The Courage To Be With What Is

This podcast explores courage in mindfulness practice.  The willingness to be with things that we find difficult, painful, scary, unpleasant, and/or unfamiliar is core to our spiritual practice.  For some of us even joy and pleasure are challenging to be present with at times. The end of dukkha (that which is difficult to bear) is found is the willingness to be present with it. This takes courage. To respond with courage is a fundamental part of awakening. Courage is not only needed to face some of the moment-to-moment aspects of daily life, but it is critical when we are turning toward dukkha in all its forms both internal and external. To live in truth requires courage. And courage arises from the practice of being present with the way things are. 

When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience our fear of pain. Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. The trick to doing this is to stay with emotional distress without tightening into aversion, to let fear soften us rather than harden into resistance. Pema Chodron from "When things fall apart".

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Winston Churchill:

I hope you can join us for a lightly guided meditation, group sharing in a council format,  and a Dharma talk on courage in Dharma practice. 

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