Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge: dharma talks and meditation instruction

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Through practice we form the occasion of goodness, and this occasion forms us, strengthening composure and wisdom. This is the circularity of dhamma, of the process that transcends the specific occasion of retreat.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Remembering mindfulness is challenged when moving from retreat to an interactive domain. Attune your mindfulness to the uncertainty of life in the most basic experience of body, feeling, citta and “stuff that comes up”.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) 00:25 Regarding rebirth or further birth, Therevadans and Tibetans seems to have very different things to say about this. Is it useless speculation to consider what happens after death? 13:17 Can you please distinguish between kilesa, asava and anutsara? 17:41 Why is consciousness likened to an illusion? 31:22 Could you please speak about the external and internal aspect of the sense fields mentioned in the satipatthanna? 36:03 I get very stirred up when I received kindness from others. What do you suggest? 41:35 You mentioned a tendency to look for open space as related to an experience as an infant of being confined in a cradle. How did that memory and understanding come up for you? 46:09 Can you remind us about mano sancetana – what it is and how it works? 53:57 Is nibanna a description of a mind in which the defilements are uprooted or is it that which does the uprooting? 55:21 Can you speak about the significance of noticing neutral sensations? Why is this useful? 56:51 Vicara and dhamma vijaya both explore an object. How are they different or similar? 1:00:18 I’d appreciate some more specific instructions about the movements and placements of hands during the bowing ritual.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Using ritual to wrap around the day provides a stable frame to hold the circumstantial world. Its images and resonances create a place marker (nimmita) for contemplation.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) These “treasures of the contemplatives” are important in the culture of gladdening the citta. In the citta’s own bounty we find what our life needs.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Anticipating the end of retreat comes with the desire for (or fear of) becoming. The challenge is to engage with it with embodied wisdom with the tools we’ve been using.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Puja provides a steady frame for meditation and helps to ward off dullness and stale familiarity in daily practice. Its fresh vitality undermines ingrained behaviours and attitudes.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Through retreat we learn the trigger points where the I Am occurs. We see the potential for a remedy, a liberated citta, by removing the self from the picture and trusting embodied awareness.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Recalling our moral behaviour, our generosity, we experience the joyful energy that results. Citta enters samadhi when it is gladdened.

(Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge) Sometimes the heart feels trapped distracted, or passionately involved with experience. This too changes. Training the citta to know itself releases this.