(Insight Santa Cruz) Suggested Homework:

1. Daily meditation: 10-20 minutes.

2. As with last week, choose a routine activity and practice mindfulness whenever you do this activity. This week specifically focus on mindfulness of body while doing the activity.

3. Try eating a meal mindfully. Consider doing this once per day or a few times this week.

(Auckland Insight Meditation) How can the dharma help us meet these deeply disturbing times?

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This talk discusses the Buddha's words on holding to fixed views from The Paramatthaka Sutta (Sn 4.5) followed by an open Q&A.

While the Buddha warned against attachment to views, some views are clearly aligned with the Dharma such as: causing harm will lead to suffering for oneself or another. How can we reconcile not holding to fixed views when you're clear that it is appropriate to take a strong stand against harm?

After reflections on this topic there is a Q&A session on this theme and other practice questions are explored.

(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center) If things didn’t change, there would be no hope to become free. Those not trained in perceiving impermanence embrace it only as long as the change is pleasant. However, those trained in the Dharma experience the flow of change with equanimity. We recognize that it is the changes that cause us suffering that spark the most spiritual urgency for cultivating clear seeing, wisdom, and freedom. In this talk we will explore a discourse from the Buddha in which we are instructed how we can train in the perception of impermanence. Recognizing and understanding impermanence (anicca) brings the greatest happiness, which is peace.

(Aloka Earth Room) Short Reflection & Guided Meditation | Earthworm Practice for the Anthropocene III | Online Wednesday-Morning

(Aloka Earth Room) Short Reflection & Guided Meditation | Earthworm Practice for the Anthropocene III | Online Wednesday-Morning

(Insight Santa Cruz)

(Insight Santa Cruz)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We begin by hearing from two members of the community about how they are experiencing and responding to what's happening in the larger society and world in our times. Donald then discusses how we might respond on the basis of our practice, identifying the three areas of training--in wisdom, meditation, and ethics. Guided by wisdom teachings, we can see the society and world as both manifesting greed, hatred, and delusion, and also awakened qualities. In our meditation, we can practice on many levels, including working with challenging emotions, seeing through social conditioning, and bringing mindfulness to our thoughts, emotions, and bodies.

We focus especially on "ethical practice," re-framed as developing caring and compassionate responses. We briefly outline the five ethical precepts, and then focus especially on the guideline of non-harming, clarifying how this is understood both more individually and socially, identifying teachings from the Buddha, King Ashoka, and Thich Nhat Hanh. We ask what our practice of developing "caring and compassionate" responses might look like, bringing in also material from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including his nonviolence and understanding of interdependence, and Elie Wiesel, including his commitment always to speak up whenever there is suffering.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)