Dana DePalma has practiced Insight Meditation since 1993 and is a member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council. Dana co-developed and leads innovative programs for the staff at Spirit Rock that combine practice, study and leadership training. She holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology, is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and enjoys sharing the Dharma as a spiritual mentor.
This recording includes a brief talk followed by a guided meditation on The Arriving Sequence, which is an important way we establish sati (mindfulness) in the "Naturally Arising Practice Method," which was created by Phillip Moffitt. The Arriving Sequence cultivates grounded presence and includes: arriving in the present moment, becoming available to the felt sense in the present moment, aligning with our aspirations.
This recording includes a short talk, ritual, and a guided meditation on "The Three Renunciations" practice, which includes renouncing judging, comparing, and fixing mind, as three ways we often resist present moment experience, with a kind attitude expressed through "as best we are able." This practice is part of the Naturally Arising practice method, created by Phillip Moffitt.
This guided meditation goes through the Arriving Sequence, including arriving in the present moment, becoming available to practice, and aligning with our deepest values. Having established ourselves thus, we deepen into the felt sense of presence and aliveness. Includes Mary Oliver’s poem, Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me.
This talk follows the guided meditation from the same evening and continues the exploration of the Arriving Sequence and the felt sense of presence and aliveness. The Arriving Sequence includes arriving in the present moment, becoming available to practice, and aligning with our deepest values. Includes a short guided meditation to demonstrate the steps of the Arriving Sequence and turning toward aliveness and presence.
The paramis of patience and persistence play key roles in supporting our capacity to stay with the ups and downs of practice without succumbing to reactivity, judgement, or discouragement. This talk explores the active quality of persistence, the receptive quality of patience, and how they compliment each other in support of untangling the tangles of heart and mind in this gradual path.
A guided meditation emphasizing deepening, quieting, grounding, letting ourselves be held by nature, and shifting to a deeper and wiser perspective in support of equanimity, a balanced heart-mind. It includes a poem by Mary Oliver, "Swimming, One Day in August."
