This guided meditation provides a review of the characteristics of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, which is described in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness. It is intended to supplement the Dharma talk of the same evening that reviews this topic.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 — 41.1MB)
In addition to our weekly Sangha, we invite you to join the monthly LifeArt Meditation Group, offered on the second, third, and fourth Monday of every month online only.
LifeArt Meditation Monday with Susan Baxter: Befriending the Wandering Mind
Logistics:
Online only, 6:30-7:30 pm ET on the second, third, and fourth Mondays of the month.
You may RSVP on our Meetup also and get the link there.
LifeArt Meditation offers teachings on contemporary teachers, scholars, and thought leaders. In each session we discuss techniques and attitudes necessary for a robust contemplative practice. We explore ways of making our daily practice more enjoyable and more fruitful. In addition, we discuss how the effects of the practice are showing up in our daily encounters.
In other words, we seek to see how a contemplative practice really does begin to shape the tone and tenor of our moments, and our lives. While tone focuses on the specific attitude or emotion conveyed (e.g., optimistic, harsh), tenor represents the broader, underlying character, theme, or general course of thought. We want to examine just how meditation is making life better, more interesting, and maybe even more challenging.
Each session is comprised of three parts:
We invite you to spend a few sessions with each of the three teachers of LifeArt Meditation. We bring different styles, topics, and influences to each session. Lezlie Laws will lead the second Monday session (March 9th), April Koester will lead the third Monday session (March 16th), and Susan Baxter is on for the fourth Monday (March 23rd) of each month.
Logistics:
Online only, 6:30-7:30 pm ET on the second, third, and fourth Mondays of the month.
You may RSVP on our Meetup.
This guided meditation provides training in monitoring how feelings affect the mind and the ways mindfulness of feelings can regulate impulsive reactivity.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 — 41.1MB)
This talk expands a review of the Four Clear Comprehensions, an important Buddhist concept, that was mentioned during the talk entitled “Mindful Consumerism” on December 7, 2022 and found in this site’s archives. The Four Clear Comprehensions provides a formula for decision making that originated as a spiritual pathway towards Awakening; this is still valid and important, but the emphasis during this talk is focused on using the formula for decision making regarding mundane lifestyle issues related to personal, social, environmental as well as spiritual issues. During the talk, participants are invited to write down the four aspects and then apply them–some participants shared their efforts.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindful Decision Making
The topic for next week’s talk will be on how Buddhist practice can be associated with the Winter Solstice, as the meeting will occur that day.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:59 — 56.8MB)
Contemporary life is inescapably affected by sophisticated indoctrination to create a reliable population of consumers, and the Christmas season is the strongest manifestation of this conditioning. While we can’t avoid the presence of advertising, product placement and social media conditioning, the application of the Four Noble Truths can be effectively applied to foster Awakening from compulsive consumption. This talk reviews the varieties of dukkha we and the world at large experience as the First Noble Truth, not only as distress and confusion in terms of material goods and services, but also through social media, such as Q anon. Dukkha also manifests in terms of global warming and environmental degradation. The nature of craving and clinging, the Second Noble Truth, is described as lifelong exposure to unquestioned propaganda in our lifestyles through commercial marketing as well as the misinformation and propaganda embedded in entertainment and social media. The Third Noble Truth can be realized as effective adaptation to changing world circumstances–a diminished “carbon footprint” and wiser choices regarding sociocultural issues. The Fourth Noble Truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, is reviewed as a way to effectively adapt through the cultivation of Wisdom, Virtue and Training.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindful Consumerism
The topic for next week’s talk is how atapi sati sampajanna, diligent mindful clear comprehension, can be effectively and beneficially applied to the issues of consumerism described during this talk.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:51 — 62.1MB)
This talk was recorded on Thanksgiving Eve, as it is customary for our group to have the opportunity to reflect on gratitude regarding the benefits of studying Buddhist concepts and cultivating mindfulness of breathing meditation. Various excerpts were quoted that validate the health and mental well-being that is developed through daily gratitude reflections and how important cultivating these states of mind are for effectively maintaining a positive sense of life in these stressful times. The quotes and supportive comments are followed by comments by some of those present in person or via Zoom that reflect gratitude for how his or her life has benefited from regular meditation practice.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindfulness and Gratitude
This talk was preceded by a “Guided Gratitude Contemplation”, which was recorded and posted in the Guided Meditation page of this website.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:23 — 43.4MB)