As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
Sitting in a field of fifty to eighty people really starts my mind sparking. Since I don't prepare my talks ahead of time, I find myself listening to what I'm saying along with everyone else. This leaves a lot of room for the Dhamma to come up. Just having eighty people listening to me is enough to engage me, stimulate me, and create a nice flow of energy. The actual process of teaching evokes ideas that even I did not realize were being held somewhere in my mind.
Different teaching situations offer their own unique value. In retreat, you are able to build a cohesive and comprehensive body of the teachings. When people are not on retreat and come for one session, it opens a different window. They are more spontaneous and I'm given the chance to contact them in ways that are closer to their "daily-life mind." This brings up surprises and interesting opportunities for me to learn even more.
I'm continually struck by how important it is to establish a foundation of morality, commitment, and a sense of personal values for the Vipassana teachings to rest upon. Personal values have to be more than ideas. They have to actually work for us, to be genuinely felt in our lives. We can't bluff our way into insight. The investigative path is an intimate experience that empowers our individuality in a way that is not egocentric. Vipassana encourages transpersonal individuality rather than ego enhancement. It allow for a spacious authenticity to replace a defended personality.
Healing splits Citta and conceived world Breath meditation Dispassion Relinquishment Natural empathetic quality of the citta Freedom from the known, imagined, and conceived
Vaci sankhara Tracking a train of thought to underlying mood and feeling Vipalasa - distorted and delusional seeing Expecting the impermanent to be permanent, etc
"All dhammas converge on feeling" Dhammas: moments of direct experience Origin of thought Being hit by a thought can shatter Abstraction and Ideologue's The seduction of clarity Abstracted mind can't be liberated vitakka, vicara, viveka
Wide & deep field of lineage Subjects for frequent recollection Being possessed by possessions Separation from the loved Buddha, here and gone; the field continues Feeling..
Impermanence of sense contact Shift to a more reliable refuge Embracing the cascade of self with goodwill Things have to arise before they can pass away Non-self as base to see self The only way out is kindness & mutuality
Giving from the Heart Generosity expects no results Being made into an "it" Mutuality - from "you" to "we" Differentiated consciousness - and beyond Softening and mercy
