Ajahn responds to several questions around the themes: Is it necessary to have an attitude of sanctity or divinity when one is mindful in the sati sampajanna way? Is it possible to get anywhere in the practice without being ordained? How long should I sit and what particular process should I go through? Will I arrive at a certain recognizable state?

Investigate the causal process of how dhammas arise and subside, and learn how to be with that.

Bringing to mind and resonating with benevolent occasions in one’s life to build up a solid resonant sign to sit within – with 39 min silent meditation.

Citta/heart is like a lake with waves rippling through it. The unawakened response is to create walls to resist the unpleasant, and fences to retain the pleasant - and ‘me’ to hold it all. Awakening responses to the waves are the skills of samadhi and brahmavihara. These make the lake vast and able to allow waves to arise and subside. They are doors to the Deathless - the unconstructed that the citta can enter through non-holding.

The process of fruition through satipaṭṭhāna entails resources, obstacles, skills, release and integration. Nibbana can be momentary whenever the consciousness of subject and object deconstructs.

Q1 00:52 When you're walking around and brushing your teeth what's your experience of the sense world and nibbana? I'd like to experience more beauty and sacredness in the sense world and cultivate a relationship with the transcendent, but it feels so out of reach; Q2 17:43 Recently I listened to a talk by Ajahn Tanissaro and he said he didn't know any practitioner in the West who was a stream enterer. I was disheartened. Can you say something about this? Q3 28:09 can you give some advice on cell phones and technology please? They drain my energy quickly. Q4 35:34 (several questions) In mindfulness of breathing, does one proceed sequentially through the 16 phrases, or pick up the steps that seem to fit with whatever seems to be arising. Why is it presented as a graduated training? Also, can you speak about releasing the heart? Q5 44:18 What are the differences between attention and awareness? What are their Pali terms? Q6 49:42 "One reviews the extent to which one's mind is liberated..." In the Book of the 5s. If one's mind is non-liberated how do you go about it? Q7 52:59 How to relate when resistance arises in practice from feeling blocked, to discouraged or lost etc etc etc.

Turn away from the measuring mind to track how experience is, and the arising and passing of stress. In this way, we engage with the ‘noble pleasure’ that leads to samadhi.

Touch sense establishes relationship and presence within the shared field. When this is safe, citta can unfold, and we re-form.

01 06 Q1 I don't have any particular devotional practice. Is this like a Brahmavihara practice? 01:41 Q2 Regarding the relationship between citta and yoni as in yoniso manasikara, I relate to citta on a moment to moment basis. Yoni seems to be a seat of integrated wisdom. 20:15 Q3 Can you explain about metta practice. 27:31 Q4 Someone said resentment and aversion are natural conditions of the mind. They're not self and when seen as not self, they disappear. Can you comment please? 34:17 Q5 I would like to know if the inner tyrant is considered wrong view.

Buddhaṃ me jīvitaṃ yāva nibbānaṃ saranaṃ gacchāmi Dhammaṃ me jīvitaṃ yāva nibbānaṃ saranaṃ gacchāmi Sanghaṃ me jīvitaṃ yāva nibbānaṃ saranaṃ gacchāami {To the Buddha I go for refuge living my life to realize nibbana To the Dhamma I go for refuge living my life to realize nibbana To the Sangha I go for refuge living my life to realize nibbana}

Through consciousness, boundaries form between subject and object; thus, me and the world. Through the stress of that, the me closes into a bag. Defense and acquisition strategies. Heart (citta) is not consciousness and can turn away from creating the same me bag. This is through regulating inner-outer sensitivities to a harmonious whole.

Effort is the engagement of heart with a topic. In satipatthana, the engagement is with body as an intelligent entity. When heart meets the ‘spinal sense’ there is resolve and stability.

A review of the Satipatthana as a holistic practice

How precepts and understanding support environmental balance

A talk given at the Insight Meditation Center of Western Mass with QnA. Questions are précised: Q1 33:26 You were talking about the inner and outer skin. It seems this inner skin creates suffering. How do we start to be able to deal with this?Q2 37:34 Those words: Open, allow, let go are such a release. But something can happen that scares me, fear of annihilation. How do you practice with the insecurity of monastic life without being scared? Q3 42:03 In moving from control, do you go through indifference? Q4 43:50 Would you mind speaking about qualities of willfulness, striving, urgency, rigidity around meditation and holding attention in the body and that urgency. Q5 52:10 I feel very uplifted being so close to a monastic. Could you say something about the challenges and the fruits of being in robes for so long?

GM at Insight Meditation Community of Western Mass