This talk provides an overview of the Four Noble Truths, with primary focus on the Noble Truth of Dukkha and the Noble Truth of the Cause of Dukkha. Mindfulness of death is reviewed as a support for practice.

The idea of cultivation (Bhavana) is the key to Buddhism. This talk relates this concept to the development of the four foundations of mindfulness, especially the first.

Mindfulness (Sati in Pali) is a whole-hearted observation of the present moment with a quality of mind free of desire/aversion. It forms the basis for cultivating all the Awakening Factors.

Sometimes we can misunderstand practice as mainly overcoming suffering. The Buddha spoke of cultivating and increasing wholesome states and being mindful of the "gladness of the wholesome."

The Buddha described detailed steps we can take when developing and deepening our practice of mindful breathing. This talk covers steps 1-8 out of 16 classical steps given in discourses on this meditation.

Meeting hindrances with mindfulness & compassion.

Rather than being about the inhalation and exhalation of breath, mindfulness of breathing is about soothing the life force energy. As energy settles in the body, many disruptive emotive tendencies are cleared, leaving the heart available to meet experience in a balanced and sensitive way.

In this guided meditation, Shaila Catherine introduces a practice of mindfulness of the body by observing a sequence of touch sensations. This meditation guides practitioners to gradually move attention through a series of bodily locations where the feet, buttocks, hands, lips, and eye lids touch. At each location we pause to experience the present sensations that are known at that place of touching. After exploring touch points, we broader the field of attention to the whole body sitting. By alternating the focus of attention between precise and clear points of contact, and broad, restful, receptive awareness of the whole body, the meditator nurtures a clear bright balanced mind that can meet the present moment as it is.