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.
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.
We develop appreciative joy (Mudita) by focusing on the happiness in others' lives and our life, leading also to a sense of gratitude. Joy and happiness then serve as links that lead onward to liberation.
This talk explores fear as a form of craving and also several particular fears, such as death, judgement, and emptiness. It concludes with practical instructions on working with fear in meditation, which can lead to a fearlessness with all difficult states.
Harsh judgements of ourselves in practice and in life may be connected to an underlying sense of not being good enough. The talk explores remedies in the moment (mindfulness and reflection) and long term (metta, selflessness).
