Homework

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 10-20 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence (if you use an app, try to use it only a couple of times during the week. Explore silence).
2. Do your best while sitting to: pay attention, welcome and open to whatever is arising. Is it possible to include it all?
3. Gratitude Practices
   • Text or email your buddy 3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything.
   • Thank someone every day
4. Generosity Practices
   • For a half hour each day, try offering respectful attention to everyone you meet or talk to. Take the other person’s point of view. Let the person on the bus, T, desk next to you, your neighbor, child, partner, be the most important person around.
   • Give your full attention to them physically. Put your device(s) away. Look at the person. Listen carefully. Open your heart. Be there without pushing an agenda. Simply listening.
   • Text or email your buddy. Share what you learned. Only a sentence or two.
5. Grace Practices
   • Start to be aware of the heart space that can hold your life with tenderness and kindness.
   • Do your best to notice, any moments when you know and experience the spacious presence that includes the ever-changing flow of life with a sense of wholeness or compassion or connection or balance or ease.

Have fun!

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 10-20 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence (if you use an app, try to use it only a couple of times during the week. Explore silence).
2. Do your best while sitting to: pay attention, welcome and open to whatever is arising. Is it possible to include it all?
3. Gratitude Practices
   • Let gratitude be like a flashlight – lighting up what is already there and count your blessings each day.
   • Text or email your buddy 3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything.
   • Thank someone every day!
4. Generosity Practices
   • Each day ask yourself: What allows me to give? What stops me from letting go? What do I really need in this moment to be happy?
   • Continue the practice of offering respectful attention to everyone you meet or talk to for a half hour each day. Let the person on the bus, T, desk next to you, your neighbor, child, partner – be the most important person around. Give your full attention to them physically. Put your device(s) away. Look at the person. Listen carefully. Open your heart. Be there without pushing an agenda. Simply listening.
   • Text or email your buddy. Share what you learned about generosity. Only a sentence or two.
5. Grace Practices
   • Grace is the recognition that everything is connected and sacred. You are sacred! Please consider a lasting truce with yourself.
   • Begin to notice that everything you do is sacred.
   • Continue to be aware of the heart space that can hold your life with tenderness and kindness. Do your best to notice any moments when you know the spacious presence that includes the ever-changing flow of life with a sense of wholeness, compassion, connection, balance or ease. It’s the state of grace to be able to make room for things as they are.
6. Have fun!

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 10-20 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence (if you use an app, try to use it only a couple of times during the week. Explore silence). Do your best while sitting to: Pay attention, welcome and open to whatever is arising. Is it possible to include it all?
2. Gratitude Practices
   • Let gratitude be like a flashlight – lighting up what is already there, and count your blessings each day.
   • Text or email your buddy 3 things you are grateful for each day.
   • Thank someone every day! Thank yourself every day! Is it possible to do this while looking in the mirror?
3. Generosity Practices
   • Ask yourself: What allows me to give? What stops me from letting go? What do I really need in this moment to be happy?
   • Practice kindness.
   • Be aware of any acts of generosity or giving this week (in you or others). Some examples: Attention, appreciation, time, money, food, material gifts, skills, knowledge, picking up something someone has dropped.
   • Is there joy in giving? If not, why not? What is your attitude while giving? How does acting with generosity affect your heart-mind?
   • Notice any stinginess. How does that affect your heart-mind?
   • Text or email your buddy. Share what you learned about generosity. Only a sentence or two.
4. Grace Practices
   • Continue to be aware of the heart space that can hold your life with tenderness and kindness. Do your best to notice any moments when you know the spacious presence that includes the ever-changing flow of life with a sense of wholeness, compassion, connection, balance or ease. It’s the state of grace to be able to make room for things as they are.
   • Grace provides a framework in which a meaningful life is fully lived. Love is the essence of it day to day. It’s a matter of living and having a practice that enables you to open to, return to again and again life’s unfolding blessings.
   • Grace is one key to happiness. When wonderful or not so wonderful things happen, if we have confidence in our practice, then we can remain grounded and not be overwhelmed by the dramas of life. This is where the grace unfolds (more dharma, less dharma). A couple of hints: Appreciate whatever comes and make the absolute most of it. Allow feelings, emotions, thoughts, events to come and go, and get to know a deep contentment.

Have fun!

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 10-20 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence (if you use an app, try to use it only a couple of times during the week. Explore silence). Do your best while sitting to: Pay attention, welcome and open to whatever is arising. Is it possible to include it all?
2. Gratitude Practices
   • Thank yourself every day! Is it possible to do this while looking in the mirror?
   • Count your blessings each day.
   • Thank someone every day!
   • Text or email your buddy 3 things you are grateful for each day.
3. Grace Practices –remember what you can (read this each day)
   • Get to know the deep fundamental truths of what brings us from the suffering, the clinging, the fear, the hatred, the confusion into the ease, the peace of the heart that can be a gracious offering of kindness into the flow of life. Learn this practice. This is not just a set of ideas or ideals. Begin simply by being present for life: The mysteries, the joys, the tears and offer yourself into life with a sense of grace, compassion and understanding.
   • There is something about being in the present and not knowing and showing up with a compassionate heart with a tenderness, an easiness, a willingness to not know, with the capacity to stay within yourself in the midst of where you are that allows you to move through this world as a Buddha. This what we learn in practice: Presence and compassion. We learn to trust mindfulness.
   • Remember who you really are. You have the capacity to carry the beauty of Buddha nature wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever the circumstances. Trust this in yourself and as you do, there comes an ease, a grace, a kind of equanimity. Remember: You are invited to find your great heart of compassion, your great heart of wisdom. Dedicate yourself, bring your gifts to the world. Remembering this is Grace!
   • Text or email your buddy, once this week, what you learned about Grace. Only a sentence or two.
4. Generosity Practices (Continuing from last week)
   • Practice Kindness.
   • Be aware of any acts of generosity or giving this week (in you or others). Some examples: Giving your attention, appreciation, time, money, food, material gifts, skills, knowledge, picking up something someone has dropped.
   • Is there joy in giving? If not, why not? What is your attitude while giving? How does acting with generosity affect your heart-mind?
   • Notice any stinginess. How does that affect your heart-mind?
   • Text or email your buddy, once this week, what you learned about generosity. Only a sentence or two.

Have fun!

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 15-20 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence.
2. Gratitude Practices
   • Count your blessings each day.
   • Thank someone and yourself every day!
   • Text or email your buddy 3 things you are grateful for each day.
3. Generosity Practices
   • Practice noticing the types of giving in yourself and others (tentative, friendly, queenly/kingly) and your intentions when giving. (Remember: We can give in many ways – materially, goods/money, time, service, caring, allowing someone to be just as they are. There are endless opportunities to give – practice non-harming, sharing food or meals, appreciating others’ good deeds, offering the dharma, smiling at someone, etc.)
   • Practice Kindness and Generosity
     • One day this week, perform 5 acts of kindness – all 5 in one day. It doesn’t matter if the acts of kindness are big or small, it is more skillful if you perform a variety of actions.
     • The kind acts do not need to be for the same person – the person doesn’t even have to be aware of them. Some examples include feeding a stranger’s parking meter, donating blood, helping a friend with a chore, providing a meal to a person in need, opening a door for someone, etc.
     • After each kind action, write down what you did in a few words or sentences and how it made you feel. Text your buddy.
     • Also, during this week, find one occasion where you can give something anonymously to a person you have some direct contact with. Be mindful of what you are feeling as you are considering doing this act, while you are doing it and after it is done.
4. Grace Practices (continue to read this each day)
   • Get to know the deep fundamental truths of what brings us from the suffering, the clinging, the fear, the hatred, the confusion into the ease, the peace of the heart that can be a gracious offering of kindness into the flow of life. Learn this practice. This is not just a set of ideas or ideals. Begin simply by being present for life: The mysteries, the joys, the tears, and offer yourself into life with a sense of grace, compassion and understanding.
   • There is something about being in the present and not knowing and showing up with a compassionate heart with a tenderness, an easiness, a willingness to not know, with the capacity to stay within yourself in the midst of where you are that allows you to move through this world as a Buddha. This is what we learn in practice: presence and compassion. We learn to trust mindfulness.
   • Remember who you really are. You have the capacity to carry the beauty of the Buddha nature wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever the circumstances. Trust this in yourself and as you do, there comes an ease, a grace, a kind of equanimity. Remember: You are invited to find your great heart of compassion, your great heart of wisdom. Dedicate yourself, bring your gifts to the world. Remembering this is Grace!

Have fun!

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 15-2o minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence.
2. Gratitude Practices
   • Count your blessings each day.
   • Thank someone and yourself every day!
   • Text or email your buddy 3 things you are grateful for each day.
3. Generosity Practices
   • Remember: We can give in many ways – materially, goods/money, time, service, caring, allowing someone to be just as they are. There are endless opportunities to give – practice non-harming, sharing food or a meal, appreciating others’ good deeds, offering the dharma, smiling at someone, be creative!
   • During this week, find an occasion where you can bring food (e.g. chocolate or a snack) to share with people who would not expect you to bring food. Notice what effect your gift has on these people and how it affects you to have done this.
   • Practice Kindness and Generosity
     • One day this week, perform 5 acts of kindness – all 5 in one day. It doesn’t matter if the acts of kindness are big or small, it is more skillful to perform a variety of actions.
     • The kind acts do not need to be for the same person – the person doesn’t even have to be aware of them. Some example  include feeding a stranger’s parking meter, donating blood, helping a friend with a chore, providing a meal to a person in need, opening a door for someone, etc.
     • After each kind action, write down what you did in a few words or a sentence and how it made you feel. Bring to class.
     • This week, be aware of acts of kindness and generosity offered or given to you. Can you receive with kindness?
4. Grace Practices
   • Grace: In daily life, it means receiving each arising moment with a generous attitude and meeting it with patience that is based in your practice. When interacting with friends, strangers, loved ones, you give them your full attention as you listen to their words. Holding for each person life’s greatest possibility in the moment. Can you see that dana in any form is dana? It nourishes the very essence of the other’s being. In cultivating our sense of self-worth and well-being, we are just as dependent on the kindness of others. Knowing this is Grace. Practicing this is Grace!
   • Continue to read the section below, as needed:
     • Get to know the deep fundamental truths of what brings us from the suffering, the clinging, the fear, the hatred, the confusion into the ease, the peace of the heart that can be a gracious offering of kindness into the flow of life. Learn this practice. This is not just a set of ideas or ideals. Begin simply by being present for life: The mysteries, the joys, the tears, and offer yourself into life with a sense of grace, compassion and understanding.
     • There is something about being in the present and not knowing and showing up with a compassionate heart with a tenderness, an easiness, a willingness to not know, with the capacity to stay within yourself in the midst of where you are that allows you to move through this world as a Buddha. This is what we learn in practice: Presence and compassion. We learn to trust mindfulness.
     • Remember who you really are: You have the capacity to carry the beauty of Buddha nature wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever the circumstances. Trust this in yourself and as you do, there comes an ease, a grace, a kind of equanimity. Remember: You are invited to find your great heart of compassion, your great heart of wisdom. Dedicate yourself, bring your gifts to the world. Remembering this is Grace!

Have fun!

Thank you for a beautiful class last night!

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 15-20 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence.
2. Gratitude Practices
   • Count your blessings, thank someone and yourself every day!
   • Text or email your buddy 3 things you are grateful for each day.
   • Identify 3 things that you feel grateful for and appreciate about your life. Identify 3 things that you take for granted but are actually very thankful for. Identify 3 things that you appreciate about yourself. Identify 3 things that you feel grateful for about your present — right now — experience.
3. Generosity Practices
   • Ask yourself at least 5 times during your day, “What do I really need in this moment to be happy?” And, “Is anything really lacking in this moment?” Listen for the answers.
   • Reflect:
     • What allows me to give? Investigate delight, warmth, openness, freedom, spaciousness.
     • What stops me from letting go? Investigate attachment, fears, self-interest, expecting something in return, hoping to be liked, wanting to be known as generous.
   • Practice kindness and generosity. Be aware of the joy of giving and the wisdom of non-clinging.
   • Be aware of acts of kindness and generosity offered or given to you. Can you receive with thankfulness and kindness?
   • Can you get to know the radical understanding of non-separateness, interconnection, interdependency? No giving without receiving and no givers without receivers. Giving and receiving arise together. They are one.
4. Grace Practices
   • Grace: In daily life it means receiving each arising moment with a generous attitude and meeting it with patience that is based in your practice. When interacting with friends, strangers, loved ones, you give them your full attention as you listen to their words. Holding for each person’s life’s greatest possibility in the moment. Can you see that dana in any form is dana? It nourishes the very essence of the other’s being. In cultivating our sense of self-worth and well-being, we are just as dependent on the kindness of others. Knowing this is Grace. Practicing this is Grace!
   • Continue to read this section below, as needed:
   • Get to know the deep fundamental truths of what brings us from the suffering, the clinging, the fear, the hatred, the confusion into the ease, the peace of the heart that can be a gracious offering of kindness into the flow of life. Learn this practice. This is not just a set of ideas or ideals. Begin simply by being present for life: The mysteries, the joys, the tears, and offer yourself into life with a sense of grace, compassion and understanding.
   • There is something about being in the present and not knowing and showing up with a compassionate heart with a tenderness, an easiness, a willingness to not know, with the capacity to stay within yourself in the midst of where you are that allows you to move through this world as a Buddha. This is what we learn in practice: Presence and compassion – we learn to trust mindfulness.
   • Remember who you really are: You have the capacity to carry the beauty of Buddha nature wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever the circumstances. Trust this in yourself and as you do, there comes an ease, a grace, a kind of equanimity. Remember: You are invited to find your great heart of compassion, your great heart of wisdom. Dedicate yourself, bring your gifts to the world. Remembering this is Grace!

Have fun!

After Workshop

1. Formal Practice: Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 10-30 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence. If you use an app, please only use it a couple of times a week. Instructions for newer meditators, see point 8
2. Formal Practice: Standing & Walking: Practice standing meditation at least once in your day. Practice walking meditation at least once during the day as you move through the world.
3. The Seven Factors of Awakening Handout: Please read it everyday until we meet on February 14th at 6pm. In addition, take some time to explore the book that you received.
4. Gratitude Practices
   • Write down, text or e-mail “your buddy” from the workshop
     3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything. You can simply list tem or write a sentence for each one.
   • Thank someone every day
5. Ask yourself: What keeps you, from paying attention in your life? What keeps you from living more fully? What keeps you from living here in the present moment
6. Remember your intention, vow, dedication. If you haven’t completed writing it please do so and store it in a “special place”
7. Have fun!
8. Instructions for newer meditator
   •  It is helpful to find a quiet space or room, a consistent time, and a chair or cushion that best supports your sitting practice. Please use a timer (if using your phone, keep it at a distance away from where you are sitting).
   • Bring an attitude of kindness, curiosity and interest into your sitting practice. As you meditate, begin by settling into the body. Aware of sitting and of the sensations of sitting such as the body making contact with the mat or the floor, or your sitting bones on your cushion or chair. Then gently bring the attention to rest on the breathing either at the nostrils, the chest area or the abdomen. Use the breath as an anchor.
   • This practice is a practice of remembering, so when your mind wanders and you notice it wandering or you wake up from the story/trance you are in: Delight that you are awake, ground in the body and simply escort the attention back to the breath, the anchor. Every time you bring your attention back to the present moment, you are developing mindfulness.

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day.
   More if you are able. Please practice your meditation in silence.
   • Listen to, be aware of and receive whatever presents itself.
   • Be aware of the body & its sensations (sitting or breathing).
2. Standing & Walking: Practice standing meditation at least once in your day. Practice walking meditation at least once during the day as you move through the world.
3. Gratitude Practices
   • Write down, say to a partner or friend or text a classmate 3 things you are grateful for each day. It can be anything.
   • Thank someone every day.
4. Ask yourself & Listen: What keeps you, from paying attention in your life? What keeps you from living more fully? What keeps you from living here in the present moment?
5. Please continue to read everyday & Enjoy your Cards– The Seven Factors of Awakening Handout- Begin to notice or sense in yourself moments when these beautiful qualities, start to make their way into your practice and/or daily life experiences. If you open, look, inwardly- in very simple ways- (perhaps, a moment or two of calm instead of chaos, or a moment or two of joy instead of despair, or a moment or two of ease instead of struggle)- the practice can deepen. In these moments or any moment of knowing of the Seven Factors of Awakening: We are asked to celebrate life, to embody our understanding- and this is a celebration of life itself!
6. First Factor of Awakening-Mindfulness is being aware of what is happening in the present moment.
7. Practice your daily mindful activity. Each day e-mail, or text your buddy what you experienced or learned while practicing the daily mindful activity you agreed to practice with in class.
8. Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s book, Factors For Awakening, will be our shared text. Please read the chapter, Factors For Awakening pages
   1-8 and Mindfulness 9-12.                                             HAVE FUN!

Hello All,

First, let me say what a delight it was for me to be with you yesterday. I found our interactions stimulating and deepening for my own life and practice and I hope you did as well.

So, what follows are some ideas/ suggestions regarding how you might begin to engage with what I will continue to call the Five Noble Opportunities:

Remember that how you practice with these as they arise during your formal practice and your life off the cushion needs to have real coherence, i.e. you want to be working with the arising of irritation, angry or judging thoughts, wanting this moment to be more pleasant or dreaming about an attractive relationship or your coming promotion, feeling restless (wanting to change your practice, your job, agitation, etc.), in the same way on the cushion or when you’re in the checkout line at the grocery store. Sitting provides a simplified condition to begin to develop skills to take with you throughout the day.

First, you have to notice when what we call aversion, desire, etc arises or when you wake up from being lost in it. Notice and label the thoughts/beliefs that are present. (For more more extensive guidance on this practice see Ezra Bayda’s “Everyday Zen.) During or at the end of the day it can be helpful to review your day and write down the instances when these opportunities presented themselves.

When you notice anger, confusion, wanting, agitation, judgement, etc., what are the stories your mind engages in to keep these fires burning?

Next, take your attention directly to the sensations that are showing up in your body. Including the breath can be very helpful here. Keep your attention with those sensations while breathing in and out. Notice how they change. Are you pulled away by more thoughts/stories? If so, label those and return to the physical sensations that are your life in this present moment. This is the work of distinguishing between the conditioned stories, beliefs and thought patterns that we mistakenly have come to believe are real and the true reality which they obscure.

Begin to notice what situations tend to provoke these opportunities. What are the ones that seem to show up the most on and off the cushion? Judgement, irritation, grasping/wanting, self doubt/ judgement? What do you imagine these reactions are inviting you to explore, discover or clarify?

So, these are just some suggestions for continuing with our discussion yesterday. Feel free to allow yourself to come up with some or your own. It is your life after all!

And remember: The substance of our life is the substance of our practice. The invitation is always to learn our way into freedom by entering the Dharma Gates the beckon us. Each and every one presents the possibility of liberation here, now.

See you next Monday!   Doug

Hi Everyone,

So here’s the weekly suggestion for your practice:

• Try to sit everyday. Length doesn’t matter, but try to give it at least 20 minutes.
• Sit erect (slumping body/slumping mind), with your eyes slightly open.
• Don’t make this a struggle, but do notice any resistance and have some interest in that.
• Bring your attention to the breath (count the out breaths if helpful or just feel the sensations).
• After a while, include awareness of the whole body and then one other sense door (seeing, hearing, etc). Now you are sitting holding these in your awareness.
• When you wake up from having drifted into thought or notice being pulled that way…
  • If the thought has no emotional charge, label “planning,” “fantasy,” “dreaming,” etc and return to the sensations of breathing and the two other senses you’re working with.
  • If the thinking is emotionally charged, intrusive, etc., label the thought as “Having a believed, angry (confusing, sad, anxious, bored) thought about “X” and return to your body, breath and other sense door.
  • Examples: “Having a believed thought that this is too hard.”
  • “Having a believed thought that I’m not doing this right.”
  • “Having a believed thought that I should be able to control my thoughts.”

This begins to develop several useful aspects of our practice life:

• We begin to get more acquainted with what the mind is doing.
• We begin to dis-identify with those thoughts and stories.
• We continuously return to our actual, non-fantasy life in this moment while enhancing our capacity to hold our life without being carried away by reactivity (suffering).

Most importantly, begin taking this practice off the cushion and into the relationships of your life! Notice when the mind is judging, finding fault, is restless, bored confused, etc. Bring your practice to this over and over and over.

Lastly, take a least a few minutes of every sitting to JUST SIT without an agenda and without effort and notice that your life goes on just fine without “you!”

Looking forward to seeing you all next week!   Doug

Hi Folks,

Krishnamurti once said that “we cannot be in relationship,” and spoke extensively of the “mirror of relationship,” in which we are constantly reflected back to ourselves. In our practice this is where most of us will find our deepest and most transformative practice. Unless we are on retreat we spend the vast majority of our lives not sitting on a cushion and without both understanding the power and necessity of relationship as practice and having useful ways to implement this, our “practice” becomes a small fragment of our life largely unrelated to how we are actually living.

So, begin to notice both on and off the cushion:

• When, where and with who or what does judgment, irritation, boredom, etc. arise for you.
• What exactly are the thoughts/stories that the mind uses to support this.
• Do you find yourself withdrawing, fuming, lashing out, berating yourself or the other?
• Come back to the body and notice what is happening there. What precisely are the sensations and where? How’s the breath? Short, rapid, can’t find it at all? Tension in the body? Where?
• What happens when there is just this interested knowing/awareness? What changes? How?

Begin to notice the relationships that you might do automatically or take for granted. How do you get in and out of bed? Brush your teeth? Take out the trash? Stand in line? Late for an appointment? Caught in an old pattern?

We spend much of our “waking life” sleep walking. Practice is about waking up out of this sleeping state and that waking up is happening all the time! Do you notice?

See if you can bring some not-knowing interest to all of this and remember…the work is not to figure out our life but to live that life intimately and fully no matter what shape it may momentarily assume.

See you Wednesday!

With bows, Doug

• Practice meditation once daily for 10-15 minutes.
• Practice meditation twice daily for 1-2 minutes (be creative about when/where you create this 60-120 seconds for yourself).
• Extra Credit: Begin gladdening the mind with a daily gratitude reflection (3 things each day).

• Increase your longer meditation practice by 5 minutes: Practice meditation once daily for 15-20 minutes.
• Practice meditation twice daily for 1-2 minutes (be creative about when/where you create this 60-120 seconds for yourself).
• Investigation practice: Throughout your day, keep an eye out for moments that could be examples of the Simile of the Two Darts. The first dart is a moment of unpleasant experience occurring, the second dart is the additional misery-making, resentment, resistance which the mind piles on afterward. Notice and explore how these two darts are separate phenomena, and see if you can find what a wise and compassionate relationship to each of these might look like — in the moment.
• Choose one small daily activity to practice full mindfulness of (as much as possible) each day. Examples: Putting on and taking off shoes, climbing/descending a certain staircase or elevator, brushing teeth, or similar.
• Extra Credit: Begin/continue gladdening the mind with a daily gratitude reflection (3 things each day).

• Increase your longer meditation practice by 5 minutes: Practice meditation once daily for 20-25 minutes.
• Micro Meditation! Practice twice daily for 1-2 minutes (be creative about when/where you create this 60-120 seconds for yourself)
• Continue with one small daily activity to practice full mindfulness of (as much as possible) each day. Consider changing your activity this week! Examples: Putting on and taking off shoes, climbing/descending a certain staircase or elevator, brushing teeth, or similar.
• Investigation practice: Throughout your day, look for opportunities to practice self-compassion. Any moment of struggle or stress (however small) can be a candidate. Compassion/self-compassion has three parts:
  • Acknowledging the stress as stress (e.g. “oh, this hurts”; “oh, I’m having a hard time”; “This mind or body is struggling right now”).
  • Non-indifference (e.g. “I care about this”)
  • The open-handed wish that the stress might be alleviated (e.g. “May I find some ease in the midst of this”; “may I find a little peace here”; “may all beings everywhere (including me) be free from suffering and its causes”)
  • What naturally unlocks these three is remembering our own goodness and natural wish for our own wellbeing in the midst of difficulty.
• Extra Credit: Begin/continue gladdening the mind with a daily or nightly gratitude reflection (3 things each day).

Notes from class meditation instructions:

A. Explore making “secondary objects” part of your meditation practice at times. This means if, say, you’re primarily anchoring attention on the sensations of breathing and you notice a sound or a strong mindstate arise, then take a few moments to turn attention toward that experience and become mindful of it: Intentionally noticing/feeling the experience of hearing while it’s happening, or recognizing “[This mindstate] feels like this…” etc.

B. Here are the four questions I asked at the beginning of the meditation:

1. What will you do with your attention?
2. What are realistic expectations for what may happen in this meditation?
3. How will you use the application of effort?
4. What is a useful attitude to take for this meditation?

Please read Chapter 4: Practicing with Difficult Emotions.

As well, whenever a painful emotion occurs this week, please try to relate to it as nature.

Relating to an emotion as nature is based on the understanding that we don’t have control over what arises. Please look to see if there is a belief accompanying the emotion having to do with what should or should not be occurring, and see if the emotion can be accepted as nature just being nature.

Please read Chapter 4: Practicing with Difficult Emotions.

As well, whenever a painful emotion occurs this week, please try to relate to it as nature.

Relating to an emotion as nature is based on the understanding that we don’t have control over what arises. Please look to see if there is a belief accompanying the emotion having to do with what should or should not be occurring, and see if the emotion can be accepted as nature just being nature.

Although emotions are nature and the arising is out of our control, how we relate and respond is the practice. Our relationship to painful emotions is the difference between suffering and being peaceful. Meditation is an intervention in this way. So please be aware of reactions of grasping, aversion, and identification and practice responding with non-grasping, metta, and non-identification.

Please read or listen to Chapter #5 “Regret.”

During the week, be aware of hearing yourself thinking or saying anything along the lines of: “Things should have been different.” The exact words you hear or say may not fit this exactly, of course, but listen for whatever words hold this meaning.

Whenever you become aware of thinking, saying, or sensing that something should have been different than it was, see if you can pause and recognize that regret is occurring. Be aware of the felt sense in the body and contextualize it by viewing it in this way: “This is a mental state.”

For further inquiry, investigate different kinds of regret. See if you can differentiate between neurotic regrets (example: I should be perfect) and authentic regrets. Authentic regrets clarify a path of greater ethical and compassionate intention and action.

Here is the “Meaning of Life” article – please feel free to share.

Narayan Helen Liebenson: The Meaning of Life… the indestructible nature of your heart