John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight) and Metta (Loving Kindness) meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco, and an Advanced Practitioners Program group. He serves as Co-Chair of the Guiding Teachers Committee for Spirit Rock, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. John is also the co-guiding teacher for the LGBTQueer Sangha at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City.
John is currently leading a year long Satipitthana Intensive Practice program and will be on the teaching team for the two year Spirit Rock Dedicated Practitioners Program that will begin in the Spring of 2022.
In his prior work life, John served as Airport Director of SFO for over twenty years. He had a career committed to public service.
His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects.
This talk emphasizes Wise Intention in the context of a long retreat: Wise Intention includes the three aspects of renunciation (letting go of the sense desire), loving kindness and compassion.
The Buddha taught that the six sense spheres of hearing, seeing, sensing, smelling, tasting and cognizing represent "the all". The Bahiya Sutta points directly to the sense spheres as not-self.
This talk provides an overview of the Four Noble Truths, with primary focus on the Noble Truth of Dukkha and the Noble Truth of the Cause of Dukkha. Mindfulness of death is reviewed as a support for practice.
