(Ai assist:) Executive coach and deep Dharma practitioner Brian Newman shares his journey into the Pa-Auk Sayadaw meditation lineage and the transformative power of strong samatha (concentration) practice. Brian explains how the need for unwavering presence in his coaching work led him to meditation, quitting alcohol, and eventually discovering that the ancient maps of theContinue reading “Faith, Persistence, Nimitta, Waiting For Jhana And The Four Elements | Anapanasati Series With Brian Newman”
Tag Archives: abhidhamma
Catalysts For Awakening and Change Series Encore: The Illusion Of Movement With Dean Graves
Dean Graves returns to address the illusion of movement and along the way (mostly he) builds various avenues into this with topics such as the structure of creation, the intoxication of freewill, the five inherent characteristics, meditation, awareness, love, wisdom, unity, perception, Self, time, omniscience, autonomy, ego, and the many levels, the curriculum, and progressionContinue reading “Catalysts For Awakening and Change Series Encore: The Illusion Of Movement With Dean Graves”
Emotions and Thinking | April 22, 2024 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #20
In this twentieth installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion we explore the highly significant topics of emotions and thinking (again) such as how to train and work with them inside and outside of (formal) meditation including various views, responses, and relationships to/about thinkingContinue reading “Emotions and Thinking | April 22, 2024 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #20”
Somewhat Advanced (Yet Mostly Mundane) Practices
This article is a hodgepodge collection of various ideas and approaches to particular challenges in various areas of experience. It collects prior Integrating Presence blog posts along with new material. Challenges: Family, Ex-partners, difficult folks and their social media Are you a cyber stalker? Do you check in on what your ex is posting onContinue reading “Somewhat Advanced (Yet Mostly Mundane) Practices”
Dharma Questions: Abhidhamma (With Beth Upton)
[10/3/22 UPDATE: This post was originally published on 8/4/2022. Since then I decided to ask Beth Upton back to address some of these questions and had to change the blog post publishing date in order for WordPress to push this out as a new podcast. I told Beth beforehand I’d do an extra audio introContinue reading “Dharma Questions: Abhidhamma (With Beth Upton)”
Lawyering Down, Kundalini-ing Up With Kara Bitar
On July 21, 2022, Optimization Coach and Kundalini Yoga Teacher Kara Bitar and I spoke about Kara’s journey from high powered lawyer to ill health to healing to teaching and coaching: I hold a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and practiced high-stakes corporate litigation at one of the largest law firms in theContinue reading “Lawyering Down, Kundalini-ing Up With Kara Bitar”
Being And Living As Better Beautiful Humans: In Conversation With David Hults
Despite an ambulance, trash truck and airplanes this still very listenable podcast recorded July 14th joins an in real life caffeinated conversation already underway between David Hults and I about a wide variety of topics including: QuestionWhat some say is the truth,Others say is false.So they argue, disagreeing;Why don’t the ascetics teach one truth? BuddhaIndeedContinue reading “Being And Living As Better Beautiful Humans: In Conversation With David Hults”
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)”
Dharma Questions: Miscellany — Part 5
This irregular “Dharma Questions” series deals with “dharma” meaning both the truth of the nature of reality and some Buddhist teachings. Amongst other things these questions can be:
• thought experiments
• borderline musings not meant to be answered
• from laziness of not contemplating or researching them yet
There’s 16 questions. Here’s two:
What is the root condition of annica — impermanence, inconstancy?
What are any and all similarities and differences between “Para Brahman” and “Nirvana”?
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.
Integrating Presence 