I have always enjoyed working with practitioners who are continuing to deepen their practice. In the many long retreats I teach at both IMS and Spirit Rock, I feel free to pass on the deepest pointings I’ve found in the teachings of the Buddha in the Pali Canon. Those are my guiding lights in practice and understanding.
It is fun for me to take the most difficult concepts and put them into accessible language, to unwrap the mystery. So I try to find ways to explore the breadth of concepts like "emptiness" -- to see how the entire path can be explained in terms of this synonym for nibbana. One of my aims is to bring the goal of freedom into the here and now. This way practitioners get a taste of freedom, so they know what they are heading toward on their journey to liberation.
The tools of mindfulness and lovingkindness can be picked up by anyone. They are easy to understand and they bring immediate benefit to our lives. The essence of vipassana is ideally suited to western society, especially to the resonance between our psychological turn of mind and our quest for spiritual understanding.
This talk explores the five aggregates as a way to understand the Buddha's teaching on anatta or not-self. This insight helps us gain a small glimpse into the mystery of death.
Because the basic purity of awareness, we can relax into the present moment experience. We start to understand the roles of consciousness, mindfulness and awareness.
This talk covers four key areas of the Buddha’s teachings on karma: action, results of action, relation to not-self, and the end of karma.
Publishable online for the general public
The practice of lovingkindness makes the heart more sensitive to the joys and sorrows of life. It also reveals a deep sense of connection to all sentient existence that overcomes a painful sense of isolation.
