Shell Fischer's Podcast

A popular myth about meditation practice tells us that in order to meditate, we need to get rid of all of our thoughts. This is not only untrue, but unhelpful.

Vipassana Insight meditation is actually asking us to take a good, close look into the nature of our minds, and this includes becoming aware of what we're thinking.

As we get better at exploring the mind more intimately - gradually we recognize that our thoughts are not "us," and understand that they don't need to define us, or control us.

In this talk, Shell explores the 3rd Foundation of Mindfulness - Mindfulness of Mind - in the 3rd talk in a series of 4 talks on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

In our exploration of meditation, we are asked to be "mindful of feelings," and to contemplate the "feelings IN the feelings," often described as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

As we learn how to more accurately discern these subtle sensations, we gradually develop a more calm, non-judgmental awareness of whatever is happening in our lives, so that we're no longer so controlled by our conditioned responses to experience.

In this new talk, Shell explores this 2nd Foundation of Mindfulness - Feelings - as part of a four-part series of talks on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

This meditation was adapted by Thanissaro Bhikkhu the Abbott of the Metta Forest Monastery near San Diego. He learned this from his Thai teacher Ajaan Fuang who learned this technique from Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo (1907-1961). I learned it from my teacher, Pat Coffey, and now it is yours!

Thich Nhat Hahn:"Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again."

For thousands of years, the famous Satipatthana Sutra has been used as a powerful and profound spiritual road map. Contained within it are the rich teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which the Buddha himself called the "direct path to enlightenment."

In essence, this sutra is the very basis and ground of our entire practice, and diving deep into its teachings is exactly what can lead us out of suffering, and into more freedom, joy, and ease in our lives.

During this series of talks, Shell will explore each of these Four Foundations in more depth.

Talk 1: The 1st Foundation of Mindfulness - Mindfulness of Body.

This is the grounding foundation, where we begin. By practicing mindfulness of the body, the Buddha is asking us to see "the body IN the body," and to recognize that it is not a solid entity, but made up of parts that are impermanent, constantly changing, and "not self" (anatta). It is here where we discover that our entire spiritual life is em-bodied, that we experience everything from this sacred place of home.

Instead of offering the weekly dharma talk, Shell opened the room up to about 30 minutes of questions this week.

If you have a question you'd like to ask Shell, please visit us at the website to write your question, and Shell may answer it in the next session!

Starting in October, 2019, Shell will be offering these Q&A sessions once a month.

While the teachings offer us numerous ways of praying, people often ask: in this non-theistic tradition, what does it mean to do this? Or, what is it that we are aspiring to, when we place our hands together and bow our heads in prayer? In this talk, Shell explores how we can use this powerful form of aspiration to open our hearts, expand and connect, and extend more compassion and care to both ourselves and others.

When we practice what the Buddha called The Middle Way, we start to realize with more and more clarity that happiness resides at the center of wanting and not wanting; that nothing is really happy or unhappy in and of itself - no thing, person, or situation; that our joy or sorrow depends entirely on how we are relating to our experience. In this talk, Shell explores how learning to "walk in the middle" can help us discover more joy, ease, and balance in our lives.

The teachings warn us of 5 main challenging and complicated mental states that block, confuse, or "hinder" our ability to more fully open our hearts and minds, and prevent us from discovering freedom from suffering.

In this talk, Shell explores how we can better recognize these five, and learn to transform and eventually overcome them.

Often, as we search for deeper spiritual meaning in our practice, it's easy to become stalled or stuck at certain points, and become unclear about which direction we need to take in order to continue further.

This talk from Shell explores the famous Heartwood Sutra, which points out four things that are often mistaken for progress in our practice.

The Buddha spoke about 5 spiritual faculties which, if cultivated and developed, can flower into spiritual powers. The truth is, we all have these faculties within us, and when we learn to nurture them through our practice and our lives, they can lead us to more joy, ease, and freedom. In this talk, Shell explores these five, and offer ways that we can begin to harness their profound power, and offers a meditation on these to end.