Reflections on a balance between personal spiritual practice and selfless service as a lay resident in a Buddhist monastery in England. Key themes include emotional complexities, cultural differences between England and America regarding helpfulness, the importance of healthy boundaries to prevent burnout, and guidance from the heart in discernment.
Tag Archives: citta
Awareness Itself | July 25/26, 2024 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #23
In this twenty-third installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion we explore awareness itself, particularly in light of just having audited a retreat on it. Retreat Notes Disclaimers: Insights: Types of practices (that occurred to me): Questions: (Somewhat) Related: From https://integratingpresence.com/2022/06/12/podcast-jhanic-factors-and-formless-realms-contemplation-meditation: ‘It’s not aContinue reading “Awareness Itself | July 25/26, 2024 “Meditation Q & A With Wendy Nash” #23”
Studying And Practicing With “The Iddhipāda-Vibhaṅga Sutta — An Analysis Of The Bases Of Power” (SN 51:20): Introduction; The Sutta’s Key Encapsulation Paragraph & A Translation Reading (1 of 7)
One reason this blog post and podcast series came about could likely be due to my meditation practice becoming stale and now provides an outlet for a somewhat more advanced level where details are dived into. If and when exploring this sutta on your own, it’s recommended to drop the intricate, sometimes tedious language I go into here to the fullest extent possible. It’s important to remember my intent here of placing plenty under a spiritual microscope to merely visit modes of deconstruction and analysis for study and (formal) practice possibilities, not as a general normalized mode of living. And while I go into minute details pertaining to this sutta please keep in mind it’s likely more helpful not to keep considering this sutta in isolation but within the broader context of the Buddha’s (other) teachings.
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
Dharma Questions: Miscellany — Part 2
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 more or less 17 questions. Here’s two:
Why do the Ānāpānasati instructions omit details on how to bring mindfulness to the fore and calm bodily formations?
What is the root condition (and causes) for (each of the) unwholesome roots of greed, ill-will and delusion (lobha, dosa, moha)?
Integrating Presence 