The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Retreat Dharma Talks at Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge

November 6 - December 4 2018 at IMS - Forest Refuge

2018-11-06 (29 days) Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge

  
2018-11-18 21 Standing Meditation: Where There Is No Activation in the Body 40:13
Ajahn Sucitto
The theme of this meditation is to move attention from more activated areas to parts that have no activation at all. Beginning with the sense of balance and cohesion, guidance is provided to sense through the entire body, sustaining a soft attitude with no time frame, a quality of very little effort.
2018-11-19 22 Leave Space for Miracles 54:00
Ajahn Sucitto
The cultivation of samatha is to be able to direct one’s intentions and attention away from the afflictive activations, settling into a place where they’re not happening. This place of cooling and ceasing is to be lingered in. Here we come out of the personality and into the realm of the miraculous.
2018-11-21 23 Ānāpānasati – A Model for Cultivation and Freedom 53:34
Ajahn Sucitto
In the search for happiness, we generally only experience the search, marked by discomfort or desperation. Relationship is key. The instructions for ānāpānasati train us to develop a more dispassionate relationship where we learn to stand in the presence of, or witness from, the edge of experience. From here the right kind of relationship, marked by non-expectation and non-aversion, can be cultivated.
2018-11-22 24 Place Attention Directly on the Here and Now 29:37
Ajahn Sucitto
There is a different way to meet what arises rather than through our conditioned perceptions, one free of self, other people, the future. Place attention on what’s arising directly as it is.
2018-11-22 25 What Sustains a Steady Heart Energy? 49:41
Ajahn Sucitto
Compulsive problematic activations can be replaced with conscious deliberate ones aimed at liberation. Whether in daily activities or in the action of meditation, we can steady and calm energy by orienting around skillful signs – generosity, service, clarity – until the mind is comforted and no longer flowing down old tracks.
2018-11-22 26 Fields as a Way of Experiencing Phenomena 16:45
Ajahn Sucitto
In a field of experience, qualities that are assumed to be other people, entities or myself because of the way they’re stuck together can be seen as specific factors that are pliable and flexible. “Field awareness” means a wider span of attention where suppressed, unnoticed, unresolved energies can arise and be discharged, purifying the bodily field.
2018-11-23 27 Don’t Go into Things until You Can Stay Out of Them 41:53
Ajahn Sucitto
We need firm ground to stand on before meeting the difficulties of our lives. Without that firm place, the difficulties don’t unravel –you unravel. With cultivation of the five spiritual faculties – indriyas – they become rock solid, enabling us to stand back from experience and allow it to unravel and pass.
2018-11-24 28 The Luminous Citta 27:56
Ajahn Sucitto
The aggregates themselves are not problematic, it’s our blind, desperate clinging to them that causes suffering. It’s possible for citta to radiate into the aggregates and into our lives. First what’s needed is the act of withdrawing into a place of refuge to collect and gather. Then the act of integration, bringing qualities of calm, kindness, resolve into our spee
2018-11-25 29 Returning to Center 53:17
Ajahn Sucitto
Citta takes the five khandhå as truth, placing faith in them to be reliable and satisfying. The Buddha likened them to murderous thieves, not trustworthy. Truth is found in our center, not the peripherals. This is where our liberation potential lies.
2018-11-25 30 Q&A 1:13:38
Ajahn Sucitto
Translation of vipassana bhumi chant; clarificiation around sutta passage that asserts that a female could never become a Buddha; why we chant the Refuge Mantra 9 times; questions around working with perception; skillful contemplation of independence; taking pleasure from food; how to recognize and clear blocked energy in the body
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