Tag Archive for: Rich Howard

08/13/2020 “Awareness and Friends: An Intro” with Rich Howard

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Mindful awareness is at the core of our meditation practice. When cultivated properly, awareness is joined and supported by other mental factors that arise naturally: clear seeing, clear comprehension, tranquility, acceptance, joy, and eventually non-attachment, compassion, equanimity, and wisdom. We will explore the role of awareness in our practice and look more deeply at this circle of “friends” that accompany awareness.
This evening will stand alone and will also serve as an introduction to the daylong on Saturday, August 29.

Retreat Registration

This day of practice will be in the style of Sayadaw U Tejaniya, a contemporary Burmese monk, with an open schedule conducive to home practice. It should work well on Zoom.

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07/09/2020 “Ordinary” with Rich Howard

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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.

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06/11/2020 “Freedom” with Rich Howard

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The word “freedom” means different things to different people, depending on what limits are imposed on them. Currently, many people are calling for “freedom” from the public health guidelines that ask us to keep physical distance from others and not gather in large groups. The idea of “freedom” in the Buddhist psychology has a very different context. For many, the aspiration for practicing meditative awareness is freedom from greed hatred and delusion, freedom from “suffering.” This freedom has the potential to lead to cessation, “the unshakeable liberation of mind.” Let’s explore some meanings of freedom, the ways recommended by the Buddha for approaching and finding freedom, and how we might apply these teachings to our current cirumstances.

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05/14/2020 “TBD” with Rich Howard

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TBD is an acronym that stands for “To Be Determined.” So many aspects of our lives right now are “to be determined”: When will schools re-open? When will a vaccine for COVID-19 be developed? When will I be able to visit [insert your favorite person’s name here]? When will I be able to go to a retreat center? The answers to all these questions and so many more will flow from a complex set of causes and conditions over which we have no control. So, how does that feel? How can we use the practice of meditative awareness to develop a sense of ease with changing and uncertain conditions? How can we apply both wisdom and compassion to work with this question?

We will also explore an alternate interpretation of “To Be Determined.” One of the ten paramis is adhitthana, or determination, in the sense of resoluteness or resolve. It may be helpful as the stay-at-home orders continue to cultivate an attitude of determination lightened by patience and kindness. We will look at how these qualities of mind might be applied to the way things are right now.

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04/30/2020 “Paradox of Physical Distancing” Community Meeting

The Paradox of Physical Distancing…Finding Connection

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Join co-hosts Rev. Diane Wilde and Rich Howard on Zoom for a community evening looking at how we can connect in this extraordinary time of physical distancing and potential isolation. After we sit together, Diane and Rich will give short “dharmettes” to introduce the theme. The rest of the evening will be a chance for community members to share their experience and wisdom on how we are using the practice of meditative awareness in this time and what we are learning about our attachments in the process.

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04/02/2020 “Practicing the Heart Qualities Together” with Rich Howard

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In these challenging times, we need to cultivate both wisdom and the qualities of the heart. In this evening of practice and discussion, we will practice gratitude and the four brahmaviharas: metta (boundless friendliness, loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), upekkha (equanimity). Between each of these short meditations, we will discuss what came up and how it felt. Join us for an evening of opening the heart and creating community.

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02/27/2020 “Awareness, Effort, and Right View” with Rich Howard

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HANDOUT: Awareness, Effort, and Right ViewDownload

Google “mindfulness” and you’ll find this definition (from Psychology Today): “Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention to the present.” On the other hand, Burmese monk and meditation teacher Sayadaw U Tejaniya titled one of his books “Awareness Alone is Not Enough.” What else is needed? Won’t it be complicated? With all the approaches to mindfulness floating around, it may be a challenge to know how to practice a simple yet effective form of awareness that leads to insight and eventually freedom. With reminders from Sayadaw’s two most recent books, “Collecting Gold Dust” and “Relax and Be Aware” as well as his classics, we will look at the wider context of Awareness/Mindfulness/Attention: how it might differ from some of the popular notions, how it fits in the Noble Eightfold Path, and how it supports our search for freedom. This evening will be a good preparation for the retreat on February 29*.

* The daylong retreat on February 29 was themed “Awareness Practice and Inquiry”. Although the retreat talks were not recorded, here are a couple of related handouts that Rich Howard wanted to share with this post.

HANDOUT: Right Attitude for MeditationDownload
HANDOUT: Collecting Gold DustDownload
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01/09/2020 “The Five Reflections” with Rich Howard

The Five Reflections: The Adult Facts of Life

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Handout: Five Reflections (.pdf)Download

The Five Reflections are that we are subject (1) to aging, (2) to illness, and (3) to death; (4) that we will be separated from all that is dear to us; and (5) that we are responsible for our own actions and destiny. Many Buddhists throughout the world take these as a daily practice, a reminder that everything is impermanent and that loss is never far away. The historical Buddha recommended reflecting often on these facts “whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained.” On this evening of reflection and discussion, we will examine each of these “adult facts of life” and explore our relationship to them.

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12/26/2019 “Dana in Theory and Practice” with Rich Howard

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Dana is one of the core practices of our Insight/Vipassana tradition, and it is fraught with potential baggage. On this evening, we will examine dana and related concepts (giving, generosity, renunciation), its place on various Buddhist lists, and how it might fit into our contemporary practice. Rich will include some of the classical stories of dana from the Pali Canon and invite discussion of how this practice, which like many Buddhist practices runs “against the stream” of current American culture, has been working for you.

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10/17/2019 “A Lump of Foam: The Five Aggregates” with Rich Howard

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The five Aggregates of Clinging are an excellent means for seeing the three universal characteristics: impermanence, conditionality/insubstantiality and suffering/stress. This phrase is repeated like a mantra in the many suttas about the aggregates: “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.” We will discuss how to use the aggregates in our daily lives to foster insight into how we suffer.

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