We explore the nature of doing and not-doing, both in meditation and more generally. We begin with emphasizing the importance for the Buddha of diligence, skillful effort (one of the factors of the Eightfold Path), and doing. Yet there also is a clear place for what we can call “not-doing,” for example, in cultivating mindful receptivity to experience. We examine as well how being a “doer” is so central to many of our identities, whether in our roles or work or even in our meditation. We also look to how we often experience a kind of not-doing in everyday life in “flow” experiences in different aspects of life. Finally, we show how accessing the depths of human experience commonly requires a profound not-doing, as we find brought out, for example, in Taoism, some of the Buddha’s teachings, and Tibetan Mahamudra and Dzogchen. The talk is followed by discussion.

The Buddha called the noble eightfold path the middle way. The middle way stands for a basic principle that can be applied to many areas of our life. Our relationship to sense pleasures, energy, emotions, social responsibilities and hope vs. fear. It means not getting caught in dualities or polarities, not fixating on any extreme, but finding creative ways to deal with the complexities and ambiguities of human life.

Right or wise intention is the second path factor in the noble eightfold path and it comprises the three qualities of renunciation, non-ill will and non-cruelty. They are wholesome qualities that lead to our own welfare and the welfare of others. The talk discusses the discourse MN 19 in which the Buddha describes how he came to this understanding and how they can be cultivated.

How does loving-kindness infuse every dimension of the path? Drawing from a sweat-drenched pilgrimage around Shikoku's 88 temples, Devon explores metta not as a single technique but as a way of life woven through the Eightfold Path — from wise intention and ethical attunement, through generosity and letting go, to the boundless radiance of the brahmaviharas. Along the way, we discover how metta practice can open into concentration, healing, and even emptiness itself, and how the original instructions invite us simply to fill our bodies and the whole world with a field of care.

Right Effort, the 6th step on the Noble Eightfold Path, is not about striving or straining, it is about learning to guide the mind with wisdom and care. In this talk, we reflect on the Four Great Efforts: 1) Preventing the arising of unwholesome states, 2) Abandoning those that have already arisen, 3) Cultivating wholesome qualities, 4) Extending and nourishing wholesome states that are present. These four ways of applying effort, remembered with the acronym PACE.

Sometimes it is thought that Buddhist practice is exclusively about "inner" transformation. However, the Buddha himself spoke of going out for the benefit of others and understood basic ethical guidelines socially. Later approaches and tradition, such as embodied in the rule of King Ashoka and the Mahayana vision of the bodhisattva, also manifest the connection of inner and outer transformation. In this talk, a contemporary "Eightfold Path" is offered to support connecting inner and outer transformation--bringing our practice into engagement with our contemporary society and world in great need. There are three wisdom guidelines, two meditation guidelines, and three ethical guidelines. The talk is followed by discussion.