A meditation, reflection, and (just the) responses to questions on the theme of the dark and lightening; and what exploring the dark, darkening, and light, and lightness reveals and opens about experience and freedom.

Guided meditation on Caring Figure practice and receiving unconditional love.

A discussion of Equanimity and confidence and Mindfulness

Q1 How can we reconcile joy and dispassion? How are nipita and virago supposed to feel? 11:55 Q2 Are the 16 steps of vipassana meditation the result of calmness meditation, or is it a wise directing of attention as a goal? 17:59 Q3 You mentioned to notice the space between the in and out breath and the out and in breath. When I do that my breath seems to get more shallow and I feel a threat and start coughing. 22:32 Q4 Something seems to keep kicking in the breathing process. What should I do? 23:18 Q5 How to be less demanding, to maintain the highest quality to do well, but less demanding, e.g of expectations of others?

We start with settling for about 8 minutes followed by about the same time with basic mindfulness practice. Then we explore "moderate" experiences of pleasant or unpleasant when they occur, whether a bodily experience, an emotion, or a thought (or a mix), experiencing pleasant or unpleasant and seeing whether there follows wanting (or not wanting) and reactivity (habitual grasping or pushing away). We close with some reflection on what we explored, with an emphasis on skillful aversion: Was some of the not wanting skillful? Unskillful? What do we find in some daily life examples of aversion? This exploration is related to the talk given a short time later.