I have always enjoyed working with practitioners who are continuing to deepen their practice. In the many long retreats I teach at both IMS and Spirit Rock, I feel free to pass on the deepest pointings I’ve found in the teachings of the Buddha in the Pali Canon. Those are my guiding lights in practice and understanding.
It is fun for me to take the most difficult concepts and put them into accessible language, to unwrap the mystery. So I try to find ways to explore the breadth of concepts like "emptiness" -- to see how the entire path can be explained in terms of this synonym for nibbana. One of my aims is to bring the goal of freedom into the here and now. This way practitioners get a taste of freedom, so they know what they are heading toward on their journey to liberation.
The tools of mindfulness and lovingkindness can be picked up by anyone. They are easy to understand and they bring immediate benefit to our lives. The essence of vipassana is ideally suited to western society, especially to the resonance between our psychological turn of mind and our quest for spiritual understanding.
This talk explores three aspects of the mind as described by Lama Shabkar: “The mind is like a flawless piece of crystal: intrinsically empty, naturally radiant, and ceaselessly responsive.”
The four brahma viharas with their near and far enemies form a complete map of our emotional responses to the joys and sorrows of life. This talk focuses primarily on the qualities of compassion and mudita.
There are five key benefits of Metta practice: making the heart more tender, purifying the mind, concentration, connection to all of life, and real happiness.
