As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
Sitting in a field of fifty to eighty people really starts my mind sparking. Since I don't prepare my talks ahead of time, I find myself listening to what I'm saying along with everyone else. This leaves a lot of room for the Dhamma to come up. Just having eighty people listening to me is enough to engage me, stimulate me, and create a nice flow of energy. The actual process of teaching evokes ideas that even I did not realize were being held somewhere in my mind.
Different teaching situations offer their own unique value. In retreat, you are able to build a cohesive and comprehensive body of the teachings. When people are not on retreat and come for one session, it opens a different window. They are more spontaneous and I'm given the chance to contact them in ways that are closer to their "daily-life mind." This brings up surprises and interesting opportunities for me to learn even more.
I'm continually struck by how important it is to establish a foundation of morality, commitment, and a sense of personal values for the Vipassana teachings to rest upon. Personal values have to be more than ideas. They have to actually work for us, to be genuinely felt in our lives. We can't bluff our way into insight. The investigative path is an intimate experience that empowers our individuality in a way that is not egocentric. Vipassana encourages transpersonal individuality rather than ego enhancement. It allow for a spacious authenticity to replace a defended personality.
Mettā, which is goodwill or benevolence, is something to practice frequently. It helps our perceptions become more kindly and giving, less critical and holding. Kindness begins by coming into the present moment – breathing, spreading, opening through the whole body. From this state practice referring to what arises with patience, compassion and gratitude.
Structures of Dhamma practice aren’t commandments or statements of reality but to be used as focal points for us to observe. We notice where we hold on, where self-view arises, when we expect things to be fulfilling. All this causes suffering as long as we hold onto it, and liberation when we understand it as it is. Whatever we encounter then is not a heavy burden but an opportunity to cultivate that which will be for my welfare and the welfare of others.
