Andrea Fella is the co-teacher at the Insight Meditation Center and the Insight Retreat Center. She has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1996, and teaching Insight Meditation since 2003. She is particularly drawn to intensive retreat practice, and has done a number of long retreats, both in the United States and in Burma. During one long practice period in Burma, she ordained as a nun with Sayadaw U Janaka. Andrea is especially drawn to the wisdom teachings of the Buddha. Her teachings emphasize clarity and practicality. Andrea is a member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council, and teaches residential retreats for IMC and other retreat centers around the country
In doing mindfulness practice we often neglect to observe mindfulness itself. We can lean a lot about our minds by watching the coming and going of mindfulness.
The Buddha encouraged us to cultivate wise mindfulness, which is more than simply being aware. This talk explores some of the qualities that support wise mindfulness.
The Buddha often taught the Dhamma through the use of analogy, which can be a powerful way for the teachings to resonate. This talk explores two famous analogies from the Pali Canon, and how we can understand our practice thorugh the imagery of these analogies.
The Buddha's teaching on dependant origination describes how our minds create stuggle and suffering in our lives. This talk explores some practical ways this teaching can help us to break this cycle.
We sometimes think that if we are experiencing aversion in our practice, that insight must be out of reach. Yet the Buddha teaches us that the path unfolds through understanding suffering. When we bring mindfulness to aversion itself, the understanding that develops can be very freeing.
Practicing meditation, we inevitably encounter the wandering mind. Rather than considering this experience to be a "problem", if we explore this phenomenon with mindfulness, we can learn a lot about our minds.
The Buddha described five mental and physical process that encompasses all of our experience. He pointed us to recognize and understand them and how they serve us as magnets for clinging and suffering. This talk explores how we connect with these processes as a direct experience.
