Guided Meditation opening to boundless unconditional quality of Metta, Compassion, Supportive Joy and Equanimity

A main way to understand generally our practice is by seeing it as combining (1) avoiding “unskillful” or “unwholesome” actions and states of mind (and knowing how to practice when they arise), and (2) developing skillful or wholesome qualities. We explore different aspects of this way of seeing our practice: Understanding its relationship to the teaching on wise effort; seeing the core unskillful quality as reactivity (dukkha) in its two forms as grasping after the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant, each in myriad ways; and developing positive qualities like concentration, mindfulness, kindness and compassion, generosity and the other paramis, and the Seven Factors of Awakening. We examine some of the complexities of practicing with reactivity, with a main one being that reactivity is often enmeshed with discernment; I can be judgmental and caught in reactivity, for example, as an activist who sees injustice clearly, with discernment. This calls therefore for transforming the reactivity, so we can make use of the discernment skillfully. We also look into some examples of both forms of practice, both in meditation and in the flow of daily life. The talk is followed by discussion.

When news of the world is challenging and there is uncertainty for everyone, letting reality in can feel impossible or scary. Yet Buddhist practices are designed to support exactly this, though maybe not all at once. Supported by each other and those who have gone before, bolstered by an innate determination to be free, we practice skills and arts of goodness. Compassionate ethics protects ourselves and others. Meditation turns awareness toward direct experience, open to its textures. Things might start to shift a bit. One practitioner may sense honesty and compassion growing as they admit some limitation. Another might see space for choice where they hadn’t imagined choice was even possible. There are lots of possibilities.

Compassion is the great circuit that connects our interrelationships and allows us to turn toward the difficulties of life and respond with skillful care. In truth It is a kind of fearlessness. A protector. A strength in itself. But it also has impostors.

The mind is limitless in its power and often misunderstood. Left untrained, it clings, distorts, and generates suffering. When met with awareness, it becomes a gateway to clarity, compassion, and liberation.

0:53 Q1 I'm very impulsive and I find that smoking grounds me. I'd like to quit but it's not the proper time or the moment. Do you have any suggestions? 07:29 Q2 I have a question about recognizing not self, anatta. It's difficult to maintain this perspective over a longer period of time. I feel quite content but my personality keeps popping up and I struggle with the anxiety of aging and losing my job. How can I handle living in the real world? 18:40 Q3 Some questions on measureless States: a) I was attending a retreat with Ayye Anandabodhi what arose was a sense of gratitude. Is gratitude a prerequisite for cultivating the brahmaviharas? b) A local sangha leader often mentions "it's like this now'. Sometimes I find this just frustrating. Can you say something about this? c) 27:29 Q4 Sometime ago you talked about the fruition of karuna / compassion as boundless space, muditha/sympathetic joy as boundless consciousness and upekkha / equanimity as no-thing-ness. Can you speak more about this? 33:17 Q5 Resignation and acceptance. I can only accept my life situation at this moment is to resign myself to the circumstances. I experience a lot of direct and indirect rejection but feel sorry and defeated. 44:12 Q6 I'm 54 and I'm feeling in a kind of bardo, an in-between space in my life. My question is not about ambition but how do I want to spend the rest of my life. What can you advise?

Further into the Brahma Viharas, talk about equanimity or Upekha, the two types of equanimity , how to cultivate the second one, given that the first one can only be achieved by cultivating all the Paramis. Then a short guided meditation based on the Tibetan Tonglem of bringing other's pain/suffering into our hearts to tranform them into light.

We are nothing but Earth inlcuding all its elements, not separete from her/them, Inviting to honor, revere it, seeing clearly the interdependence. Inviting to shift from seeing Earth as a resource to recognizing it as our creator, sustainer, healer, and home. By remembering that we are not separate from the living world—but an expression of it—we cultivate humility, gratitude, ethical responsibility, joy arises from a deeper sense of belonging, inspiring both inner transformation and compassionate care for all life.

Q1 A few questions for some clarification regarding the three kinds of suffering and suggestions for meditation. 06:22 Q2 My mind often worries more about other people than about myself. I've heard you say that we take care of other people as we take care of ourselves. But I think sometimes we spend more time taking care of other people than taking care of ourselves. Can you elaborate on this? 13:28 Q3 Could you speak on skillful versus unskillful thoughts. 18:05 Q4 Can you speak about centering and arousing good mental qualities at the time of a migraine or brain fog or when the attention is very jumpy. 21:11 Q5 Is there a wise and skillful way to transform a life in pursuit of the fulfillment of big desires and pleasure i.e. lust and wealth into a spiritual practice? 27:22 Q6 How how can I practice non- self in other people's projections of me? 28:58 Q7 Who is the witness, the one being aware? 43:31 Q8 I get glimpses of the sensing presence and awareness, but as soon as it happens I get conscious of it and make it into an object. Then I get frustrated and start to make all kinds of ideas about awareness. How to allow longer glimpses? 42:30 Q9 I feel I have quite a lot of calm and not grasping, choices awareness kind of mind. Sometimes I experience negative stuff being flat, withdrawn and indifferent why does that happen? How do I develop my practice in aliveness and compassion?