Exploring how kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity work together to keep the heart in balance

This is a long guided meditation in which Shaila Catherine offers systematic instruction for cultivating loving kindness (metta) and compassion (karuna) through the use of intention filled phrases directed toward beings in various categories.

If we are suffering, we are believing an interpretation of reality that is limiting and untrue. At these times we are imprisoned in a painful looping of fear-driven thoughts and feelings. This talk explores the ways our practices of mindfulness, compassion and loving presence can guide us from addictive thinking to perceiving life with a wise heart.

Cultivating mindfulness and non-harming brings us to the practice of compassion.

We will explore ways to engage with the precepts-as prescriptive prohibition; as compassionate inquiry; and as a description of Buddha's mind. To support San Francisco Insight Meditation Community, please go here: sfinsight.org/donate

Exploring the intersections of wisdom and compassion.

A central way to describe our practice is to say that we aim to touch and deepen in wisdom and in the awakened heart (particularly through cultivating the “divine abodes”: lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity), and to live and act increasingly from wisdom and the awakened heart. This is like the well-known image of the teachings and practices being like the bird with two wings—wisdom and compassion (the latter signifying the different qualities of the awakened heart). In the talk, we cover five areas exploring particularly how we connect wisdom and the awakened heart: (1) the aspiration to grow in wisdom and the awakened heart and the nature of wisdom and the awakened heart; (2) our social conditioning (including gender conditioning) about wisdom and the heart and how they can be separate in our lives or one or both may be relatively undeveloped; (3) some ways that they seem separate even in Buddhist teachings and practices, particularly in how metta has sometimes been understood; (4) how to have from different teachings of the Buddha a deeper sense of wisdom and the awakened heart as connected and integrated; and (5) how we might integrate the two in our practices, particularly focusing on the practices we explored in the guided meditation. The talk is followed by discussion.

We humans share this journey of birth, old age, sickness and death. Sometimes we succumb to fear or sorrow; sometimes we are exhausted or disoriented as if lost on a perilous path. Seeing this universality of suffering and knowing its causes, we ask: "What will set us free?" With the lens of refined moral aptitude, in silent witness, we stop to listen and directly know for ourselves the inner joy and peace of true harmlessness. Patiently, our noble guides of benevolent compassion and wise reflection steer the heart to its liberation – awakening to Unconditional Love.

The weekly practice groups are designed to be a cornerstone for one's practice by providing ongoing instruction and teachings that will help illuminate the simple but challenging practice of mindfulness. The Buddha taught that mindfulness is the way to go beyond habits of distraction and grasping. To walk this path of wisdom and compassion, we need the support of a community that shares this intention. Each session includes a guided meditation, dharma talk, and discussion. Both experienced and beginning meditators are welcome.

The weekly practice groups are designed to be a cornerstone for one's practice by providing ongoing instruction and teachings that will help illuminate the simple but challenging practice of mindfulness. The Buddha taught that mindfulness is the way to go beyond habits of distraction and grasping. To walk this path of wisdom and compassion, we need the support of a community that shares this intention. Each session includes a guided meditation, dharma talk, and discussion. Both experienced and beginning meditators are welcome.

From radical allowing to radical connecting. Getting a feel for compassion, through the ocean and wave analogy. Mingyur Rinpoche's journey with panic.

Some reflections on emptiness and compassion

Awareness is not only spacious and wakeful, compassion is also an inherent component. Expressing care to address the suffering in the world is understood to be an essential part of practice. This talk explores the greater implications of this understanding especially at this critical time of global dukkha on so many levels.

Using wisdom to develop the true brahmavihara of karuna, without becoming enmeshed in "suffering with" others.

How to Meditate--The 4 Practices Rooted in Tradition and Confirmed by Neuroscience. In this talk, Tina gives concise overview instructions and guidance on how to begin meditating, suitable for beginners and experienced meditators alike. She talks about general guidelines that apply to every type of meditation. Then she gives an overview of the 4 practice categories being studied in neuroscience, which are also reflected in the Buddhist tradion. Then she gives instructions on how to practice each type of meditation, with a short period of practice. To go directly to those sections, please see the following time markers: -Heart Practices--Bodhicitta and the Bramaviharas (lovingkindness, compassion, joy/gratitude, and equanimity): 15:45 -Focused Attention--Samatha (concentration and serenity), Anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing): 31:03 -Open Monitoring--Vipassana (insight meditation): 39:26 -Self-Transcending--Dzogchen (Rigpa): 49:37

How can I sit here when our house is burning down? How meditation, softening, and receptivity relates to activism and making real transformation in the world. The ways that hatred masquerades as fierce compassion, a deeper understanding of power and privilege, and how to lead with love.

The human realm is ever fraught with greed and delusion, conflicted and loud in its extremes. These violations are just that – destroyers of our spiritual verve. As pilgrims of peace, we disarm them in the interior silence of the heart. Courageous, we stand our moral ground, resolved to hold the bar. Our faith, generosity and discernment rescue us from the flames of sensory fears and infatuations. There is giving up and letting go but the Buddha’s promise is true. Where kindness and compassion prevail, the heart knows unshakeable peace.

Meeting the 4th Heavenly Messenger of Awakening offers us hope. That there is a way to cultivate deeper wisdom and compassion in this very life