Unplugging our normal drivers and moving into retreat can be an uncomfortable experience. Use it as an occasion to strengthen presence through embodiment.

The day starts with a sense of decisive engagement but confusion frequently masks this and we get run by external conditions. Breathing is an animate centre that allows perspective.

This course examines the Buddha’s teachings on the five spiritual faculties of confidence, energy, mindful awareness, stability of awareness, and wisdom. It is the development and balancing of these five faculties that provide the force that moves the mind from faith to wisdom and release.

This course examines the Buddha’s teachings on the five spiritual faculties of confidence, energy, mindful awareness, stability of awareness, and wisdom. It is the development and balancing of these five faculties that provide the force that moves the mind from faith to wisdom and release.

Overview of the third tetrad, emphasis on the first two steps whith three approaches to experiencing the mind, and a samadhi and insight wasy to gladdening it.

We examine first the Buddha’s teachings about awakening, We see how he understands the process as involving two processes. We are mindful of and work through what gets in the way of touching our natural awakening—greed, hatred, and delusion (or the two forms of reactivity—grasping after the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant, along with ignorance about the nature of impermanence, reactivity or Dukkha, and not-self). We also develop those qualities which both support and manifest awakening, qualities identified in the teaching of the Seven Factors of Awakening. We see further how the Buddha at times identified the nature of awakened awareness as “signless, boundless, all-luminous,” and trace similar accounts of awakened awareness in the Thai Forest tradition and Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā. Then we ask the question about whether these wonderful teachings and associated practices are sufficient for awakening in the contemporary world. We point to how such teachings and practices are crucial but also need to be complemented by and integrated with a contemporary map of awakening, identifying forms of contemporary conditioning (and greed, hatred, and delusion) that are not found in the traditional account. Broadly speaking, we can identify two inter-related core areas—a first identifying more “psychological” conditioning, and more “social” conditioning (for example, around gender, race, sexual orientation, age, etc.). The talk is followed by discussion.

Basic instructions in developing concentration and stability, on the one hand, and mindfulness, on the other, are given in the context of the teaching of the Seven Factors of Awakening; concentration and mindfulness are two of the seven factors. We also explore inquiry or investigation, a third factor, in the context of mindfulness.

A guided practice of the steps leading to experiencing the mind (step 9) and g;addening the mind (step10).

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 support and functionality of Clarity and Mindfulness

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.

In understanding craving, one of my teachers suggests using right view – ‘everything is nature happening’. This helpfully moves craving out of being good or bad.

Ajahn reviews some of the teachings during the retreat so far and urges us to use our potency as individuals.

00:05 Before encountered the dhamma I always thought that problems required solutions. You say they need spaciousness, openness and patience. What then is the place for mental strategies and solutions.

Mettā with images of self and others

Letting go of mental formations by letting sanna (perceptions) and vedana (feeling tones) simply be. Selfing, (as contraction & craving), is distinguished from wholesome subjectivity.

There is a heart place that experiences reverberations and exasperation. It seems that this is me. Keep asking: What and where is this me?

How do I practice in the moment. Stay with uncomfortable sensations and watch the feelings arise. Wisdom practice.

Forms of Not-knowing (avijjā). Vipallāsa: the distortions of perception, the mind, and of views

00:05 Q1 (AS) You talked about protection during the QiGong. How does protection happen without closure? 09:39 Q2 (LB) Could you explain how the citta can cleanse sankaras? 17:05 (AS response). 36:04 Q3 (AS) Given that I struggle to maintain focus even on a narrow object, it’s very hard to bring the whole body into awareness . Any hints? 45:02 (LB response).

Reflections with the four elementsto develop a quality of observation refined by not-self.

Introduction to Vedana – the feeling tones - and a guided meditation

Self and other, life and death, body and mind are some of the basic fragmentations causing stress. Practice allows a healing wisdom to arise.

With a stable and unified mind we can turn to impermanence. This turning into our observing change in our vipassana practice leads us to see not only the temporality of everything but the interconnected and impersonal Nature of experience.

Thoughts often carry the mind away from the present moment. This talk invites you to explore the nature of thoughts and offers five methods to still the distracted mind.

This meditation uses any personal images people might have from considering what might constitute a beautiful life for them, and considering Naikan questions (in this case what one has received from the world, what one has given, what problems or difficulties one thinks one has caused), and tuning in to the impact these images have on the energy body. The later part of the meditation focusses on putting images aside. It’s partly a practice to develop appreciation, to see the felt impact of one’s actions, and partly - towards the end - an exercise in letting go of images.

Guided reflections to experience mental formations and knowing the inconstancy of perceptions (sahna or recognition) and feeling tones (vedana)

Understanding the aggregates allows us to see our world is a tangled web of conditions that needs untangling not tearing.

Arriving and adjusting to the retreat provides an example of the fixities and rigidities challenging us from settling. These are actually the khandas.

We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath, and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with an offering of blessings to our inner life and all beings.

Grief is our natural way of expressing loss for what we love, and learning to open to grief serves the deepening and widening of our loving. This event, given at the Upaya Zen Center on June 25, 2023, includes short meditations and talks by Frank and Tara, and powerful sessions of questions and responses.