Vegan. Digital craftsman. Tea explorer. Avid learner of things. Writes code @automattic.
This past Sunday, Sam guided our reflections on Non-Duality. This spiritual approach spans a number of different orientations and appears in different forms in Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as esoteric versions of other faiths. The discussion was broadened with a recorded talk by James Baraz:
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/86/talk/11695/
In particular, we listened to minutes 6:47-13:03 and 21:59-54:44.
Following our discussion of dukkha, Joey offered the guidance by Yanai Postelnik on the hindrances and how we can work with them. You might notice how they are arising in your practice this week, naming them and bringing any part of that experience to our discussion. Just to remind you, the hindrances are desire, aversion, torpor or sleepiness, restlessness and doubt.
Yanai Postelnik on Hindrances
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/193/talk/32040/
Payton led the discussion on Sunday around the topic of sitting (or walking, or standing, or lying down) with physical discomfort and pain. The focus was a talk given by Sky Dawson, available here:
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/199/talk/20612/
Some key points from her talk:
Is a mountain heavy? Only if we try to pick it up.
What happens when you feel pain in the body? How do we know it’s pain? Is your experience of pain always the same? The concept of pain can be huge, but isn’t it contextual?
It’s best not to try to endure the pain; allowing it to reach a peak without trying to manage it takes much longer to drop down again. If it increases, take steps to manage it.
“In practice, why do I move? … Why do you stop sitting?” Is it to alleviate discomfort? Right there is Dhukka: the nature of having a body and the feeling of always being dissatisfied.
We anticipate pain and then we can’t relax in the here and now. With chronic pain, even if you have no pain right now, we can’t relax because you’re always waiting for the next onslaught.
Shinzen Young: Suffering = Pain x Resistance.
Rebecca guided a fascinating conversation today on the oft-misunderstood topic of Renunciation as an element of the Eightfold path.
Rebecca read passages from Joseph Goldstein’s book, Mindfulness: a Practical guide to Awakening.
This Sunday Wendy guided the sangha through a continuation of our recent discussions of “stream entry” from the Buddhist perspective. A recorded talk by Stephen Bachelor was included and is linked below:
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/169/talk/29153/
This Sunday Zac prompted our reflection and dialogue with the story of the Four Divine Messengers. The tale holds truths about initiatory experiences, setting forth on the path, catalysts for transformation, and reveals a particular archetype of the spiritual path. The talk and discussion focused on the divine messengers in our lives today.
Joey guided our reflections this past Sunday as we focused on Wise Speech, drawing from several sources including Joseph Goldstein and Gregory Kramer.
Here is the talk by Joseph Goldstein:
Payton led the discussion centered around the idea of Papancha, or Mental Proliferation. The seminal sutta on this topic is the “Honeyball Sutta”, where it’s explained as: first there is the coming together of three things, an object, a sensory organ, and consciousness. The meeting of these three is “contact”. Contact leads to feeling tone (Vedana), which leads to perception (naming), which leads to thinking about, which then leads to Mental Proliferation.
We listened to a talk by James Baraz entitled “The Honeyball Sutta: The Source of Our Confusion and the Way Out”.
