07/09/2020 “Ordinary” with Rich Howard

Insight is central to our practice of mindful awareness at SIM, as it is central to our name. We may frame it as a dramatic experience, “a flash of lightning in a summer cloud” as it says in the Diamond Sutra. We may hold an expectation that it is only available in settings far from our daily lives, on pilgrimage to a holy land or in extended retreat at a meditation center. What if it is available in the most ordinary of circumstances? What if we are setting the conditions for insight in the most mundane activities and familiar places of our lives? What if we let our expectations drop away and came into just this moment? In this evening’s talk and discussion, we will explore the terrain of the ordinary.