January 26 – Food for the heart

Dear Friends, The eighth factor of the eightfold path is right or wise samadhi. Samadhi is often translated as “concentration”, but as Ajahn Sucitto writes: Let’s look at the idea of concentration, or samādhi. When you hear those four little syllables con-cen-tra-tion, what do they imply to you? … You probably get a sense of doing something, working… Read More »

January 25 – Meditation: Supports for Establishing Mindfulness

Dear Friends, This guided meditation from Andrea Fella brings in a phrase from the Satipatthana Sutta: “Mindfulness that ‘there is a body’ is established in one to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and continuous mindfulness.” (MN 10) Guided Meditation: Supports for Establishing Mindfulness, by Andrea Fella (19 minutes – no ending bell):https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11650 With good wishes,Andrea

January 23 – Ardent, clearly comprehending, and mindful

Dear Friends, The seventh factor is right (or wise) mindfulness. Mindfulness is a buzzword nowadays. If you use your favorite internet search engine for “mindful ___”, where you fill the blank with practically any subject, you’ll probably find an array of articles related to it. But what is right mindfulness? In one of the discourses, Sariputta describes it… Read More »

January 22 – Paying attention to joy

Dear Friends, With wise effort, we want to abandon unhelpful states and cultivate helpful ones. There are many ways to cultivate these beneficial states, including the Brahma Vihara practices of metta (kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (appreciative joy), and upekkha (equanimity). Today, we’ll focus on mudita! Mudita is the capacity to feel happiness or gladness, to delight in someone’s… Read More »

January 19 – Joyful effort

Dear Friends, The sixth factor of the eightfold path is right or wise effort. Gil Fronsdal describes this factor succinctly as follows: Right Effort involves four different ways we can apply ourselves. When it comes to our inner thoughts, feelings, and states, we can (1) prevent, (2) overcome, (3) arouse, or (4) maintain these inner experiences. Far from… Read More »