MD225

In dealing with the demons of the mind that is with all the emotions and mental states causing fear, sorrow, attachment or any other sort of mental anquish we are able to courageously face them with bare awareness. When this awareness or mindfulness is strong without reacting to the experience, even the worst enemies are dissolved like the morning mist in the rising sun.

Dharma practice has two functions: First it makes us healthy, then it makes us free. The talk explores both these phases, as well as their accompanying attitudes, and explores the process of healing in relation to fear.

When we engage with metta practice we receive either metta (purity) or the inner obstacles to metta, which provide the material for the purification of heart. This talk describes how to relate with self-judgement and fear through metta, as well as the supportive factor of concentration, another aspect of innate purity.

The way out of pain is not in sense pleasure. But suffering can be a ticket to Nibbana – maybe not the one we asked for, but it's in our hands. So we try. Taste the moment just as it is. Choose love when there is every reason to hate. Trust when there is every reason to despair. Be patient when anger is burning within. Faced with terror or far from peace, let go. Being still in the very midst of fear, we can know non-fear. All is fleeting, not what we are, and nothing to hold onto. There, in the silent flow of the breath, the heart will soften in a tender wave of unconditional love.

In a psychic feat for his sister, Sundari Nanda, the Buddha creates a vision of a beautiful lady who transforms into an old woman. Through this direct experience of impermanence, her mind is liberated. Likewise, those who rightly love wisdom and contemplate death without fear see the emptiness and impermanence of all conditioned things. Realizing the futility of all clinging and the inevitability of death, our wisdom and faith in the Dhamma ripen and reveal the doors to the Deathless. This is the path of awakening.

Valuing healthy connection and detachment while facing our inloveability fear of nothingness

Talk about fear, trust and freedom.