I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.
I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves. I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing.
The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening. I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing. It is accessing this dimension of our being that becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear. We have everything we need inside ourselves. We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.
We can appreciate good guidance but ultimately we need to learn how to listen to the Buddha or Quan Yin right inside. Includes the Buddha's five strategies for dealing with distracting thoughts.
Holding practice as more than just working with suffering but as a cultivation of wholsesome states that open the heart and create the conditions for the highest happiness.
The experience of contentment is the true happiness available through letting go and seeing our experience complete just as it is. Nothing needs to be added or taken away. This talk explores inner contentment, the state of “abundant enoughness”, while distinguishing it from complacency, laziness or just being resigned to the way things are. We can be inspired by a vision of awakening, develop our gifts and make a contribution, while we appreciate things just as they are in the moment.
The source of our awakening is right inside us. As we learn to listen deeply to the wisdom and purity of heart that is connected to the truth, we are following the Buddha’s instructions to “be a lamp unto yourself.” This talk includes the Buddha’s five methods for dealing with distracting thoughts and how to discern the voice of wisdom from the voices of confusion and fear.
This talk continues the exploration of how the practice cultivates happiness and joy. Five wholesome states that support true well-being are investigated including practices that help us access them.
The Buddha was called The Happy One. With the emphasis on suffering, its cause and it’s end, we can forget that this path is really a path of cultivating true happiness. In this talk we look at three principles of the teaching that can be the foundation for true well-being and how it can be cultivated both on and off the cushion.
Intention is the basis of all karma. It is also a key aspect of dharma practice, both in moment to moment experience as well as our aspiration, vision that fuels our practice.
The tendency to compare ourselves to others or against some idealized standards is the cause of much suffering. This self-judgement is based on what the Buddha called "the conceit of I am". This talk explores how to work skillfully with the judging and comparing mind.
