an exploration of ways of finding happiness, including temporarily through sense pleasure and more lasting by inquiry and insight into the nature of the "self" that experiences dukkha.
The talk outlines the Three Characteristics (change - suffering - not self) and the Three Subtle Characteristics (emptiness - suchness - not with the object). Teachings on the 4 Seals and the 5 Aggregates are also offered.
We explore (1) the nature of concentration: (2)the qualities developed in concentration practice; (3) how concentration practice (and practice in general) engenders a powerful process of purification of body, heart and mind; (4) the nature of wise effort in concentration practice (balancing active and receptive effort); and (5) the relationship of concentration and insight.
Negative capability; the ambiguous nature of self; self as process; foundations of ethics; Buddha and the sick monk; definitions of stream entry: as lucid confidence, as freedom from perplexity, as abandoning three fetters; the lay sangha.
