We all experience some pain, mental, physical or both.  And we work with pain both in the body and in the mind until it is exhausted.  This is how we care for the mind, healing its sickness and removing the sand that obstructs the spring of truth in our hearts. Then we can see clearly. We see what obstructs the Dhamma eye and we open our eyes to the truth of the Dhamma.  A talk given given during Satipanna Insight Meditation Toronto (SIMT) Retreat, Chapin Mill, Batavia, N.Y in 2018.

Guided meditation on physical pain.

The practice of right mindfulness and full understanding can help us meet physical pain with openness, compassion, and wisdom.

How we perceive the body from the inside and the outside, how mindfulness and compassion helps with physical and emotional pain.

Guided Sitting Meditation: (Guidance begins at 10 min, and then again at 25 min) Ask the body to align and find balance, then allow it to happen through vitality versus will power. Look for wholeness with regards to physical pain: rather than splitting into a 'me' who has a stiff shoulder – can it be included?

Sharing reflections on intentions and explorations into what pain is. Overview of the four basic ways of practicing with pain.

The experiences we most value – feeling creative, loving, vital – require being awake in our bodies. Yet when faced with physical pain, our conditioning is to pull away from our bodies, and get lost in thoughts. This talk offers guidance in working mindfully with different levels of pain, as we cultivate our capacity to live from an embodied presence and open heart. After the talk, Tara offers a short period of question and response on embodiment.

1. The Wandering Mind; 2. Dealing with physical pain; 3. Dealing with fear, 4. Energy; 5. Moving into Daily Life, open eyes ad normal mode

the sense of space/ distance; responding tonalities / intensities and the effect on awareness and the citta; appreciating body sensitivities to pressure, vibration, intensity, tension; the experience of noticing the body and appreciating the apparent sensitivities on the citta; returning to a mildly agreeable sensation; direct felt experience and its qualities; handing mental inclinations with a similar sensitivity; effects on the citta of the background pressure to “get it right”; the citta’s obsession to become something; learning the art of sensitivity; using discomfort as vehicle to attend internally to sensitivity and physical and emotional pain; widening the emotional lens

Developing the skill of recollection and the experience on the citta; where does the meaning sit?; the arising of citta to meaning; cultivating the immeasureables; the experience comes first; what is the quality of being touched by others’ suffering? Being willing to stay present with that is the movement of compassion; mudita; appreciating a feature or lucky moment for another, for oneself; appreciating the absence of physical pain; learning, sustaining and enriching the experience