The right views of the four stages of the Eightfold Path development support practices to purify speech and behavior, the mind and understanding, resulting in happiness of harmony, happiness of tranquility and happiness of peace.
We have allowed our planet to be run by an elite, which is not at all connected to what happens on the ground. This alienation needs to come to an end.
We have each disconnected our mind from the ensemble of our being, and allowed it to be run by our ego. Unless we reconnect, we will continue to live mindlessly.
When we see the world through the veil of our ego, our love flows in distorted and confused ways. Through mindfulness and metta and insight we can begin to understand these conditioned patterns and transform them into love and connection.
For many of us, the most apparent junctures of spiritual transformation are spurred on by challenging life situations. This talk looks at how our conscious aspiration for awakening, and our practice of mindful presence, can help us find peace, compassion and freedom when difficulties arise.
Learning how to work skillfully with the pleasant experiences that arise from the development of metta and concentration is an important part of supporting the deepening of these practices.
This joyful talk illuminates the practice of resting in present moment awareness. His experience being studied in an FMRI is also recounted, with the results of recent academic studies on meditation practice.
This joyful talk illuminates the practice of resting in present moment awareness. His experience being studied in an FMRI is also recounted, with the results of recent academic studies on meditation practice.
The practice of metta is powerful and challenging because it works on so many levels - the personal, the relative and the transcendent. Opening to all these levels and being willing to work with whatever arises makes this practice deeply transformative.
After a review of last time, of the importance of speech practice and the ethical guidelines for wise speech, we explore two ways of cultivating mindfulness in our speech, concluding with an exercise to cultivate inner and outer attention at the same time.
