Cultivating the wholesome and abandoning the unwholesome in meditation and as a factor of the path.

Afternoon sit with Instruction (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

Meditation is part of the eight-fold path. We see there are no such things as objects just many, many subjects – and they all experience themselves as subjects.

This recording also includes Kirsten Kratz

Instructions and teaching on the second foundation of mindfulness, which is Vedana (feeling tone, or hedonic valence). A description from the Satipatthana, guided meditation, and ending reflections.

Teachings on the five hindrances and how to hold them with equanimity. Making friends with our beautiful monsters.

A discussion of the Buddhist teachings on morality, in an examination of how these fit into and relate to meditation practice

Gleichmut ist das letzte der vier Brahmaviharas. Eine wunderbare Qualität von Gleichgewicht, Stabilität und Nicht-Reaktivität, die uns hilft, friedliche Beziehungen zu leben, Konflikte beizulegen und auch angesichts herausfordernder Umstände ruhig zu bleiben.

An examination of the operating system that gets set up with life and the program “I am a separate being.”

Dependent arising is accompanied by dependent ceasing. Is mindfulness enough? The dhammas involved are potent and need persistent attention to a multiplicity of factors.

The temple is built through contemplating, understanding and clearing the ground. The construction is through a process called recollection: to bring up a topic, linger on it and see what the resonances are.

Questions are précised and read into the file: 00:10 Q1 Is there a Buddhist perspective on the soul and how that might relate to citta. 09:08 Q2 I am wondering about the teachings of the trikayas in terms of the territory of the soul or the devas. 11:38 Q3 You were saying there is no me and no not me; there is no soul. But then, what gets passed on? 20:42 Q4 When I think about what gets passed on I tend to think more of the role of genetics. To me, Buddhism doesn’t seem to give enough weight to the social or family element in our development. 22:39 Q5 Regarding the concept of qi (chi), does that life force come with intelligence imbued in it? 23:02 Q6 I so appreciated your comments about the beauty of freedom the Buddha had was to choose to teach out of compassion. So his enlightenment was not the end point but it was the responsive space that resulted that was so beautiful. 33:01 Q7 Can you elaborate please? Is the most basic link in the dependent origination is the I am singularity? Is there an asava independent of the I am?34:26 Q8 Earlier you talked about the four areas of crystallization of clinging: sense pleasures, becoming and principles / ethics. What was the fourth?

Guided meditation

The Brahmaviharas are all full-hearted intentions towards good will; heart energies that carry the same code / language. They are not about liking.

Questions are précised and read into the file: 00:25 Q1 I’m wondering if you have thought about animal sankara formations and what they might be like? 04:27 Q2 Can the environment change your citta? 07:23 Q3 Can you talk more about calming the formations? It seems such a huge subject. 08:44 Q4 You say we have to turn towards our regrets and not suppress them. But these have to do with the past and we have to turn to them. I think I am confused. 25:07 Q5 Can you say more about existence and non-existence?

Evening Dharma Talk (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

Unser Geist ist die Quelle von Leiden und Glück, deshalb kommt seiner Kultivierung eine grosse Bedeutung zu. Indem wir bewusst heilsame Geistesqualitäten kultivieren, gehen wir in die Richtung von mehr innerem Glück und Frieden. Bhavana - die Kultivierung des Geistes - hat drei Formen: Die Entwicklung ethischen Verhaltens, die Entwicklung heilsamer Geistesqualitäten und die Entwicklung von Weisheit.

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.

Afternoon Sit with Instructions

Questions are précised and read into the file: 00:38 Q1 Buddhist cosmology I find terribly overwhelming. If I just focus on what is helping me, will I be missing out on much? 02:07 Q2 I really value your teaching that it all comes back to clinging. 02:55 Q3 Yesterday you mentioned a shift that can be sensed before the tone of pleasant or unpleasant actually arises. Can you say anything more about this shift before the vedana quality actually appears? 04:23 Q4 This seems so interwoven. I guess it's a tangled skein. 12:17 Q5 You mentioned that it was helpful to point the citta towards kaya sankara rather than the vaci sankara. Is that what allows the development of equanimity? 16:52 Q6 I am confused. Are the heart and the citta two different things? 19:44 Q7 About the taints/ asava, is this a linear sequence? 28:15 Q8 Isn't part of the beauty of what you've done with samadhi as well is that to enter samadhi you've experienced non-fabrication of the 5 hindrances. 30:13 Q9 When I practice the jhanas I find I get to a certain point where I can't get further into calmness. Is that where I should start to investigate? 35:13 Q10 I have a resistance to being grounded. It seems I prefer the fizzy state. 42:37 Q11 In relating to signs and to being able to set signs aside, what role does beauty play in the dhamma? 44:58 Q12 Could it mean that it reduces the energy in unhelpful sankaras? Q13 There might be a time when I'm experiencing an upset and I would just put myself in front of a tree and the experience of viewing, considering the tree gives time for the capacity to identify with something wholesome and helpful.

Compassion is how we walk this path of peace. "Hostilities aren’t stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth." DHP 5 — Trans: Thānisarro Bhikku

Ajahn points out that the dependent origination teaching is not a linear sequence. It's more like a chaotic attractor with feedback loops, some returning more quickly than others.

Meditation and dhamma talk.

Several participants relay their personal experiences with and understanding of delusion with responses and commentary by Ajahn. (The participants' voices are read into the file.)

Questions are précised and read into the file:14:10 Q1 Is there any significance to this figure of speech “there is a cause, it does not lack a cause” or is it just giving emphasis? 15:38 Q2 How do you withdraw emotional energy? 40:56 Q3 Regarding the role of being inspired, I was thinking about the Buddha’s own journey. His movement towards the path was the fourth messenger, the samana who moved him. If he hadn’t been open to that … 43:45 Q4 At some point we want to be skilful and pay attention to those problematic tendencies. So maybe being caught up in that negative script is like getting caught up in judgement. 44:33 Q5 When you can stand back and look at it without being sucked into the vortex. Is that it?

Questions are précised and read into the file: 00:48 Q1 You mentioned subtle body energy, heart and mind energy. Are these the same or different? What is the heart energy? 08:21 How do you heal the citta? 19:52 In dependent arising, is there a link where you can catch it more easily? 24:03 By bringing some acceptance to that craving or that aversion feeling, in my experience it doesn’t normally stop but reveals it more and allows it to be and I can respond to it.

A guided meditation relating to sounds and thoughts equally, as happenings in sensitive knowing. Followed by a reflection of how we can exaggerate the necessity of a quiet mind in meditation. Suggesting here, too, freedom with might be better than freedom from. This session ends a bit abruptly as there was a call to enter a bomb shelter, but I felt there was enough here to upload. May all beings live in peace.

The realization that waves of energy pass, allows us to see the thoughts and emotions that they support subside. It's not an annihilation, it's just a withdrawal of energy. Realizing this shows us just how fake our normal interpretation of experience is.

Metta - Freundlichkeit, Güte - ist eine wunderbare Herzensqualität, die kultiviert werden kann und die den Geist grundlegend transformiert. Welche Wirkungen hat sie und welche Hindernisse können in der Praxis auftreten?

Questions are précised and read into the file: Q1 About this drip, drip, drip experience … can we moderate it? Can it be influenced by others? 01:46 Q2 When you were talking about vedena, you said things don’t come into existence without formulation. In that context it seemed like formulation was desirable. And yet when taking about consciousness it seemed like formulation was not desirable. 03:55 Q3 And probably, at least I sense that compassion has less clinging than indifference where there is less solidification which is a movement towards the skilful. 09:50 Q4 Earlier you were talking about the search or the wish for certainty. Today I got the impression that there is no life to have permanence and solidity is like a stone statue. The better alternative perhaps is managing and growing over the predictability of I don’t know what … of stone. 13:45 Q5 I’m remembering what you said about existence … out of mind out of sight. But are there times when holding someone in mind can feel comforting for them and for you. 21:20 Q6 I’m not clear about vidia,veda, vedana and how these relate to avicca. 30:04 Q7 I’m struggling with the distinction between sankaras and dhammas. 31:15 Q8 And would nimitas be related to that? 33:45 Q9 That makes sense but my mind wants to connect that process to sankara. 40:09 Q 10 My question is about movement or awareness or flow in emotion. You mentioned that QiGong has supported your practice. But is it not also a meditation itself - cultivating awareness, supporting presence.