Questions are précised 00:00 Q1 When the body or place doesn’t seem like a safe place to be, how can we take refuge in the heart? 04:01 Q2 I have been experiencing a flight – fight response recently, triggered perhaps by the pandemic. Everything seems to get trapped in the brain although I have been meditating for years. It seems to be a bit of a fight. Do you have any advice please? 12:39 Q3 The pandemic mode seems to continue and these small text messages are very quick and short and I feel lost, not catching up to the mind states of others. How can we do body practices in this situation? 18:39 Q4 There is so much to worry about these days and it seems almost hopeless sometimes. My meditation helps, but how can I be more consistent with the practice please? 23:31 Q5 I’m a psychologist working with people who have experienced severe trauma. Do you have one or two suggestions as to how I can help other people to clear energies that affect the heart and body? 28:54 Q6 I have relationship issues with my sister over how she treats our mother. I have spoken rather harshly to her about this and she has stopped talking to me. How can I deal with this please?

We are in a time of great transition. The climate crisis, the pandemic, war, injustice, racism: they're all pressing on us to live in a different way. And if you live with a peaceful heart, the point is not to let your heart get hardened. Don't turn your gaze away. But see another possibility—see with the great heart of compassion. My teacher Ajahn Chah said, "We human beings are constantly in combat, at war to escape the fact of being so limited by so many circumstances we cannot control. But instead of escaping, we continue to create suffering, waging war with evil, waging war with good, waging war with what is too small, waging war with what is too big, waging war with what is too short or too long, or right or wrong, courageously carrying on the battle. It's time to stop the war. " The sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson said, "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology." The first response is tend the wounds, feed the hungry, and stand up for peace in whatever way you can. But there is also an inner response needed. We know where war starts—it starts in the human heart. We must make the heart a zone of peace. Set your compass to your highest intention. Something in us knows there is another way.

In his teaching on the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha describes in the Second Noble Truth four kinds of attachments that cause suffering. One of these is attachment to ideas and opinions. We explore this topic of looking beyond our views and opinions that are causing so much divisiveness and separation in these pandemic days.

Final day of our week reflecting on a year of life in the pandemic.

A week of wisdom and heart qualities to mark one year of the pandemic

A 5-day series in acknowledgement of one year of the pandemic. Each teaching includes a wisdom understanding and a heart quality.

As a result of the pandemic, we are experiencing the frailty of our systems and structures. Awareness is the only constant resource we have. It can be trained and purified to bring loving careful attention to all that we meet.

This is the introduction to a retreat on Finding a True Refuge During Times of Trauma. This introduction is about helping your nervous system reset in the pandemic or during any difficult time. It was part of zoom retreat with a film clip so if you want to see the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlA1_m33BQ4&list=PLRGY6UiIOqoB-qwIQX53J-Bb5RH7T9FIs&index=1

We focus, in the context of difficult or challenging communication, on the integration of individual, inner practice and skillful speaking. After a review of eight general guidelines for skillful speech and how we do inner practice related to, but separate from, such challenging communication, we look at ways to bring inner practice in speaking and relating. We also focus on several more "outer" skillful ways of speaking to bring about mutual understanding, including using relatively neutral observations free of interpretations, and cultivating the practice of empathy. We then look at how to integrate more inner and more outer dimensions of practice in the context of several challenging situations.

We review eight important capacities that help us to be skillful in difficult and challenging situations involving speech and communication. We then continue to explore how we might combine more "inner" and more "outer" responses, here focusing especially on "inner work" with difficult emotions (we look at working with anger and fear), thoughts and narratives (we look particularly at those connected with the judgmental mind), and body states. A discussion follows the talk.