We can practice by remembering that we participate in a global communion that has been going on for thousands of years, for our welfare and that of others.

Through practice we form the occasion of goodness, and this occasion forms us, strengthening composure and wisdom. This is the circularity of dhamma, of the process that transcends the specific occasion of retreat.

Remembering mindfulness is challenged when moving from retreat to an interactive domain. Attune your mindfulness to the uncertainty of life in the most basic experience of body, feeling, citta and “stuff that comes up”.

00:25 Regarding rebirth or further birth, Therevadans and Tibetans seems to have very different things to say about this. Is it useless speculation to consider what happens after death? 13:17 Can you please distinguish between kilesa, asava and anutsara? 17:41 Why is consciousness likened to an illusion? 31:22 Could you please speak about the external and internal aspect of the sense fields mentioned in the satipatthanna? 36:03 I get very stirred up when I received kindness from others. What do you suggest? 41:35 You mentioned a tendency to look for open space as related to an experience as an infant of being confined in a cradle. How did that memory and understanding come up for you? 46:09 Can you remind us about mano sancetana – what it is and how it works? 53:57 Is nibanna a description of a mind in which the defilements are uprooted or is it that which does the uprooting? 55:21 Can you speak about the significance of noticing neutral sensations? Why is this useful? 56:51 Vicara and dhamma vijaya both explore an object. How are they different or similar? 1:00:18 I’d appreciate some more specific instructions about the movements and placements of hands during the bowing ritual.

Using ritual to wrap around the day provides a stable frame to hold the circumstantial world. Its images and resonances create a place marker (nimmita) for contemplation.

These “treasures of the contemplatives” are important in the culture of gladdening the citta. In the citta’s own bounty we find what our life needs.

Puja provides a steady frame for meditation and helps to ward off dullness and stale familiarity in daily practice. Its fresh vitality undermines ingrained behaviours and attitudes.

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.

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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.