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”
Tag Archives: hinderances
Questions And Points Put To Leigh Brasington On “Psychic Powers” In The Suttas
March 23, 2023 Update: See below for Leigh’s responses via email. I may or may not give some future response to Leigh’s responses Honor and respect to Leigh Brasington, not only for his extensive teachings on the jhanas, but for all the thoughts, teachings and practices surrounding the Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2) during the FebruaryContinue reading “Questions And Points Put To Leigh Brasington On “Psychic Powers” In The Suttas”
Jhanic Factors And Formless Realms Contemplation/Meditation
Oops! For those joining the live *(Jhanic Factors And) Formless Realms Contemplation/Meditation* I unplugged the internet while moving seats only realizing this afterwards! Obviously I need more mindfulness! We’ll see if I schedule something live like this again Here’s the description for this June 12th Insight Timer live event: Addressing the politics and emotional chargesContinue reading “Jhanic Factors And Formless Realms Contemplation/Meditation”
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.
Wisdom Snippets: The Murkiness, Blocks And Obstructions Of Past Life Discernment
During the resolve to not get up from under a Bodhi tree until realizing full awakening, the Buddha recalled previous lives. How did he, and how can we tell what is really and truly an authentic past life? What’s mentioned in this blog post are a few things that could be mistaken for past lives, and some of them are pretty far out.
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
Caregiving Roundtable: Caring For The Givers | (9/28/2021 — “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 talk about caring for caregivers. Topics, not necessarily in order, include: The Four Brahmaviharas, translated as The Four Immeasurables, Divine Abodes, or Sublime Abidings Loving-Kindness Compassion Empathy/Sympathetic Joy/Altruistic Joy/Vicarious Joy/Rejoicing Equanimity [also see theContinue reading “Caregiving Roundtable: Caring For The Givers | (9/28/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)”
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
McMindfulness and The Mindfulness Industrial Complex | (12/29/2020 — “Ask Us Anything” With Denny K Miu)
For this month’s open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — Denny and I address the “McMindfulness” phenomena mostly by exploring the translation of the original Pali word “sati” — often translated as “mindfulness” — by offering up “remembering” as a more original translation. We also touch on some classic sati relatedContinue reading “McMindfulness and The Mindfulness Industrial Complex | (12/29/2020 — “Ask Us Anything” With Denny K Miu)”
Integrating Presence 