This week, Don guided our reflections on the relations (more complex that we might think) between meditative stillness and the way our mind usually operates: “Monkey Mind”, always looking for the next pleasure or trying to get away from the latest problem. We discussed the concept of samādhi as the Buddha meant it in his discourses. This is typically translated as “concentration”, but that implies success through force of will. In a talk by Marc Weber, we learned that samādhi is not so much something we do, but the result of practicing to bring the mind together, to collect all its wild experiences into a unified whole.
You can listen to Marc’s talk here:
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/74618/
Also brought up during the discussion was this video about an antarctic explorer retracing his path back from the south pole and joyfully discovering the supplies he had left for himself weeks earlier.
Burlington Buddhist Sangha 