The Heart of Buddhist Meditation

1) Understanding the importance of legacy and lineage in our spiritual practice. 2) A brief review of the lineage of leading American teachers through Mahasi Sayadaw of the Burmese Theravadin tradition. 3) The role of Mahasi Sayadaw in the spread of meditation and the Dharma in Burma. 4) The importance of Bhikkhu Bodhi and the Theravadin lineage of Sri Lank: Nyanaponika Thera and Nyanatiloka Mahathera. 5) A brief biography of Nyanaponika Thera, the author of The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. 6) A reading of Nyanaponika’s Heart of Buddhist Meditation: The Way of Mindfulness. 7) What is Mindfulness: the stages of perception: initial attention, associative and abstract thinking, and right mindfulness.

May 28, 2022

1) Understanding Buddhism as a kind of “mind science” in terms of understanding how the mind works to create suffering and how by understanding the mind we can free ourselves from suffering. 2) The concept of “bare attention”: the clear and single minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us. 3) Learning how to stay with bare awareness and eliminating the self referential associative thinking that comes with initial awareness. 4) How, because of our associative thinking, we do not see the world as it actually is. 5) The goal of knowing the mind: the attainment of lucidity and penetrative insight. The example of microscopic research. 6) Learning how to see interconnectedness and developing beginner’s mind.

June 4, 2022

1) The three goals of Mindfulness meditation: Knowing the mind; Shaping the mind; and Freeing the mind. 2) Nyanaponika’s contribution in terms of connecting mindfulness with our modern idea of psychology. 3) Knowing the mind: examining the mind through a microscope. 4) Seeing karmic linkages and connected phenomena. 5) Mindfulness and “beginner’s mind.” 6) Mindfulness and the seeing of the three characteristics: impermanence, suffering, and non-self. 7) Seeing the mind as an infinite process of change and flux. The illusion of continuity. 8) Confronting the reality of impermanence: How we suffer because of our attachment to permanence and continuity. 9) Mindfulness and non-self or impersonality: the work of Sir Francis Crick: The Astonishing Hypothesis. 10) The relationship of mindfulness to science. 11) Mindfulness and shaping the mind: the value of mindfulness in avoiding unconscious reactive behavior. 12) Bare attention and the importance of the present moment, not the past or the future.

June 11, 2022

1) The influence of Nyanaponika Thera on the spread of the Dharma in the West. 2) The three goals of mindfulness: to know the mind, shape the mind, and free the mind. 3) Review of knowing the mind. 4) Shaping the mind: slowing our reactions down so as to respond with wisdom and common sense. 5) Living in the present and not being lost in the past or the future. 6) The power of mindfulness to lead to a healthier mind: the beautiful mind states. 7) Liberating the mind: finding a sense of peace and spaciousness in our daily lives: the art of letting go through the seeing of the three characteristics of existence: impermanence, suffering, and impersonality. 8) Understanding our spiritual journey.

June 18, 2022

Topics Include: 1) What are the two primary stages of Buddhist meditation? 2) Samatha or concentration practice: clearing the mental filters through which we generally see reality; 3) Vipassana or mindfulness practice: seeing our experience with a mind that is completely still; 4) What do we see in mindfulness? 5) The two legs of practice: samatha leading to the jhanic states and vipassana leading to wisdom; 6) Seeing our experience as “layers of experience”: the four foundations of mindfulness; 7) The role of intuition and feeling; 8) Experiencing ourselves as “energy flields”; 9) So what is awakening?

February 21, 2026