Working With Unpredictability

This talk focuses on the lojong commitment “Don’t Rely On Consistency”, which emphasizes how social norms put pressure on individuals to conform, even when such conformity violates the Buddhist principle of benevolent intention.  One example would be the pressure to conform with materialistic drives regarding the upcoming holiday season–the perfect party, the perfect gift, etc.  Another example is the conformity of ethnic prejudice, that is, the culturally conditioned feeling of aversion around someone who looks Muslim.

The discussion also focused on the struggle of individuals to conform to their own conditioned expectations of themselves, and the frustration experienced when one doesn’t meet a standard of performance.

During the discussions, Peter repeatedly referred back to aphorisms discussed in prior meetings, such as being a “child of illusion” and the importance of daily meditation practice to build the capacity to be mindful and nonreactive to cultural pressures that conflict with benevolent intention.

Here are the notes for this discussion:  Working With Unpredictability

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Guided Individual Lovingkindness Meditation

Lovingkindness is the companion to insight practice in the cultivation of the Buddhist concept of wisdom–insight provides Right Understanding, while lovingkindness supports Right Intention.  In this guided meditation, Peter offers a slightly different mantra for accessing the internal benevolent energy we call love.  There is an accompanying mp3 file entitled “Guided Radiant Lovingkindness Meditation” that provides support for expressing lovingkindness out into the world.

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Wisdom In The 21st Century Part 1

This is the first of two dialogues about the Wisdom aggregate of the Noble Eightfold Path, continuing to explore the relevance of traditional Buddhist psychology to modern scientific and psychological insights.  Tonight’s discussion emphasized Right Understanding as “clear awareness” of the three characteristics: impermanence, dissatisfaction, and non-self, as well as the realization of the reality of karma, that is, for every effect there’s a cause.  Next week’s discussion will emphasize Right Intention as “benevolent intention”, focusing on how urgency is felt and managed to manifest Wisdom.

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