In this meditation instruction Shaila Catherine shares a Discourse of the Buddha (AN 3:101) in which he employs the simile of a goldsmith to teach skillful ways to deepen concentration. From time to time meditators adjust the quality of attention to periodically increase calmness, intensify energetic effort, or observe with a relaxed and non-interfering quality of mindfulness. This meditation instruction offers practical meditation skills for strengthening concentration.

Vedana, or the feeling tone of pleasant, unpleasant or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant that arises with each sense contact, was considered important enough by the Buddha to be a foundation of mindfulness, one of the five aggregates, and central to the teaching on dependent origination. It is also at the heart of the Dart Sutta in the Samyutta Nikaya, where the Buddha talks about the two common responses to suffering: to bemoan and lament the fact that suffering is happening, but often to try to avoid the unpleasant by chasing after the pleasant. This talk looks at these different teachings to help us understand the importance of bringing mindfulness to vedana in our practice and in our lives.

End of the second week set of instructions - a general invitation to mindfulness.

Thoughts on the relationship of mindfulness and wisdom, and how wisdom is nurtured and developed.

Mindfulness of difficult emotions can lead to a pleasant progress to peace, happiness, and awakening.

Mindfulness of sloth and torpor can help us in turning the hinderance into opportunities for alertness and awareness.

Part 2 - Teachers: Bob Stahl and Steve Flowers