Through retreat we learn the trigger points where the I Am occurs. We see the potential for a remedy, a liberated citta, by removing the self from the picture and trusting embodied awareness.

Recalling our moral behaviour, our generosity, we experience the joyful energy that results. Citta enters samadhi when it is gladdened.

Sometimes the heart feels trapped distracted, or passionately involved with experience. This too changes. Training the citta to know itself releases this.

Meeting what is disappointing and frustrating in an unfamiliar way and through contemplating the immediate experience of body and mind, release ownership. This reveals warm heartedness and compassion.

Citta is central to our experience of life and can be experienced separately from the energies and moods it is so involved with. It's a kind of '"awareing" that can be contemplated as sense data lands.

This embodiment practice is for simplification, a pruning that reveals harmony and harmlessness. It’s not a technique to achieve something.

edited

Taking off your social identity is a huge relief. Examine the qualities of heart, mind and body. Authenticity and persistence are food for the heart.

We use retreat experience to loosen up how we see and experience our habits and feelings. We see citta being shaped by clinging, being bound into the aggregates.

00:00 Retreat culture seems rather elitist in some ways. What would the Buddha make of IMS Forest Refuge? 04:13 You talked about feeling feelings, so they can move through. Any tips on how to do this without getting embroiled in negative feelings? 19:28 Can you talk about working with knots or obsessions that are very strong? 26:33 Can you speak about neutral vedena. It seems most experience is neutral. 28:46 What is meant by worldly and unworldly vedena? 30:25 What is meant by internal and external vedena? Might external mean sensitive to other beings, being sensitive to their presence? 35:30 What is the relationship of the citta, the fine material, the ordinary sensorial body and to the felt sense of embodiment?42:09 How does the citta settle into knowing? 47:28 Regarding upekkha and the other brahma vihara, when do these wholesome states become another “project”, something to do? 49:37 What’s the difference between upekkha in the brahma vihara and upekka as an enlightenment factor? 51:31 How can one fulfil ones’ duties, roles and responsibilities in a way that inclines towards letting go and releasing the sense of self? 57:54 I’ve been taught that it’s better to pause and linger at the end of the inhalation but it seems to get tight. What can you suggest?

All things converge on feeling. Using mindfulness, we can scan our experience, developing authority over feeling - and wisdom to discern how things actually are.

Body awareness notices the energy that creates form, of the body and the mind/citta. It creates a "me", a blueprint for suffering. Wisdom is an observer that is not taken over by it.

The citta is open and gets formed and filled with whatever the input is and forms a me.

Practicing to experience energies which are subtle and supple, physically and mentally. Goodwill allows the citta to flow and release stuck states.

Practicing to experience energies which are subtle and supple, physically and mentally. Goodwill allows the citta to flow and release stuck states.

There is unaware nutriment/ input and awakened input involving deep attention and the enlightenment factors. Practice helps us to spot how unawareness leads to tunnel vision.

Remember, your head doesn’t walk.

Aspects of the sutta (SN12.064) describing the four kinds of nutriment or inputs to the senses. The full sutta is here: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.064.than.html (24 words)

00:33 Can you please explain the significance of the phrase “the four pairs, the eight kinds of noble beings”; 03:11 The suttas talk of a body witness. What does this mean?; 05:10 Are consciousness, awareness and citta the same thing?; 15:13 Can you speak more about the aggregates please – rupa, vedena, sanya, sankara, vinnyana? 24:03 Could you explain context and purpose in relation to sampajañña / clear comprehension? 29:52 What is meant by “mindfulness preceding the object”. Does this precede the knowing of a specific phenomenon? 32:12 Why does the mind often feel it needs to be comfortable in order to settle? Do we need to relinquish this need? 37:51 Sometimes I get the feel g the breath doesn’t want me following it; 41:22 Some teachers suggest experiencing the breath as a concept rather than a physical sensation. Did the Buddha emphasize one over another? 46:45 I have a lot of fear arising and I send it metta-karuna but samadhi seems to make it stronger; 50:27 Pease speak about the hindrance of doubt, particularly self-doubt; 55:25 Can you speak about compassion and emptiness of self.

Aspects from the sutta on contemplating the body (MN.10). The full sutta is here: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.nysa.html

The four establishments of mindfulness and its sutta history - as well as the Bhikkhunupassaya Sutta - Directed and Undirected Meditation (SN: 47:10). Suttas available here: https://a-buddha-ujja.hu/sn-47.3/en/bodhi) and here https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn47/sn47.010.olen.html

Humans have an inner quality consciousness, an awareness that is subjective. This awareness is heart or citta and it is a refuge that can be entered for liberation.