While the past couple weeks we’ve discussed the elevated ideas about the nature of self, it is important to remember the importance of turning our concepts into intuitive wisdom. To borrow a phrase from the yogic tradition: lifting energy combined with groundedness leads to spaciousness.
Dharma Teacher Michelle Macdonald explores this shifting balance in an insightful talk, excerpts from which will be the prompt for our discussion this coming Sunday.
She begins boldly: when we open our hearts, we open to everything. And we don’t get to decide what comes in. This can be painful, and our aversion to that pain leads to dukkha.
So we practice. We practice wisdom and compassion. We keep coming back to the present moment, anchoring to what is safe when we need stability, and, feeling stable, we can then explore, arriving at an embodied, grounded, present moment practice.
You can listen to the talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/33249/
