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Discovering Stillness
Stilling the mind connects us to a tremendous sense of wellbeing. This is not something we can do, but something we can allow and become. So the skillful question is: Living in a world filled with distractions, busyness, to do lists, etc, what can we do to create the ease and environment to allow our minds to… Read more
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Antidotes to the Hindrances
Bringing awareness to our experience, we will eventually notice the motions of the mind that are known in Buddhist thought as the Five Hindrances. Desire and aversion, ill will, restlessness and worry, sloth and torpor, and doubt appear and disappear, mixing in a complex alchemy that can seem, at times, to take over our life.k… Read more
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Joy Why Choose it? and How?
In times as edgy and dark as these might seem to many, Joy seems a remote possibility. But discovering Joy is an essential part of the Buddha’s teachings: it’s even one of the Seven Factors of Awakening, not to be omitted, or even set aside as something shallow or less noble. How might we cultivate joy, and… Read more
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Steps to Awakening
The underlying method of Buddha’s teaching is one of cultivating conditions, rather than hoping for a miracle. Even Awakening itself is a matter of causes and conditions, which means that it can be cultivated. The Seven Factors of Awakening, as we would suspect, begin with mindfulness, leading to exploration, energy, joy, tranquility, samadhi and finally equanimity. Don led… Read more
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Human Needs and Human Freedom
Do human needs undermine the Buddhist path, or provide the stone on which our practice is sharpened? What does it mean to have needs as a human being on a path that seems always to teach letting go, non-attachment, and non-self? What does it mean to have dreams, aspirations, and deeply held values on this path? … Read more
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Equanimity Here there and everywhere
Ellen shared some thoughts and explorations of equanimity this week. It appears in the Brahma Viharas, the 7 factors of awakening and the 10 perfections/paramis. Equanimity has roles to play in our meditations and in our day to day lives. This exploration was be followed by a brief talk by Heather Martin introducing an equanimity… Read more
