Heart of Freedom Mindfulness Meditation Instruction

Mindfulness of Embodied Feelings

On this podcast we explore feelings that arise in the body with mindfulness and compassion. In this simple, yet powerful practice we are not fixing anything or trying to change feelings.  No holding onto the pleasant, resisting the unpleasant and ignoring the neutral.  When we use the word "feeling" to label our embodied feeling tone in meditation, "feeling" is a synonym for welcoming and letting go/letting be the feeling so that the next "guest can come through the door" and be met with mindfulness.  We can investigate how conditioned the experience of feeling is and in turn how it influences our biases.  This practice is of utmost importance in freeing us from deep conditioning that leads to distress and anguish. 
"It’s very helpful to realize that the feelings we have, the negativity and positivity, are exactly what we need to be fully human, fully aware, and fully alive"    Pema Chodrin:  
“There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering which leads to more suffering, and the suffering which leads to the end of suffering. The first is the pain of grasping after fleeting pleasures and aversion to the unpleasant, the continued struggle of most people day after day. The second is the suffering which comes when you allow yourself to fully feel the constant change of experience – pleasure, pain, joy, and anger – without fear or withdrawal. The suffering of our experience leads to inner fearlessness and peace”.  Ajahn Chah
 
 
 
 

Mindfulness of the Body in the Body

You are invited to listen to this podcast to deepen your understanding of embodied mindfulness practice. Many people today feel disconnected or even alienated from their own bodies. There are many reasons for this, but it can lead to a sense of disconnection from life in general.  Mindfulness is an embodied practice. It invites us to heal this sense of disconnection. When mindful of our body, we open to the changing stream of sensations without grasping or resisting. The experience might be fear or joy, it might be the intensity of aliveness, or it might be numbness. Mindfulness is not a distanced kind of witnessing.  With mindfulness we “observe sensations within sensations.” It is a practice of mindfulness of the body, in the body. Mental, emotional and physical suffering all can be reduced through skillful cultivation of this form of practice. 
"Be strong then, and enter into your own body;there you have a solid place for your feet.Think about it carefully!Don’t go off somewhere else!Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,and stand firm in that which you are".
Kabir

Forgiveness Brings Freedom

Martin Luther King Jr Day was this past Monday in the U.S. and it offers an opportunity for us to reflect on the life of someone we might call a 20th-century metta master.  Here is a famous quote from him:
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” 
Martin Luther King Jr.
In this podcast I invite you to join me In honoring Dr. King's enduring legacy as we cultivate forgiveness or relinquishment of resentment.  Maintaining resentment towards others or towards ourselves is one of the greatest impediments to working with our minds on the deepest level and realizing freedom. Resentment acts as a barrier that prevents us from seeing things as they really are. 
"In order to be released from deeply held aversion for ourselves and for others, we must be able to practice forgiveness.  Forgiveness has the power to ripen forces of purity such as love, and affirms the qualities of patience and compassion. It creates the space for renewal, and a life free from the bondage to the past”.  Sharon Salzberg
This podcast includes silent and guided meditation, a Dharma talk, and a blessing circle. Please join us in practices that invite relinquishing resentment and attachments to the past.  

Loving and Wise Intention In Mindfulness Practice

This podcast explores how we can shape our destiny through consciousness and choosing which seeds of thought and emotion we really want to cultivate.  One of the Buddha's most penetrating discoveries is that our intentions are the main factors shaping our lives, and that they can be mastered as a skill. If we subject them to the same qualities of mindfulness, persistence, and discernment involved in developing any skill, we can perfect them to the point where they will lead to no regrets or damaging results in any given situation.  Ultimately, this practice can lead us to the truest possible happiness. Skillful intention is about coming home to ourselves and aligning actions with the deepest part of the human heart that is loving, wise and compassionate. Skillful intention is organic; it thrives when cultivated and wilts when neglected.
 
"Intention, I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & mind."  The Buddha (Anguttara VI.63)
"The Metta Sutta is basically a recipe for cooking Right Intention. Whenever there’s friendliness, joy, compassion, and equanimity there’s Right Intention. So, whenever we’re aware that there’s a Wrong Intention present, it’s recommended that we do a little metta or Four Immeasurables meditation" Thanissaro Bhikkhu
 
Join us as we explore the Buddha's teaching on loving and wise intention through a guided meditation practice and a Dharma talk. 

The Undefended Heart: working mindfully with difficult emotions

In this podcast I explore working mindfully and compassionately with strong emotions with wholeness of heart.  In this practice we are not trying to fix anything. We are trying to welcome things as they are; to realize that we are inherently whole just as we are. Emotions do not need to be "fixed" by meditation It is an opportunity for us to  remember our inherent capacity to keep our hearts open to ourselves when we face challenges that bring up difficult emotional states like fear, anger and sorrow.  As we are able to be mindful, kind and feel our common humanity during difficult times it becomes possible for our hearts to soften toward ourselves and others. This form of love can be a powerful healing force in our lives and in the world.  The beginning point is creating space to breathe into the reality of whatever is here for us, right now, in this moment. To look this suffering directly in the eye, not turn away. You are invited to join me as we explore using Buddha's teaching to bring mindful  compassionate presence to our emotional life.  
 "It’s very helpful to realize that the emotions we have, the negativity and positivity , are exactly what we need to be fully human, fully aware, and fully alive"    Pema Chodrin:  
 
“There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering which leads to more suffering, and the suffering which leads to the end of suffering. The first is the pain of grasping after fleeting pleasures and aversion to the unpleasant, the continued struggle of most people day after day. The second is the suffering which comes when you allow yourself to fully feel the constant change of experience – pleasure, pain, joy, and anger – without fear or withdrawal. The suffering of our experience leads to inner fearlessness and peace”.  Ajahn Chah
 
This podcast includes for 30-40 minutes of meditation, a Dharma talk exploring ways we can work mindfully with difficult emotional states, and a sharing circle.

The Power of Wise Effort

With this podcast we continue a series of five classes focusing on practices that develop the qualities of heart and mind which are known as the “five spiritual powers.” This week we explore the power of wise effort in Dharma practice.  The effort to be mindful, and to bring the mind back when it wanders, so it knows what is happening right now is really a very delicate balancing act. On the one hand, hard work is needed, in the attempt to keep paying attention. On the other hand, there’s nothing to do, because awareness is already present. It’s just that we’ve been distracted. Wise effort is not striving. Striving leads to clinging. It reinforces the sense of self, and can be very painful. Wise effort isn’t trying to get anything, for there’s nothing to get. Rather, it’s the effort to listen with greater sensitivity. It’s a soft receptivity. Just total surrender, receiving and welcoming whatever is here. When effort is balanced, without any strain, there’s no sense of, “I should do this.” Rather, there’s just a willingness to be present. 
"What can truth or reality gain by all our practice? Nothing whatsoever, of course.   But it is in the nature of truth or love, cosmic consciousness, whatever you want to call it, to express itself, to affirm itself, to overcome difficulties.   Once you've understood that the world is love in action, consciousness or love in action, you will look at it quite differently.   But first your attitude to suffering must change.   Suffering is primarily a call for attention, which itself is a movement of love.   More than happiness, love wants growth, the widening and deepening of awareness and consciousness and being.   Whatever prevents that becomes a cause of pain, and love does not shirk from pain".   Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Power of Faith In Mindfulness Practice

This podcast includes silent and guided sitting meditation, a chance for sharing in the group, and a Dharma talk on faith as a spiritual power in Dharma practice. 
"It is a great turning point in our spiritual lives when we go from an intellectual appreciation of a path to the heartfelt confidence that says, “Yes, it is possible to awaken. I can, too.” A tremendous joy accompanies this confidence. When we place our hearts upon the practice, the teachings come alive. That turning point, which transforms an abstract concept of a spiritual path into our own personal path, is faith".  Sharon Salzberg
"Faith is not equivalent to mere belief.  Faith is the condition of ultimate confidence that we have the capacity to follow the path of doubt to its end.  Faith in the Buddhist understanding is not the opposite of doubt.  Faith is embracing doubt with mindfulness and wise reflection.  It is bringing doubt to wise counsel".   Stephen Batchelor,  
"Belief…is the insistence that the truth is what one would will or wish it to be…Faith is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown. Belief clings, but faith let’s go…faith is the essential virtue of science, and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception" Alan Watts

Radical Gratitude

This podcast focus on the powerful practice of gratitude through silent and guided meditation, a Dharma talk and a blessing circle.  I have found gratitude can be transformative.  As my practice has deepened there are more moments of gratitude which go beyond being thankful for receiving the bounties of life. It includes being grateful for challenges and difficulties, the things I often think of as dukkha.  With mindful wise reflection dukkha can be experienced as an opportunity for spiritual freedom and compassion to expand.  It is important to understand that this is an experiential insight, not an external expectation or judgement imposed by the mind. It is the experience of freedom from the minds resisting and grasping.  In the deep experience of gratitude, there is no me, or you.  There is just our field of interconnectedness.  
"Cultivating, practicing, and sustaining gratefulness as an approach to life is radical – because it flies in the face of internal and external forces which want us to believe the big lie that we need to have more and be more in order to be happy" Kristi Nelson
 Being grateful for not only life's blessing but also its suffering is a key component of living a spiritual life -- and more broadly, to a fulfilling and meaningful life.  

Relationships As Spiritual Practice

This podcast explores how the practices of loving intention and mindfulness can have a transformative effect on relationships.  Paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgment can help us break out of the negative knee-jerk reactions we bring into our relationships. Mindfulness helps to better manage the body’s reactions, regulate emotions and calm fears and anxieties – all key ingredients for healthy relationships.  And loving intention can be cultivated as a powerful tool to free us from the illusion of separateness and the alienation that goes with it. 
“Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me." Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops. Still though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect. Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye that is always saying, with that sweet moon language, what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?”  -Hafiz
Listen to a guided and silent meditation, a Dharma talk, and a sharing circle.

Let Impermanence Nurture Love

We are often sad and suffer a lot when things change, but change and impermanence have a positive side. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible. Loving kindness and compassion can deepen when we deeply understand that everything we hold dear is subject to change.
"Impermanence should also be understood in the light of inter-being. Because all things inter-are, they are constantly influencing each other. It is said a butterfly's wings flapping on one side of the planet can affect the weather on the other side. Things cannot stay the same because they are influenced by everything else, everything that is not itself". Thich Nhat Hanh
All of us can understand impermanence with our intellect, but this is not yet true understanding. Our intellect alone will not lead us to freedom. According to the Buddha's teaching It is only through direct mindful experience that we can see the nature of impermanence that leads to freedom. This is how the insight of impermanence becomes part of our being. It becomes our daily experience. If we can use impermanence as an object of our meditation, we will nourish the understanding of impermanence in such a way that it will live in us every day. With this practice impermanence becomes a key that opens the door to wholeness of heart where there is room for everything.
"Nirvana is where you are, provided you don't object to it. In other words, change--and everything is change; nothing can be held on to--to the degree that you go with a stream, you see, you are still, you are flowing with it. But to the degree you resist the stream, then you notice that the current is rushing past you and fighting you. So swim with it, go with it, and you're there. You're at rest. You are free"  Alan Watts  
 Yare invited to listen in as we explore the practice of awakening to impermanence and finding wholeness of heart in change.