Dharmic Strategies For Empaths

This niche topic for empaths, or energetically sensitive beings, encapsulates years of note taking from experience, study and practice, provides nine categories of approach:

1) Gratitude for opportunities
2) Mindfulness (– especially of contact and vēdanā)
3) Hedonic Tone and the Three Characteristics of Existence
4) Self and identification
5) Equanimity and compassion
6) The Four Right Efforts and Five Hinderances
7) Energy
8) Non-attachment
9) Miscellaneous strategies

An Integrating Presence Meditation Circle at Fat Cat Longevity Wednesday September 22, 2021

After joining several meditation circles I now wish to facilitate one. We’ll each bring our meditation experiences to interacting with one another and can then apply beneficial circling takeaways to deepen and enrich our meditation practices.

Join in at Fat Cat Longevity in St Charles on Wednesday, September 22th 2021 from 6:00pm – 6:45pm. (Details in the full blog post)

An Integrating Presence Meditation at Fat Cat Longevity Wednesday August 25, 2021

Join meditation 6:00-6:45pm tonight, Wednesday, August 25th at Fat Cat Longevity [https://facebook.com/freyflow] downstairs next to Peace Love Coffee at Mary’s House of Healing, on Main St in St Charles, MO. Similar to past meditations, we plan to start with brief instructions along with a discussion before and after. Our semi-formal meditation possibilities include — but are not limited to —Continue reading “An Integrating Presence Meditation at Fat Cat Longevity Wednesday August 25, 2021”

Inclusive Compassion Practice (as not to neglect the other Bhramaviharas, or Sublime Abidings)

This blog post provides a more experimental approach involving mostly perception, reflection and contemplation. If not calling to you, or remain unmoved, please pass on it for the time being. Furthermore, any and all constructive critical responses are welcome — especially why this ought to be abandoned and/or any improvement suggestions.

The intent: how to continually practice karuṇā — compassion — at least in the background, even if/when life calls more for the other Bhramaviharas.

Insights And Takeaways From “Love As The Breath Of Life” — Online Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto and Willa Thaniya Reid

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”

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)”

An Integrating Presence Meditation: Breathing Nine Beneficial Energies Into Embodiment — June 29, 2021 At Fat Cat Longevity

In this (now recorded) mediation we worked with breath to embody the beneficial energies of:
• Smiling
• Our most relaxed experience
• Gratitude [and/or appreciation and thankfulness]
• Forgiveness
• Service
• Loving-kindness
• Compassion
• (Vicarious) joy [and/or gladness]
• Equanimity
• [Additional beneficial energies not mentioned:]
◦ various ideal blessings
◦ energies from (being around) your spiritual entourage
◦ goodness
◦ generosity

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