Dear Friends, Here’s a brief talk you might find helpful to consider before practicing today. Brian Lesage explores the interplay between effort and letting go, highlighting how wise effort arises from a balanced, relaxed approach rather than striving. He reflects on the role of aspiration–driven by a deep love for the teachings–and its power to fuel practice with… Read More »
Dear Friends, Joseph Goldstein suggests reflecting on the preciousness of this human birth as a way to support the first effort of preventing unwholesome states from arising. He reminds us:“It’s precious because now we have the opportunity to weaken and eventually uproot these latent defilements that have been with us throughout our lives.” (page 392) Ajahn Sucitto offers… Read More »
Dear Friends, Energy, or viriya, can be directed toward many different goals. To align our energy with our intentions, we focus it on the four endeavors of wise effort. Over the next few weeks, we will explore each of these in depth. The first endeavor is to prevent unwholesome states from arising. Joseph Goldstein reflects: When we’re leading… Read More »
Dear Friends, Setting a New Year intention can be a powerful practice to align your actions with deeper values and aspirations. An intention is not a rigid resolution but a guiding principle to cultivate mindfulness and growth throughout the year. Christina Feldman discussed a way we can work with this by noticing intentions: Intention and viriya (energy or… Read More »
Dear Friends, Thank you for choosing to be part of this January email offering. This marks the tenth year of this tradition, and I am continually inspired by the teachings and by the knowledge that you are here with me on this shared journey. This month, we will be exploring the factor of energy, or effort, as one… Read More »
Dear friends, I will be offering daily meditation emails again for January 2025. Are you interested in participating? As in previous years, I will send an email each day throughout the month of January. This year’s theme, Strength for the Journey: Energizing Mind and Heart, focuses on the energy (viriya) factor of the seven factors of awakening. Together,… Read More »
Dear Friends, To close our month, a poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, who gives us six words to consider our path going forward: Thank you for being part of this month-long exploration of the eightfold path. I enjoyed this opportunity to study, reflect, and practice with you, and I hope you found it of benefit as well. Special… Read More »
Dear Friends, Over the course of the month, we have dipped our toes into the eightfold path. The analogy of a path is useful in some respects. A path implies that someone has gone this way before, and now we can follow this path too. Stephen Batchelor writes, A path is something that connects us to a human… Read More »
Dear Friends, As we cultivate wise samadhi in conjunction with the other path factors, we begin to develop a stability of mind and heart. Wisdom develops, as we see things as they are. The heart can meet the conditions of the world with balance, perspective, with equanimity, upekkha. One way of describing equanimity is “to stand in the… Read More »
Dear Friends, Here is a meditation from Chas DiCapua with instructions with an intention to cultivate tranquility, calm, and concentration:Samadhi and its Role in Cultivating the Eight-Fold Path – Meditation (29 minutes)https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/61042/ With good wishes,Andrea
Dear Friends, In his book, A Whole-Life Path, Gregory Kramer outlines six tenets for crafting a whole life path, and for me, one of them is particularly relevant when it comes to wise samadhi (concentration), which is “Find each teaching in the here and now.” On this tenet, Gregory says, “Nearly all of the Buddha’s teachings, even those… Read More »
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 »
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
Dear Friends, In Gregory Kramer’s book, A Whole-Life Path, he says he refers five questions to define sati, the word we translate as mindfulness. Why am I cultivating awareness?What am I aware of?How am I cultivating awareness?Where am I aware?When am I aware? Page 255 He suggests finding a time for undisturbed reflective practice – alone or with… Read More »
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 »
