Exploration of the whole body via breath energy 'imagination' a la Ajahn Thanisarro

This guided meditation is an invitation to rest in Hereness—the immediacy and aliveness of full presence. We arrive and quiet with a conscious long deep breath, relax our bodies, awaken our senses, and then bring our attention to relaxing with our moment-to-moment experience. The poem ends with a beautiful poem called “Interlude” by poet Danna Faulds.

Gratitude arises when we are in sacred relationship with life—present, open and receptive. This talk explores how central gratitude is to our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and then looks at the ways we can directly gladden our minds with gratitude. We end with a guided meditation that includes sharings from the group, and a poem of blessing by John O’Donohue with a brief cut from Robert Gass – Om Namaha Shivaya.

Led by Mark Nunberg, Shelly Graf, Wynn Fricke, and Gabe Keller Flores The Buddha says that any position one takes including being attached to not having any fixed views is “a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by suffering... and does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation; to calm, direct knowledge, full Awakening…” In this daylong workshop we will reflect together how necessary and unavoidable it is to use identity to illuminate the social dynamics of our lives, and at the same time how easy it is to become attached and confused by identity, taking it to be more than what it is. The same is true in terms of how the mind relates to any views. There is no way to function in the world without views about this and that. The relevant question is how one can use views without the suffering that comes with attachment. This recording contains the following parts - in order they are: 1 - Guided Meditation with emphasis on recognizing mind states and perceptions of oneself led by Shelly 2 - Introductions by teachers and participants: Name 1-5 identities that arise in our minds conscious or not, useful or not, led by Shelly 3 - Introduction to the workshop and the Buddha’s teachings on Views by Mark followed by Q&A 4 - Panel Presentation: Each teacher discusses skillful use of identity in their lives, 5-10 minutes each, followed by large group discussion facilitated by Gab

Reflections and guided meditation.

Buddhist Studies guided meditation led by Shelly Graf