Mindfulness of the Body

During this dialogue, Judy reviewed kayanupassana, mindfulness of the body, from the Satipatthana Sutta, which is usually translated as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.  She explained that the “body” referred to is the aggregation of all the parts of the body, including the senses and breath awareness–in Pali, kaya can apply to a group of people, a bunch of bananas, etc.  She placed emphasis on the aspect of kayanupassana called satisampajjhana, which can be translated as mindfulness/clear comprehension of how the body moves during the experience of moving, that is, while standing, walking, eating, reaching, etc.  Additionally, the value of awareness of a worthy goal, suitable means for achieving the goal, the field of awareness that’s applied to maintain the suitable means–all in the context of non-greed, non-aversion and wisdom.

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Craving and Clinging Review

During this dialogue, Tommy reviewed the last two presentations Peter provided on craving and clinging.  Tommy’s frequent use of facilitating questions opened up a lively dialogue among the folks attending.  Wendy asked for comments from others about how they approach cultivating mindfulness at the start of the day, and received an abundance of reports from various Sangha members that were quite helpful.

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The Nature Of Clinging

During this talk, Peter continues the discussion begun in the last meeting on the Second Noble Truth.  Again it was emphasized that there are three levels of approach to the Four Noble Truths: to be understood conceptually, to be noted upon emerging into awareness, and for the first two to be mastered.  This talk explored the concepts associated with clinging, particularly from a neuropsychological perspective.  The value of this approach is to demonstrate the impersonality of the various neural networks involved as initial sensory input is processed through association to prior experience.  This is another way to look at the Buddhist concept of karma and the resultant effects, known as vipaka.During the next talk Peter will present in a few weeks, we will discuss the Third Noble Truth as a progression from personality integration (the mastery of virtue) to spiritual attainment (the mastery of wisdom).

[s3mm type=”audio” files=”wp-content/uploads/2013/03/11130524/The Nature Of Clinging.mp3″ /]

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The Nature Of Craving

During this talk, Peter reviewed the classic Buddhist concepts of craving and clinging in the context of the Second Noble Truth.  Special emphasis was placed on the insights of modern neuropsychological research that relates Buddhist notions of craving to the experience of addictive craving.  The three aspects of spiritual progress were reviewed as well: craving and clinging are to be understood conceptually, brought directly into mindful awareness, and noting and renouncing craving and clinging is to be mastered.  Next week, Peter will continue to explore the nature of the Second Noble Truth as regards clinging.

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2013 Post Retreat Review

It is our custom to dedicate the Wednesday night meeting after a significant retreat to discussing the retreat experiences.   This meeting is the first one after a one week retreat at the Deerhaven Retreat Center.  It is hoped that finding the words to describe the insights and skills acquired during the retreat to a well-informed and interested Sangha will help the yogi understand more clearly what happened, and make the insights and skills more accessible and useful.  It’s also hoped that those hearing the reports will benefit from the information and perhaps be inspired to attend a retreat themselves.

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