Insight Journal: The title of your course at BCBS this coming August is “The Convergence of Vedanā, Our Mammalian Physiology, and Awakening.” What do you mean by our mammalian physiology? Brian Lesage: What I’m referring to, and what we’ll be talking about in this course, is our various physiological states. Stephen Porges talks about five states: social engagement, mobilization (fight-or-flight), play, immobilization (life-threat), and immobilization without fear. The state we’re in colors … [Read more...]
Mindfulness: Gateway into Experience
These words are excerpted from a dharma talk given at BCBS on January 18, 1997 as part of the Nalanda Program's weekend retreat. Mindfulness (sati) reveals to us the nature of reality, of our own mind and body in each moment of our experience. When we apprehend any aspect of our experience with mindfulness, we find that experience to be fleeting. Seeing the fleeting nature of all our experiences over a period of time, we become grounded in the wisdom or insight that we cannot rely on any … [Read more...]
The Investigation of What Is Important: The Second Factor of Awakening
Santikaro Bhikkhu is an American-born monk who has been living in Thailand at the Suan Mokh monastery for twenty years. His teacher was Ajahn Buddhadasā, a well-known scholar and practitioner who contributed greatly to the development of Engaged Buddhism through his writing and teaching. These pages are extracted from a seven-day Bhāvana Program at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies that took place in March 2000. The Seven Factors The Pali word bojjhaṅgā is usually translated as "factors … [Read more...]
Mindfulness
In any moment of mindfulness, we have the beginning, middle and end of the path. From the Bhavana Program, BCBS March 2000 I want to speak a little tonight about mindfulness, perhaps from a slightly different angle than your discussions today with Than Santikaro, but hopefully in a way that is complementary. The word “mindfulness” can have a passive sound to it. It may feel to us at certain points like it's some kind of state that will arise—or not—and there’s really nothing much for us to … [Read more...]
Waking Up In Relationships
One of the primary challenges that most meditators face is how to bring their meditation practice into the world of everyday relationships. On retreats, conditions are specifically created that support our mindfulness practice. As difficult as retreat life may be at times, the environment of silence with lots of sitting and walking practice helps us develop continuity of attention in order to see things as they are. On retreat, we hear over and over again the importance of being in the present, … [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 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...]
King Pasenadi Goes on a Diet (Samyutta Nikāya 3:13)
Once when the Buddha was living at Sāvatthi, King Pasenadi of Kosala ate a whole bucketful of food, and then approached the Buddha, engorged and panting, and sat down to one side. The Buddha, discerning that King Pasenadi was engorged and panting, took the occasion to utter this verse: Now at that time the brahmin youth Sudassana was standing nearby, and King Pasenadi of Kosala addressed him: "Come now, my dear Sudassana, and having thoroughly mastered this verse in the presence of … [Read more...]
What Is Mindfulness… And Why Is It Important to Therapists?
This article is excerpted from the first chapter of a new book, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. A collective effort of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, the book is edited by Christopher K. Germer, Ronald D. Siegel and Paul R. Fulton, and will be published by Guilford Press in the spring of 2005. Psychotherapists are in the business of alleviating emotional suffering. Suffering arrives in innumerable guises: stress, anxiety, depression, behavior problems, interpersonal conflict, … [Read more...]
In This World, Hate Never Yet Dispelled Hate
Based on a talk given at the IMS Forest Refuge in Barre, MA, last winter. ‘‘Look how he abused me and beat me, How he threw me down and robbed me.” Live with such thoughts and you live in hate... Abandon such thoughts and live in love. In this world Hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible. (Dhammapada 3-5) Hatred, indeed, has never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. Hatred just leads to revenge, and revenge … [Read more...]