After thirty-five years of experience around the dharma, with eight of these years in Asia, I am still deeply inspired, as a teacher, by students' progress with the practice. I see the questioning I do with myself reflected in others. The infinite loop of my practice and my teaching becomes a self-fulling prophecy. As I see others letting go of old baggage, it inspires me to continue questioning myself.
My teachings, for I am not a scholar, come from my experience on the pillow. In the first ten years of the practice, I worked on the pain of life, the confusion, how to gain clarity. In the next ten, I was finding balance in non-attachment; being in life, but not wanting to enter life. In the last ten, I've been learning how to engage with the stickiness of living and loving. I ask, how kind are people to each other? How can we find a place inside that is not afraid anymore?
We need to know what drives us and our minds, how to relieve the cultural anxiety all around us. We need to stop and slow down, to start feeling. But the dharma not just a stress reduction course; the teachings point directly toward the nature of human conditioning and our freedom.
Overall, my teachings are very much about self-acceptance, giving ourselves space to do the practice and find our own voice. My intention is to give people permission to listen to themselves, to become friends with themselves. Ultimately, this moment is enough, we're enough, and don't need to be anything other than we are.
In John's classic style, the Talk begins with a funny story and a moving poem, followed by John's reflections and stories from around the world about the theme of working with Wanting and Aversion in the mind. The Talk concludes with thoughts about Views and Opinions, the Sense of Self and Awareness.
John shares stories of his own personal lineage of practice from elders of the Thai Forest Tradition, including teaching based on Ajahn Chah's 'taking the one seat'.
wonderful story about ascending Mt. Fuji at the tail end of a typhoon. Followed by a clear description of the four types of Papancha: wanting, aversion, views on opinions and selfing.
After a 'laugh out loud' introductory teaching, the talk deeply explores the Three Characteristics of change, suffering, and not self; and the Three Subtle Characteristics of emptiness, suchness, and 'not there with the object'.
Drawing on the Thai Forest Tradition, in particular Ajahn Mun, Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Maha Boowa, we explore the image of the one seat as a pointer to freedom.
The talk begins with the stories and teachings of the Thai Forest meditation masters, and continues with personal stories and the teaching of 'taking the one seat'.
How to work with hindrances, pleasant and unpleasant, and allow the knowing quality to shine forth; 'sitting in the center' of all things.
The talk outlines the Three Characteristics (change - suffering - not self) and the Three Subtle Characteristics (emptiness - suchness - not with the object). Teachings on the 4 Seals and the 5 Aggregates are also offered.
