There are four primal difficult emotions that come often in meditation and daily life: grief, anger, desire and fear. When we learn to relate skillfully to these emotions as they appear, there can be a great increase in the sense of freedom and ease in our life and practice.
In beginning a long retreat, it’s helpful to reflect on the inspirations that underlie our spiritual life and how they shape our aspiration. Our inner life emerges through the simplicity of the retreat environment in contrast to an increasingly complex outside world. By trusting in silence and presence we develop the key skills we need to live wisely in both retreat and daily life.
The 4 Wise Efforts and the simile of the correct way for tuning a stringed instrument are used to explore this very important mental factor. Examples are given for how Wise Effort manifests in formal practice as well as in daily life. The simile of how the Buddha crossed the flood is also covered in this talk.
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 Meditation) What is necessary for maintaining our practice in daily life, through inspiration, silence, Sangha and informal practice of mindfulness.
We review and expand the themes from last time- the importance of body practices for our times and lives, exploring our attitudes toward the body and developing basic body practices. Then we focus on mindfulness of the body, outlining several further practices and emphasizing especially how body practices help us practice more fully and critically in the flow of the daily life.
