September 22, 2023 UPDATE: Retreat video now on YouTube: The recent online Ajahn Sucitto and Willa Thaniya Reid retreat “Love as the Breath of Life” brought forth such a plethora of insight amidst (minor) domestic challenges such as establishing and maintaining one’s retreat space amidst everyday home life. I liken much of the notes belowContinue reading “Insights And Takeaways From “Love As The Breath Of Life” — Online Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto and Willa Thaniya Reid”
Category Archives: Conversations
An Integrating Presence Meditation: Deeply Sensing Body Areas — July 28, 2021 At Fat Cat Longevity
This meditation (recorded live) aims to strengthen and deepen the 32 Parts of the Body portion of Body Contemplation in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness — not meant as regular practice or substitute. Partial inspiration comes from this Four Foundations of Mindfulness visual:
“Just as if there were a double-mouthed provision bag full of various kinds of grain such as hill paddy, paddy, green gram, cow-peas, sesamum, and husked rice, and a man with sound eyes, having opened that bag, were to take stock of the contents thus: “This is hill paddy, this is paddy, this is green gram, this is cow-pea, this is sesamum, this is husked rice.” Just so, monks, a monk reflects on this very body enveloped by the skin and full of manifold impurity, from the soles up, and from the top of the head-hairs down, thinking thus: “There are in this body hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, midriff, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, gorge, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovial fluid, urine.” ~The Foundations of Mindfulness — Satipatthana Sutta
Materiality And Mentality | (7/27/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu And Guest Beth Upton)
For this month’s regular open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything LIVE” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — Denny and I chat with meditation teacher Beth Upton most significantly about the Dependent Origination link Nāmarūpa, or Materiality and Mentality, which, according to Wikipedia, is “used in Buddhism to refer to the constituents of aContinue reading “Materiality And Mentality | (7/27/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu And Guest Beth Upton)”
Kind Boundaries
“To be kind to those who are unkind in return only seems one-sided to the one ‘keeping score’. When reciprocity doesn’t come from people around you, but from the will of the Universe moving through a depiction of characters, you will come to realize how people’s behavior is more reflective of where they are in their journey and never a reflection of your intention or self-worth. While you certainly don’t have to be best friends or lovers with those who ‘take’ with nothing else to ‘give’, because you are serving the will of the Universe, you are always being celebrated by the loving intelligence of divinity for all that you do — even when received by people solely designed to reflect your progress out of the plight of unfairness and into the light of eternal faith.” — from the 7/4/2021 Matt Kahn newsletter
This blog post responds to following question put to me that references the above quote:
“A question for you, as stated today in Matt Kahn’s newsletter that you don’t have to be friends with those who are unkind to you, do you think it’s more of a reacting in the moment with kindness and then you are ok to choose not to hang out with them anymore? And then how do you handle this with family or people you are more obligated or even forced to see for some time until you can completely break the relationship? I understand fully those societal obligations can be broken but just curious on your take on repeat interactions with those who are unkind.”
Form And Formless | (6/29/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)
For this month’s regular open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything LIVE” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — Denny draws from, and summarizes the teaching of Shifu Ji Ru to link together the Four Great Elements, Four “Mighty” Postures, Four Right Knowings, Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Three (or Four) Dharma Seals, and Three Gates of Liberation.
June 2021 Full Moon Dhamma Gathering: Truth
Due to a major interest in truth, I answered the call to read a Sutta at Beth Upton’s June 2021 full moon gathering. Each of these monthly online get-togethers explores a different topic and offers “a chance to deepen our connections with each other through group meditation and Dhamma discussion.”
Amongst other things, this blog post includes the text I read along with a passage from another text I considered reading; relevant quotes about truth; the main questions we explored and some we did not
Towards Everyday Implementation Of The Universal Beautiful Mental Factors
Dhamma and meditation teacher Beth Upton — who’s other chats I’ve posted — recently held a three part event with Dharma Gates called “Truth, Suffering and Liberation”. I’ve edited out most everything except my responses to Beth’s questions and her responses to me so please watch the full video at the end of this post especially if requiring more context.
Beth read an excerpt of the Aggañña Sutta about the origin of human kind on planet earth then linked our suffering, caused by the defilements (dramatic depicted in the sutta) to the Buddha’s antidote: the The Universal Beautiful Mental Factors (sobhanasādhāraṇa). Beth then offered a short teaching followed by a guided meditation and discussion on her condensed and more practical version of these Mental Factors from the Abhidhamma which are:
• Faith
• Mindfulness
• Non-greed
• Non-hatred
• Morality
• Balance
• Tranquility
• Lightness
• Softness
• Flexibility
• Uprightness/Authenticity/Truthfulness
• Proficiency
This post includes my responses (in an edited video) to Beth’s group-guiding questions along with a few new written responses.
Practicing in the Desire Realm | (5/25/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)
For this month’s regular open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — (despite some technical snafus) Denny and I pick one topic each we’ve yet to discuss much publicly — the Eight “Touches”, and wholesome sexuality(/sexual energy), respectively.
Mindful Practice Of Body, Qi And Mind – 1st Annual Review | (4/27/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)
For this month’s regular open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — Denny and I review the 63 consecutive weeks of online practice Denny continues to lead. The original (amended) show notes are as follows: (From Josh): (Depending on temperament and experience level, some may find this chat tedious,Continue reading “Mindful Practice Of Body, Qi And Mind – 1st Annual Review | (4/27/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)”
Study Group: A Commentary by Inoue Gien Roshi on Keizan Zenji’s “Record of the Transmission of Illumination”
A Confluence Zen Center study group, for six consecutive Thursday evenings starting April 8th: . . . will be reading a commentary by Inoue Gien Roshi on Keizan Zenji’s , “Record of the Transmission of Illumination” [German-English translation in PDF from Terebess and PDF from Shastaabbey]. This is the current text that Daigaku is translating. WeContinue reading “Study Group: A Commentary by Inoue Gien Roshi on Keizan Zenji’s “Record of the Transmission of Illumination””
Integrating Presence 