00:34 Q1Can you say more about the nature of mind; 09:38 Can you explain one more time sati (mindfulness) being inside and outside and both inside and outside; 17:24 Q2 Can you speak about jhana. Some Thai forest teachers teach it and others won't mention it. 27:41 Q3 How to cultivate clarity of vision. 30:01 Q4 What is the difference between cause and effect and conditioning? 33:49 Q5 Do creativity and imagination help or can they be obstacles to the practice of Buddhism? 37:43 Q6 What is the role of practices like QiGong and yoga and spiritual life? 35:54 Q7 What can we do about physical and leg pain? 42:59 Q8 How can one deal with repeated negative thoughts? 50:16 Q9 I am concerned about good and evil in the world. Should one be taking up action against it? 51:42 Q10 What qualities or practices should we focus on as an anagarika (one who leaves the household life)? 54:28 Q11 What's a good thing to think about as the last thing before you sleep?

Pain is a given and suffering is optional. Mindfulness of unpleasant feelings, such as pain, can transform pain into fertile soil for wisdom and for freedom from suffering to arise.

Questions précised: 00:23 Q1 Can you give me some advice on self forgiveness? I can easily forgive others but not myself. 15:58 Q2 I don't usually experience deep samadhi but in the past few days there's much stillness in the sitting and the body feels heavy and grounded. Is this the right direction? 19:45 Q3 in order to develop sati we should come out of thoughts or thinking. Isn't that attempt just more thinking? 31:15 Q4 Generally speaking is there a difference in Buddhist approach to emotional psychological pain and physical pain? 40:44 Q5 Can you explain the difference between citta and mind?

Starting with scanning through the body and awakening the senses, we then rest in presence, with the breath as a home base. The meditation invites an openness to whatever arises, and a gentle kind attention if we encounter physical or emotional pain. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

00:10 Q1 Please share tips to manage the flurry of emotions that might arise when we're back in our day today busy lives. 20:18 Q2 Sometimes when I think of my own death I don't care. How do we manage acceptance in a way that doesn't become apathetic or dull sense of I don't care. 27:47 Q3 How do you establish presence and find your center when your body is in unbearable pain? 34:16 Q4 Can you speak about the use of pharmaceuticals for perceived mental and physical imbalances?

We cover what compassion is and how it can help soothe our pain much better than avoiding or denying it. We distinguish between compassion and pity and then offer a variety of compassion phrases we can use. In the guided meditation, we begin with a dear friend who is undergoing some kind of suffering and then move on to ourselves, offering self-compassion for our own physical or mental suffering.

When physical or emotional pain is too much, our conditioning is to pull away and avoid direct contact with raw feelings. The result is a trance – we are split off from the wholeness of our aliveness, intelligence and capacity to love. This talk explores how this dissociation shows up in our lives and how mindfulness enables us to integrate cut-off parts of our being in a powerful way, and awaken from this trance.

First half of the talk is on perception and vedanas; the second half is on physical pain.