhang finden wir in der Bahiya Sutta. Hier wird der Zusammenhang zu Anatta aufgezeigt. Bleiben wir beim Wahrgenommenen stehen, legen wir keine Ich-Identität in die Erfahrung hinein.

We begin with a review of how the Buddha saw "ignorance" of the basic nature of things (not so much of facts or information) as the basic problem of human life; we are as if asleep, caught in dream-like living, and need to "wake up." For the Buddha, we are especially ignorant about impermanence, dukkha (or reactivity--grabbing at the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant or painful and believing that this is the way to happiness), the nature of the self, and nirvana or awakening. We bring in a brief report of the experience of attending the previous week's EcoDharma retreat at Spirit Rock, emphasizing especially the pervasiveness of a sense of separation--from the earth, other living beings, and each other--and the connection of such sense of separation with our systemic problems. Indigenous teachers at the retreat particularly emphasized living without such separation. The second part of the talk, we focus on the teaching of not-self (anatta), and ways of practicing that deepens our understanding of not-self, as well as how we hold this understanding of pervasive human ignorance with compassion and kindness, including in our responses to the manifestations of ignorance. The talk is followed by discussion.

Simultaneity of lived experience and anattā.

Exploring the four aspects of Right Effort, and how investigating anattā or not-self support the shift into more effortless effort