The Historical Buddha’s Guidance on Establishing Mindfulness In Meditation
The Historical Buddha’s formula for being skillful in meditation starts with “establishing Mindfulness” as a foundational element. This guidance points to the fact that the kind of Mindfulness needed in meditation does not just happen or appear by itself. It is something that needs to be intentionally established, monitored and sustained every time we meditate in order for our meditation practices to be skillful.
During this evening we’ll take a hands-on-look at: What does it mean to “establish Mindfulness” in our meditation practices? What does one do to establish Mindfulness? How do we know if it has been established? If established, how is it sustained?
These are basic, practical, experiential questions that provide a framework for helping us evaluate the soundness and quality of our meditation practice.
In these times of a particular amount of making, changing and breaking plans, this Talk uses a teaching from Ajahn Chah to explore an alternative attitude of mind to bring to the fluctuations of life, based in wisdom-awareness.
I WANT BURNING: Finding passion and meaning in life and dharma practice
The two book titles mentioned in this presentation are:
- Do You Know Who You Are?: Reading the Buddha’s Discourses by author Krishnan Venkatesh
- The Question of King Ajatasattu (a book-length essay) by author Mu Soeng
The three trainings of the eightfold path are the training in moral integrity (sila), the training in meditation (bhavana), and the training in wisdom (pañña). They are taught in many places in the Pali Canon, nowhere more powerfully than in the Samaññaphala Sutta (Digha Nikaya 2). This sutta, the story of an encounter between the historical Buddha and King Ajatasattu, contains a survey of the other philosophical traditions of the Buddha’s time, a summary of the essence of the Buddha’s teachings illustrated with beautiful similes, and (spoiler alert!) a sad refusal by the King to accept this teaching as the basis for transforming his life. Inspired by two chapters on this sutta (characterized as “almost a Greek tragedy”) in Krishnan Venkatesh’s book “Do You Know Who You Are?” and a book-length essay by Mu Soeng “The Question of King Ajatasattu” (“rightly called one of the most important texts in the Pali Canon”), we will explore in depth how we might answer the King’s question reframed for ourselves: what is the fruit of practice, and what are we willing to do to attain it? This evening’s introduction will help prepare for the SIM daylong on October 30, although both events will stand alone as opportunities to look at the teachings, our practice, and our lives.
The vast majority of us, if we are at all concerned about our planet, are suffering from “climate anxiety”, a new mental phenomena that is now recognized by psychotherapists. We have good reason for having anxiety, especially those of us living in California. Fires, drought and daily reminders of our tenuous environmental situation causes two different responses: to completely ignore the situation or succumb to nihilism. Neither of these responses is helpful for the earth or the individual. Our Buddhist practice sheds much needed light on how we move forward in these challenging times.
Tony Bernhard displayed this chart during his presentation.
Reconsidering Sitting Meditation: An Experiment & Exploration
Sitting Insight Meditation is one essential element of a purposeful and intentional life. It is, at its core, about laying the foundation for a rich, full, satisfying life. It points our mind, heart and body towards a conscious and awake relationship with ourselves, with others and the world around us.
Several preconditions must be in place in order for sitting meditation to play these defining and guiding roles. Specifically, we need to develop a combined conceptual and experience model of what we are doing in meditation, how we are doing it and why we are doing it. If this is not present, our sitting meditation will be unfocused and misdirected. More importantly, it will not direct, support and sustain us on the path to a more satisfying life or a practice with the potential of being release from the constant and punishing management and control of the self or ego.
This evening will involve a reconsideration of several fundamental elements of Sitting Insight Meditation. It will include an experiment during the 700 pm hour.
You will need to have a straight back chair available to use during the meditation.
– the kind that would normally be part of a kitchen or dining room set. We will use the sitting experiment during the first hour as part of our exploration of sitting fundamentals during the 800 pm hour.
The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all stages of practice.
Audio recordings for this retreat are not available to the public however the retreat registrar has provided the attendees with a link and password to access the dharma talks that were recorded. If you’re interested in attending our next annual retreat, visit the retreat overview page, click here.