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Dharma Talks
2020-12-10 Q&A 1 22:18
Ajahn Sucitto
Equanimity as a brahmavihara and equanimity as a factor of awakening; latent tendencies (anusaya); uprooting hindrances; role of the formless realms in developing insight and freedom;; when is the mind is ready to go to the formless realm; where does vedanā fit in with manas/ mano; quality of self-respect in removing the need to prove oneself.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-10 Using Citta to Clear Obstacles and Conventions 34:07
Ajahn Sucitto
In the process of body meditation, the notional conventional body drops away and we find the citta body. With the cultivation of appamano states, it is nourished and strengthened to meet our negative afflictive states and heal them.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-10 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 10 2020 20:53
Chas DiCapua
Discovering the Dharma in Nature
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-10 Boundariless Citta 26:41
Ajahn Sucitto
The boundless nature of citta can make us feel too vulnerable, so we put up boundaries that end up constricting us. Cultivation of the brahmaviharā, the measureless states, is a removal of those boundaries. An abiding place results that can act as a foundation for complete liberation.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 Guided Meditation – Brahmaviharā 30:11
Ajahn Sucitto
If we keep picking up and resonating the brahmaviharā heart tones, citta will naturally open and move in that direction. These are natural expressions of citta – it feels rewarded with these expressions and is energized.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 Q&A 2 47:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Questions about involuntary movements in practice; please you comment on the third tetrad of ānāpānasati; please review the potential value of jhāna experiences; say more about how ignorance sucks energy from citta; deep fears and primal memories.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 Practicing with Views 3 1:11:29
Donald Rothberg
We review some of what we've covered in previous sessions, including the Buddha's teachings on views, the core of the problem being reactivity (grasping and pushing away) in relationship to views--not views themselves, and three ways of practicing with views. We then introduce one of the three forms of deeper inquiry into views mentioned, the approach of Nagjarjuna (c. 150-250 C.E.), the "second Buddha." Nagarjuna demonstrated a method of showing how any reactively-held views, including Buddhist views, leads to contradictions and absurdity.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
Attached Files:
  • Nagarjuna Slides Draft 3 by Donald Rothberg (PDF)

2020-12-09 Q&A 1 16:13
Ajahn Sucitto
Misguided jhāna; how to practice with the three characteristics (anicca, dukkha, anatta); is ānāpānasati enough for liberation?
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 The Absorption Process 50:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Meditation is a whole life process. Proper cultivation of citta – diligence, vigilance, careful attention in our attitudes and actions – can lead to degrees of liberation. Topics of samadhi, jhāna, wisdom are addressed.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 9 2020 21:26
Chas DiCapua
Discovering the Dharma in Nature
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-09 Guided Meditation – Handling the Citta towards Jhāna 38:51
Ajahn Sucitto
Lingering is part of the process of absorbing. It takes time to learn. Establish reference points to return to, lingering with no particular agenda. Keep widening and softening attention over the whole body.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Q&A 52:23
Ajahn Sucitto
Please expand on terms kusala and akusala; right effort when working with body tension; is thought consciousness the same as anusaya (latent tendencies); please describe Thai Forest’s particular way of teaching dhamma; does stepping back out of the conditioned into the unconditioned refer to the unrestricted unbounded citta; how is yoniso manasikara different from mindfulness; comments on Venerable Paññavaddho’s view on citta.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Guided Meditation – Responsive Intelligence 25:20
Ajahn Sucitto
Meditation is a process repeatedly placing attention. Keep touching references of comfort and steadiness, listen and linger until citta picks up the sign. We begin to learn what is suitable, what is working to gladden citta. It then has the strength to break down the afflictions of heart and body.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Q&A 26:16
Ajahn Sucitto
Please explain Ajahn Maha Boowa’s comment that citta ‘does not die’; is the experience of something that sees and receives experience citta; is citta what Tibetans call ‘mind itself’; is pure citta synonymous with pure knowing; please clarify comment about ‘storms passing through’ in relation to suicide; do we know when we are experiencing citta; how to rest in citta, the place of no ‘I’?
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 8 2020 22:16
Chas DiCapua
Discovering the Dharma in Nature
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-08 Citta as Luminous Awareness 45:20
Ajahn Sucitto
Reading from several sources, the unrestricted citta is described. Beyond the world of phenomena, its baseline is open luminosity. The encouragement is to get in touch with its knowingness – jhāna is how we deepen into mind’s nature.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Guided Meditation On Primary Citta 31:51
Ajahn Sucitto
The baseline of citta is openness, but it’s forgotten, mesmerized by its constrictions. Return to this primary citta, beneath the external and internal concerns. Take as support breathing out and breathing in.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Guided Meditation – Opening out of Circumstance 24:42
Ajahn Sucitto
Meditation offers an important reference point out of the world of circumstances. Mindfulness of body and breathing offer rest and replenishment, giving citta access to its life force energy. Ends with walking meditation instructions.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Evening Q&A 42:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Meaning of ‘The citta goes to distinction’; search for security externally and internally; the wrapping and unwrapping of citta; manas and its relationship to citta; practicing with grief; is citta the unconditioned; please clarify comment about vipassana practice; when is observing bodily/somatic states dissociation and cutting off from them?
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Recollecting and Appreciating Citta as Heart 31:35
Ajahn Sucitto
The affective heart aspect of citta is absolutely essential for cultivation. Instead of contracting in the face of dukkha, it can open – rise up to it – with compassion, gladness, equanimity. This is what makes a human magnificent.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Summary – Checking Perception 10:09
Ajahn Sucitto
The perceptions that cause contraction can be shifted and changed. Going to the root of where the perceptions arise, pause – don’t follow the immediate reflex. Ask – what’s helpful now? Let the unrestricted citta respond.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 7 2020 22:50
Chas DiCapua
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-07 Afternoon Q&A 27:29
Ajahn Sucitto
Meaning of ‘concocted’; upward movement of energy; difference between manas and mano; meaning of ‘pure mind’; development of ‘wise discernment’; citta as process rather than thing; can yoga help unbind citta; difference in Vedic meaning of ‘chitta’ and Buddha’s use of ‘citta’; where duality comes in; meaning of ‘unwrapped citta’; Ajahn Maha Boowa’s characterization of citta.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Citta Wrapped in Khanda = Contraction 48:03
Ajahn Sucitto
We rarely experience pure citta. What we experience are its wrappings – its conditioned programs. Our aim is to first make the wrapping as good and beneficial as possible, and second, to release citta from all conditions.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Guided Meditation – Intentional Aspect of Citta 29:13
Ajahn Sucitto
Beginning with citta’s ability to intend and attend, steer away from distractions and compulsions. Establish mindfulness (sati ) using body as a mooring post. Guidance around breathing and body follow.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

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