The way we think, feel and experience on retreat is not different from the ways we approach our experience in daily life. Whatever shows up is met with kindness - nothing is excluded. Our difficulties then become the manure for our transformation.
In every era of human history, people have encountered social upheaval and struggles. From the perspective of the Dharma, what is our response? Buddhist teachings provide a sense of refuge amidst any circumstance.
We explore one model of how we follow the trail of judgments, studying them closely, and eventually accessing their generation by (relatively) unconscious limiting beliefs. At a later point, the transformation of these limiting beliefs and the integration of such transformation in daily life become possible.
Developing true well-being begins with the heartfelt intention and commitment to do so. Mindfulness is the basic tool that will help manifest that intention by weakening unwholesome states, cultivating wholesome ones and amplifying the latter when they arise.
There is an inner freedom that expresses as happiness and peace, and it is accessible when we arrive in openhearted presence. As the Buddha said, “If it were not possible to find liberation, I would not teach about it.” In this two part talk, we will look at the conditioning that blocks happiness and two primary pathways of practice that evolve our consciousness and free our hearts.
