The talk, given immediately following two weeks of silent practice, explores themes of remembering what is important, mystery, doing and being, and awareness "open like the sky," connecting how we practice both in retreat and daily life.

The Dalai Lama has said that compassion develops through a deep insight into and understanding suffering. The difficult times we go through on retreat are a wonderful opportunity to explore the possibility of compassion in relationship to our own experience.

Class

What do we need to know, understand, investigate, and realize through our meditation practice? In the Anguttara Nikaya. VI, 63, the Buddha described six things that should be known in six ways. The six things to be known include desires, feelings, perceptions, taints, kamma (actions of body speech and mind), and suffering. Each can be known through their presence, conditioned origin, diversity, outcome, cessation, and way to cessation. This talk explores the structure and details of this brief sutta teaching, and proposes a practical approach to investigating the mind and our relationship with life.