Teachings of liberation can seem to point to a kind of superhuman perfection, one reinforced by classical images and stories of Buddha and other semi-mythical historical saints. This can make our own freedom of being seem unattainable or at least far distant, yet Dharma teachings and practices emphasize immediate experience as the ground of liberation. This day/weekend will look at our human freedom as very near to hand, and will explore how to contemplate and integrate the liberating possibilities of our practice in the midst of our everyday lives.
Teachings of liberation can seem to point to a kind of superhuman perfection, one reinforced by classical images and stories of Buddha and other semi-mythical historical saints. This can make our own freedom of being seem unattainable or at least far distant, yet Dharma teachings and practices emphasize immediate experience as the ground of liberation. This day/weekend will look at our human freedom as very near to hand, and will explore how to contemplate and integrate the liberating possibilities of our practice in the midst of our everyday lives.
Teachings of liberation can seem to point to a kind of superhuman perfection, one reinforced by classical images and stories of Buddha and other semi-mythical historical saints. This can make our own freedom of being seem unattainable or at least far distant, yet Dharma teachings and practices emphasize immediate experience as the ground of liberation. This day/weekend will look at our human freedom as very near to hand, and will explore how to contemplate and integrate the liberating possibilities of our practice in the midst of our everyday lives.
Teachings of liberation can seem to point to a kind of superhuman perfection, one reinforced by classical images and stories of Buddha and other semi-mythical historical saints. This can make our own freedom of being seem unattainable or at least far distant, yet Dharma teachings and practices emphasize immediate experience as the ground of liberation. This day/weekend will look at our human freedom as very near to hand, and will explore how to contemplate and integrate the liberating possibilities of our practice in the midst of our everyday lives.
This talk was given on the Summer solstice, and the teachings were held outside under the large Plane tree in the Gaia House gardens. Martin explores 3 facets of awareness practice, seeing how they can be applied in any moment, both within the formality of meditation and moment by moment in our wider lives. The 3 are Embodied Presence, Exploration and Inquiry, and Openness to the Nature of experience.
We rely on a sense of certainty and familiarity with how things are, yet when we look closely our experience is uncertain and always presenting anew. Martin looks at the big reference points for our experience; Life, Death, Self and World, pointing to a liberating way of understanding and relating to them that is free of the narrowness of certainty.
Martin explores the twin aspects of Wisdom and Love, as they are expressed in relating to our experience. He looks at the compulsions that easily takes up space in our consciousness, and shows how we can soften around them, and at the tendency to be intolerant, both of ourselves and others, and how we can be forgiving and gracious with our own humanness.
Martin explores the twin aspects of Wisdom and Love, as they are expressed in relating to our experience. He looks at the compulsions that easily takes up space in our consciousness, and shows how we can soften around them, and at the tendency to be intolerant, both of ourselves and others, and how we can be forgiving and gracious with our own humanness.
Martin looks at the constructs of human experience (Nama-Pupa or the aggregates) and explores the transformative insights available to us in looking closely at our moment to moment sense of ourselves and the world around us.
In this introductory talk to the retreat, Martin invites us to practice by doing nothing, not in terms of the retreat format, but in the midst of all activity. He explores how we can speak, move and direct our attention and intention, from a place of profound rest, allowing and inviting everything to happen naturally.
Dana is the practice of generosity as a foundation for happiness or the art of living freely and openly. This talk explores how we can transform the heart in generously meeting ourselves, others and the world around us. We see how qualities of Dana - Generosity, offering, supporting, nourishing, sustaining - are qualities with which to meet and respond skilfully to both outer' situations and inner experience.
Martin asks us first to consider what we really mean by my life, and points beneath the roles, beliefs and activities by which we usually define our lives, to the basic elements of our experience - sensory input, feelings, perceptions, concepts and consciousness. The talk opens up these elements, seeing how our attention to them can teach us, and exploring how we can track, explore and understand our experience as it presents itself, allowing us to respond more fully and freely to the mysterious unfolding display of what we call my life.
Martin looks at qualities of mind that open up our Freedom of Being.He explores how Clarity dissolves our wrong views, how Skilfulness transforms our habits of mind, and how Love can hold all types of experience gently and wisely. The talk keeps references our common experiences, offering practical ways to integrate the teachings.
Our practice offers the opportunity to move beyond a self-centred relationship to life, yet much of our practice is centered on the self! This talk explores dharma practices and skilful means by which to counter our self-centredness and points us towards the ultimate transparency of our sense of self.
In this follow-up, Martin continues to look at the purificatory nature of dharma practice, opening up a space to meet and transform the impact of past habit energy. The teaching deconstructs the notion of karma, and maps the purification of mind-states.
This teaching examines our problematic associations with ideas of Purity, and explores ways that the practice of sitting meditation can be purificatory - both in terms of developing wholesome qualities, and in healing and releasing stored tension patterns.
