Desire forms the sense of self by fracturing the mind into what it wants compared to what it has. In moving with what it wants, it has to dismiss or resist reality (what it has) and form its own imaginative response. The sense of self is part of that fantasy buildup and has a central role in keeping it going.
The Buddha pointed to at least five routes to different levels of happiness for lay people: sense pleasures, merit, concentration, insight, and awakening.
We begin four weeks of attention to the three meditative factors of the Eightfold Path, starting with concentration, and including a concentrative exercise and attention to wise effort in concentraton.
The 3rd foundation can be utilized to gain insight into how to work with strong emotions. So often there is confusion between emotions and our relationship to them.
How our practice of connecting with and feeling our own stress strengthens our capacity to contain it. When we can contain it without contracting, we can access creative intelligence and compassion.
This talk looks at experience through the lenses of the Buddha's teaching in the five aggregates. We take a close look at the ways we cling to feeling, perception and formations.
A presentation of non-Buddhist perspectives on enlightenment through stories and quotes of Advaita (non-dualistic) teachers such as Ramana Maharshi,
Poonjaji, Eckhart Tolle, and Adyahshanti. The talk ends with a brief guided meditation.
