Who or what you think you are is not your fundamental home. Learning to contemplate the citta/ mind/ heart and the five aggregates (form, consciousness, perceptions, feelings and mental formations) reveals a way to dismantle the driven ego and liberate the citta from aging, sickness and death.
A guided meditation sending mettā and compassion to phenomena (rather than beings). Then a reflection and discussion about what insights, wisdom, and well-being, we feel from this kind of practice. Plus, where further can this practice take us.
For more, see my upcoming course at Gaia House: https://gaiahouse.co.uk/programme-2022/wisdom-of-compassion/
Identity is actually a process of making a self through clinging to what mind creates through contact with our environment and other people. This process comes down to the interplay of form, consciousness, perceptions, feelings and mental formations – the aggregates (khandha) But am I really any part of this? Investigation allows us to unclog the heart and release the inherent suffering. Ajahn recommends walking as a way of experiencing flow and fluidity. No identity is needed!
Investigation reveals this to be a mix of causes and conditions (inherited karma) along with actions and attitudes established through compulsive reactions. Using the Buddha's core teaching of the dukkha/ suffering that comes with clinging, we learn to use the feelings in the body as a guide to allow us to move out of this programmed self.
