dhammesu dhamm-ānupassī viharati ātāpī sampajāno satimā vineyya loke abhijjhā-domanassaṃ One abides contemplating mental objects as mental objects, ardent, fully aware, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. —Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta The Bhāvana Program is a seven-day vipassanā retreat of sitting and walking practice which includes a textual study session each morning. This new model, unique to BCBS, allows for an in-depth investigation of the Dhamma using both … [Read more...]
The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness
dhammesu dhamm-ānupassī viharati ātāpī sampajāno satimā vineyya loke abhijjhā-domanassaṃ One abides contemplating mental objects as mental objects, ardent, fully aware, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. —Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta The Bhāvana Program is a seven-day vipassana retreat of sitting and walking practice which includes a textual study session each morning. This new model, unique to BCBS, allows for an in-depth investigation of the Dhamma using both … [Read more...]
Resistance in Meditation
Bill Morgan, Psy.D., a Boston-area psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner, is a member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy (IMP). These remarks are excerpted from a talk given at a joint BCBS/IMP program called "Buddhist Psychology in Contemporary Perspective" in Cambridge, MA in the fall of 2001. There is a saying in Buddhism, “Meditation is good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end.” I don’t know how it is for any of you, but my experience has been … [Read more...]
The Visuddhi Magga on the Brahma-Vihāras
The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness
Most practitioners of insight meditation are familiar with the four foundations of mindfulness, and know that the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (M 10; D 22), the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness is the cornerstone of the vipassanā [insight meditation] tradition. The first foundation, mindfulness of the body, has to do with bringing awareness, attention, or focus to breathing and to bodily sensations. The second foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of feeling, involves noticing the affect … [Read more...]
Understanding the Hindrances
Food for Awakening: The Role of Appropriate Action
The Myth of Bare Attention The Buddha never used the word for “bare attention” in his meditation instructions. That’s because he realized that attention never occurs in a bare, pure or unconditioned form. It’s always colored by views and perceptions—the labels you tend to give to events—and by intentions: your choice of what to attend to and your purpose in being attentive. If you don’t understand the conditioned nature of even simple acts of attention, you might assume that a moment of … [Read more...]
Mindfulness for Educators
The most practical thing we can achieve in any kind of work is insight into what is happening inside us as we do it. The more familiar we are with our inner terrain, the more surefooted our teaching—and living—becomes. —Parker Palmer These words from Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach (Jossey-Bass, 1998) have inspired many educators to explore the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Eloquent and provocative, Palmer’s work illuminates the perils, paradoxes and challenges that one faces … [Read more...]
Teaching Buddhism in America
Excerpted from Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi's remarks to the Community Dharma Leaders program at BCBS, June29, 2006. I have been thinking about the discussion we had yesterday on the problems you’ve encountered in teaching Buddhism in America. I would like to offer a few of my own thoughts on this subject. As we go along, I will also share with you the general outlines of one scheme I’ve worked out for pulling the Buddha’s teachings together into a single, all-embracing whole. In my view one of the … [Read more...]
Life is a Retreat
Can you tell us something about your jataka, your life story, where you came from and how you got into all this? I grew up in New York, was married when I was 18 years old, graduated from college a year or so later, and had four children in five and a half years (they are all grown, now). I always thought I would die very young because I did everything in such a hurry. I figured I’d be finished with all my things and there wouldn’t be anything else left to do, any people tell a story that … [Read more...]