Basics: Complete content list

Discussion on the issues of developing and maintaining your own meditation practice.

A two-part talk dealing with Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (the Three Jewels) and about appropriate efforts for the student. Part two of this talk is unavailable.

Discussion and questions on the similarities and differences between prayer and meditation. Looking at the religious icons of Christ on the cross and the Buddha sitting in meditation. Descriptions of some different types of prayer - petitionary, centering, and unitive. Is meditation directed inward and prayer directed outward? Prayer as a way of building an emotional connection; meditation as a way of building capacity. Questions from participants.

Recorded shortly after a tsunami in Asia, this talk centers on using one’s reactions to sudden tragedies as a basis for practice.

Karma as instruction vs. karma as belief, meditation as building a capacity of attention, resting in the experience of breathing, Q&A

Living life without a belief system, the four conditions that generate karma and their four results, Q&A

Q&A session on teaching, making the practice your own, and working with the breath and body in meditation, collective (or national) karma, what is life, ultimate and relative truth

Q&A based on students' meditation on karma and how patterns shape experience.

Overview of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions, problems of factionalism and sectarianism, and a short Q&A

The characteristics of patterns (mechanicality, resonance, crystallization, habituation, layering, webbing), patterns, personality, presence. Meditation instruction on physical reactions when a reactive pattern begins to run.

Q&A on individual responsibility in political and social issues, relationship between compassion and insight, and instruction on the ‘one breath’ meditation

Paired exercise on experiencing reactive patterns; additional instruction on working with reactive patterns

Recognizing reactive patterns, beliefs as fully crystallized patterns, recognizing choice points within patterns, how a pattern impacts all areas of life

Q&A on dealing with reactive patterns, instruction on working with the undischarged feelings within patterns

Q&A on working with what arises in the body. Paired exercise on how reactions in others triggers one’s own reactivity (based on the six realms)

Reaction to, and continuation of, exercise in AFB 9a. Q&A on speaking in attention, anger and non-violence

Using form as a mode of training attention, importance of resting in attention

The eight components of a pattern and their relationship to the five elements and six realms, suggested reading material

The need for ruthlessness with patterns; using mortality as motivation; attention, intention, and will; the four steps to undoing reactive patterns; ways of working with patterns

Releasing physical and emotional sensations behind reactive patterns; not protecting any area of one’s life from practice; keeping things in balance; closing meditation instruction

The Four Noble Truths are about finding a way to live without struggling with what we experience; why "struggle" may be the more appropriate term in English to dukkha; the Eightfold Path as a description of a way of living, but usually interpreted as a prescription for practice; confusion of descriptions of results with means of practice and problems that arise; the fallacy of rational decision making and utility theory as a basis for economics, sociology, and spiritual practice; examination of the first four elements of the Eightfold Path from the perspective of practice; right view is practiced by bringing attention to how you view things; the result will be the traditional description of the characteristics of right view; right intention is to bring attention to intention, what am I doing right now and why?; right speech is to bring attention into the act of speaking, listening to the sound of your own voice when you speak; right action is to bring attention into the experience of…

Review of main points from first talk; two practical frameworks for implementing right action; right livelihood is to bring attention to how you provide for life; livelihood in terms of how we interact with others around earning our living; economies based on consumption vs economies based on intention; right effort is to bring attention to how we are making an effort; four dimensions of capacity; right attention, or mindfulness, is to bring attention to how we are direct attention; right absorption or samadhi is to bring attention to how we rest in attention.

Retreat structure and intention, comments on the Vajrayana path – how it is different and the same, how it is based on compassion and emptiness, which naturally evolve into mindfulness and presence

Are you suitable for Vajrayana? two dangers, review of prayers used in the retreat, questions regarding the retreat structure

Comments on the teacher-student relationship, the responsibilities of the teacher and student, methods that teachers use to reveal presence, provide instruction, and point out student’s internal material

Devotion reveals student’s internal material, difference between faith and belief, three types of faith and how they transform the three poisons, commentary on guru yoga and related prayer (text available on the website), questions from participants

Questions regarding faith and compassion, balance in a guru-student relationship, the three types of faith and the three doors of freedom, questions from participants regarding this practice

Comments on the Buddhist concept of ‘no self’. Yidams or deities as expressions of awakened mind, deity meditation instruction, questions about this how to do this practice

Practice questions regarding pride and compassion, the three classes of deities: peaceful, semi-wrathful, wrathful, review of Tsulak Trengwa’s poem How I Live The Practice (text available on website) which describes the flavor of deity practice, questions regarding deity practice

Discussion on enchantment with dakini and protector practices and how that connects with the origin of these practices, protector meditation instruction and questions

Description of protectors and commentary on related text, importance of moderation in protector practices, connection between the three roots (guru, deity, and protector) and the three marks of existence (suffering, non-self, impermanence), questions on above

Questions and comments on prayer text, magnetization, taking refuge in mind itself, the continual process of meeting what arises in experience, reactive emotions like desire, the eight concerns, working with the type of practice that best engages your internal material

Questions regarding sky gazing and protectors, a story about yidams, a story about protectors, review of various lines of transmissions and lineages

summary: Review of basic meditation, basic means foundational, rest in the experience of breathing; breath is life; relinquishing control and the repeated experience of failure; the body breathes, brings attention to the experience of the body; letting the body find its way to sit vs. imposing a posture; fine points in attuning to the body; attention consists of resting and listening, how to rest and how to listen; short Q&A session

Working with the second of the four noble truths; attraction, aversion and indifference as impulses, and the reactions they initiate; concerns about making things last or getting rid of them; the formation of emotional needs and why they are impossible to meet; the need to be somebody conditioned by both family and society, practice instructions on finding peace and understanding in the experience of emotional impulses; Q&A

The six realms, projections of emotional reactions; anger and the hell realms, greed and the hungry ghost realms, instinct and the animal realms, fun and busynesss in the human realm, jealousy in the titan realm, pride in the god realm; meditation practice on experiencing the six realms; Q&A

Habituation as a form of addiction; the dynamics of addiction from an experiential perspective; the dynamics of addiction from a biochemical perspective; stepping out of addiction to habitual reactions; process through which freedom is found; meditation practice on emptying the six realms; Q&A

Retreat experience to date, locking up in the body, what to do about it, guided meditation on how the six realms appear in daily life, venturing into the mystery of not living in any realm.

Stepping out of the six realms, doing nothing, three aspects of doing nothing, connection with the three marks of existence; no distraction, not holding onto things, differentiating between thoughts and thinking; no control, not trying to control what we experience, connection with suffering; not working at anything, not being somebody, opening to the totality of experience; meditation instruction.

Aim of the retreat, overview of content including levels of practice and meditation methods, initial instruction.

Emotional reactions, what they are, why they are problematic, what does releasing mean, difference between releasing and suppression, instruction in five-step method of releasing from Thich Naht Hanh based on bare attention and the four foundations of mindfulness

Q&A based on students’ experience with bare attention, common difficulties and how to work with them, additional instruction on the four foundations

Taking emptiness and compassion as the framework, difference between actual and projected experience, working with actual experience, instruction in five-step method that uses taking and sending (tonglen) to release emotional reactions.

Q&A based on the students’ experience with taking and sending, common difficulties and how to work with them, additional instruction on taking and sending

Taking original mind, direct awareness, as the basis, all experience as the expression of awareness, instruction in a five-step process based on direct awareness (mahamudra and dzogchen), cautions and pitfalls.

Q&A based on the students’ experience with direct awareness, simplified instruction in the five steps, common difficulties and how to work with them, connecting the three methods, how to use these in life, the student-teacher relationship, challenges in practice.

Retreat summary prepared by grateful students.

Frame work to aid in making the right effort; how we experience; subject/object frame work as an abstraction; dropping sense of I/other; undoing misperceptions of our experience; contemplating change: outer changes defined as objects of our senses, inner changes defined as bodily changes, hidden changes defined as emotions & thoughts; participant’s questions.

False and true dualities; all experience as an expression of knowing & not-knowing; experiencing change in the inner, outer and hidden worlds; experience of non-duality; participant’s questions; meditation instruction on change.

The results of meditating on death & impermanence; dilemma of uncertainty of death; 2 aspects of death: death is inevitable, could die at any moment; other forms of dying besides physical: dying to the idea of getting our emotional needs met, dying to the idea of being somebody; life is ordered and chaotic.

Participant’s experience with meditation on life’s paradox; letting go of our identities as death; experiencing identities; Milarepa’s Six Ways to Meet Death with Confidence; true freedom is including both order and chaos in our experience; being no one; relaxing in the experience of what is; 10 virtues and their use in engaging life; experiencing effortless good; energy of attention permeating experience; wisdom & means as the two aspects of presence.

Falsity of subject/object duality; world we experience is born with us; our world composed of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and void; five elements as a spectrum; in death the world of our experience dissolves; stages of dying as the dissolution of the five elements; death of self; death of a relationship; practice instructions; stages of stillness of mind.

No description found for this item.

Participants questions are: How do I respond rather than react?; How do I take my life into my practice?; How do I deal with anxiety in my sitting practice?; How do I deal with distractions in my practice?.

Participants' questions are: Is it helpful to have many different practices?, How do I not resist dying?, How do I stop doing?, How do I deal with frustration in my practice?, Is there a difference between observing the breath and resting in the breath?

Participants' questions are: What strategies exist for experiencing emotions?, What do I do with my anger?, What role do negative emotions play?, How do I deal with the feeling of hardening arising from anger?

Relationships: what makes them work; participant's questions

What would you like to change about you or your life?; primary practice; changing me; introducing a new dynamic through meditation; why do I practice?; what to do about Christmas?.

Faith as a willingness to open to whatever arises; faith in Buddhism; 3 types of faith; faith vs belief; point of faith?; faith as an immeasureable; faith and rational thought; cultivating faith.

Discussion of meditation postures; guided meditation on experiencing discomfort; holding emotions tenderly in attention; no expectations.

Subjects include: how to deal with distractions, finding a path and different practice traditions.

Subjects include: dealing with negativity, the four immeasurables, nervousness, and Mother's Day.

Subjects include: dropping into awareness, changes as a result of practice, practice influencing karma, decision making, collapsing down.

Different roles of a teacher; teachers in different traditions; more than one teacher? devotion; personality; trust; what does it take to find a teacher?

A guided journey through the progression of one meditation practice, from resting in attention to the union of awareness and experience (mahamudra, dzogchen). Begins with instruction on posture, resting in the experience of breathing, resting in the experience of the body, the breath, and opening to all experience. Then the journey moves to how to bring in the heart and finally how to open to the union of awareness and experience.

Way-seeking mind; non-self; nurturing the direction of non-self; resting in the experience of breathing vs focusing on the breath; plateau in practice.

How do you balance not craving with the need for money? What causes a lack of self-worth? How do you face disappointment gracefully? Serving what is true. The four steps of standing up. Goals, intentions, and being content. How does one keep going?

What is karma? Do I need to believe in reincarnation? What is the role of celibacy in Buddhism? What should I do when distractions arise while meditating? Resting in the experience of breathing instead of placing attention on your breath. The four states of conflict. What is the practical or real-world benefit of meditation?

How do I deal with anxiety when meditating? Impermanence and the four ends. Guilt and morality. Shame and joy. What is the future of buddhism? Messing with your practice.

Understanding the three jewels on a personal level. What am I suppose to get from meditation? Evolution or revolution? Do you advocate a certain technique over another? How do I deal with physical sensations and movements during meditation?

Meditation instruction in three lines, working with emotions, what to do with insights and memories that emerge when meditating, does meditating reduce unwanted emotions.

How to work with positive reactions in practice including suggested meditation; questions and answers on using that meditation instruction.

If being here “this way” is completely unacceptable, what are the alternatives? Being with resentment, victimhood, old habits, fear of change, and other stories we tell ourselves.

Meditation as a way to build abilities, distinguishing between thinking and thoughts, fundamentals of meditation practice, creating the right conditions for practice, resting in the experience of breathing

What is appropriate/useful to share in a relationship? What tools can I use to let go of unproductive emotions? Instruction on taking and sending. What is the point of resting with the breath? Prayer and meditation. Seeking clarity in relationships by listening to one’s heart. Working with self-hatred. Please note that due to technical difficulties the audio quality of this recording is uneven.

How can I maintain a regular practice? How can meditation help me build good habits and maintain a sense of happiness? What is the difference between sitting meditation and moving meditation, and how do both relate to the instruction to ‘go to the body’? How do you meditate without goals? How should I do with thoughts that arise during meditation? Why can noting during meditation become an obstacle? What can I do about anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, and insomnia. Should I cultivate specific emotions, like loving-kindness, prior to meditating?

How do I get rid of negative feelings and reactions? Do the efficacies of a teaching continue after a teacher is gone? If practice doesn’t change one’s reactions, can it change how you act? Coming to a crossroad in one’s practice. What is the boundary for sharing in relationships? Are guided meditations trying to control one’s experience? I don’t know how to respond when asked “How is your practice?” How can I forgive? How do I sit with physical pain? Are thoughts an ongoing reaction at the subconscious level? Are there Buddhist writings regarding the creative process?

Prayers and rituals to evoke the emotions of devotion, loving-kindness, and compassion in order to be clear, present, and open during meditation, the importance of intention, concluding meditation by letting go of judgement and attachment

Why distinct thoughts can feel like random, chaotic chatter the longer one practices. The dynamics of balance. Exploring teacher-student interactions under the client model. Working with the emotions of intolerance and hatred; desire, attachment, frustration and action; anger, sadness, and loneliness.

Working with anger and hurt; Developing a path with depth; Intention, family, and holidays; Thoughts and resting with the breath; Frenetic energy and getting things done; How much should one practice

Meditating on your last breath. Is doing your best enough? Incorporating what arises in practice. The inevitability of death. But I am not really dying. Letting go of what you feel you're suppose to feel. Working with things you don't like.

Introduction of participants; workshop outline; meditation instruction; Who am I conventionally speaking? What are my interests, talents, influences, gifts? Where am I going?

Who am I ultimately? Am I my name, my body, my feelings, my thoughts, what I experience? sense of self; impermanence of self; independence of self; irreducible aspect of self.

Who am I functionally? Who am I in the family environment? Who am I in the work environment? Who am I acting in each of the six realms?

On being nobody; our situation consists of: nothing at the core, emotional reactions from roles, world of stories; tools: black box, middle way, interdependence; closing.