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.
Dharma practice is more than concentrated bare attention. The Buddha spoke often of the importance of reflection in developing wisdom. We can develop wise reflection on retreat and bring that attitude into daily life.
Intimate relationship can be a vehicle for cultivating authenticity, understanding our shadow, and true opening of the heart. The challenges and opportunities of using a primary relationship as part of our awakening process are explored.
We can't control all the thoughts that pass through our minds. What we can do is learn how to work skillfully with troublesome thoughts and patterns in the mind so they lose their power to confuse us.
Noticing and cultivating the wholesome states of compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity as they arise is a powerful training towards greater happiness.
Connecting the Buddhist values of non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion with another spiritual axiom: "Love everyone, serve everyone, and remember God."
When whole-hearted commitment is balanced with a spacious lightness of heart, the practice flowers in a rich way. This talk explores how we can combine those two attitudes in our meditation and in our lives.
