Four Foundations of Mindfulness

1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta: the Foundations of Mindfulness; 2) Reading of the introduction to the Maha Satipatthana Sutta; 3) Appreciating the simplicity of mindfulness meditation; 4) Different views on the role of mindfulness; 5) Review of essential terms in the Maha Satipattana Sutta.

May 16, 2015

1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Definition of “satipattana”: two ways of interpreting the process of meditation; 3) Understanding the concept of “dukkha” or suffering; 4) Understanding the quality of spiritual ardency.

Topics Include: 1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Definition of “satipattana”: two ways of interpreting the process of meditation; 3) Understanding the concept of “dukkha” or suffering; 4) Understanding the quality of spiritual ardency.

Topics Include: 1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Definition of “satipattana”: two ways of interpreting the process of meditation; 3) Understanding the concept of “dukkha” or suffering; 4) Understanding the quality of spiritual ardency.

May 23, 2015

1) Review of the Four Foundations; 2) Strengthening and developing the quality of ardency and spiritual urgency; 3) Understanding the importance of our mind; 4) The rarity of connecting with the Dharma and the opportunity to practice; 5) Understanding the transient nature of phenomena.

May 30, 2015

1) What are the factors that stimulate a sense of spiritual urgency? 2) Understanding impermanence as a basis for spiritual urgency, 3) Experiencing joy and fullness as a result of knowing impermanence, 4) Understanding transiency in our life process. 5) Understanding the importance of actions and their consequences.

June 6, 2015

1) Understanding clear comprehension or clear knowing; 2) Understanding the importance of mindfulness in the overall context of the Dharma; 3) Mindfulness and the quality of memory or wholesome reflections on the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha; 4) Discerning progress in our practice through subtle changes in our behavior; 5) Reflecting on the quality of our morality and ethical behavior; 6) Reflecting on our positive virtues as a true expression of our true moral selves.

June 13, 2015

1) Review of definitions of sati or mindfulness; 2) Understanding mindfulness as presence of mind or present moment awareness; 3) Understanding bare attention through the writings of Nyanaponika Thera.

June 20, 2015

1) A brief history of mindfulness meditation and the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Mindfulness as remembrance: a) Reflections on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; b) How mindfulness can change our lives; c) Reflections on one’s inherent goodness; 3) Mindfulness as presence of mind or present moment awareness; 4) Mindfulness as a guardian of the sense doors; 5) Two kinds of mindfulness; 6) Prompted and unprompted mindfulness; 7) Innate mindfulness or the innate nature of mind.

July 11, 2015

1) The qualities that a spiritual seeker brings to the path; 2) Understanding freedom from covetousness and grief in the world; 3) Understanding samadhi as freedom from afflictive emotions; 4) The concept of “embodied presence” and the importance of relaxation; 5) Samadhi as the art of “refined enjoyment”: the joy of the present moment; 6) Morality and ethics as the foundation of the practice; 7) The importance of happiness and joy in the practice.

July 18, 2015

1) Preliminary steps in developing concentration; 2) Focusing on a single object or multiple objects; 3) Understanding the transformation in the temporal and sensory realms in concentration.

July 25, 2015

1) Understanding the significance of the power of mental concentration in samadhi; 2) Feeling the aesthetic beauty of the present moment; 3) Understanding the power of intentions and the concept of nama and rupa, mind and body; 4) Developing the power of stillness and noting; 5) Finding our essential beauty and goodness.

August 1, 2015

1) Understanding the importance of samadhi in a mind free of covetousness and grief; 2) Review of the tools for attaining samadhi; 3) Seeing the beauty of who we are within ourselves; 4) Understanding philosophies of immanence versus transcendence; 5) Is Nibbana a place or a state of mind; 6) Understanding mindfulness as a basis for intelligence.

August 8, 2015

1) Removing covetousness and grief in the world: the state of samadhi or concentration; 2) The magic of the samadhi experience; 3) Samadhi and the difference between conceptual and experiential knowledge.

August 15, 2015

1) Interpreting the refrain: One abides contemplating the body, feelings and mind, internally and externally. 2) Awareness of others and the quality of metta or lovingkindness; 3) Right speech and lovingkindness; 4) Self and other and the concept of anatta or non-self.

August 15, 2015

1) The importance of the concept of impermanence; 2) The relationship between impermanence and non-self; 3) The arousal of disenchantment and dispassion; 4) Seeing the deeper nature of reality within the context of our conventional daily existence; 5) A personal experience of impermanence.

August 22, 2015

1) The connection between understanding impermanence and spiritual liberation; 2) Appreciating the pervasiveness of impermanence; 3) The illusion of continuity and the illusion of compactness; 4) Understanding impermanence within the context of the stages of awakening in Buddhism.

August 29, 2015

1) Defining the conceptual pathway to spiritual awakening in the Theravadin Sixteen Stages of Awakening and its connection to the concept of impermanence; 2) Description of the Sixteen Stages of Awakening; 3) Seeing the parallels between the Buddhist journey of awakening and the process of spiritual evolution in post World War II Europe.

September 5, 2015

1) Modern socio-cultural examples of the psychological effects of the sixteen stages; 2) Understanding content and process in meditation; 3) Working with the content of our experience: the psychotherapeutic application of mindfulness; 4) Two ways of working with content in our experience: working with emotions directly and understanding the karmic conditions of our emotions; 5) Understanding explicit and implicit memory and the relationship to mindfulness.

September 12, 2015

1) The four levels of awakening: stream entry, once returner, non returner and arahant; 2) Spiritual transformation through the four levels of awakening and the eradication of the ten fetters: doubt, avariciousness; belief in rites and rituals; envy and jealousy; false views; sensual desire; ill will and anger; pride and conceit; ignorance; the desire for existence.

September 19, 2015

1) Understanding the process of enlightenment as a framework for organizing our own practice and spiritual path: 2) Defining stream entry for a lay practitioner; 3) Cultivating the desire for consciousness; 4) Summary of modern psychoanalytical approaches and their relationship to the concept of karma.

September 26, 2015

1) Understanding enlightenment as a framework to understand our own practice as lay people, 2) Understanding the importance of stream entry in the overall process of spiritual awakening, 3) The qualities of a stream enterer and their relevance to lay people, 4) Embodying the spiritual virtues at the time of death, 5) Seeing awakening as a process and not as an achievement.

October 3, 2015

1) Understanding bare awareness; 2) Feeling the joy of momentary awareness; 3) Understanding continuous mindfulness.

October 17, 2015

1) Review of the basic concept of bare awareness and continual mindfulness; 2) Understanding the separation between knowing and the known; 3) Knowing the relation between the arising of the object and the knowing of the object as nama rupa; 4) The place of nama rupa within the context of the enlightenment process, 5) Understanding the nature of the knowing process; 6) Cultivating the development of pure awareness.

October 24, 2015

1) Two basic ideas in mindfulness meditation; 2) Is there a God or not? What is sacred and what is secular? 3) Submission to the truth of reality; 4) The process of perception; 5) The value of concepts in spiritual awakening.

October 31, 2015

1) Understanding perception within the context of abstract symbolic systems such as language. 2) Understanding reality in relation to abstract conceptual systems. 3) Appreciating language as a positive vehicle for awakening as exemplified by noting or mental labeling. 4) The functions of noting in the meditative practice. 5) The different role of noting in concentration practice and in mindfulness practice. 6) Experiencing joy and equanimity in the moment of embodied loving presence.

November 7, 2015

1) The importance of stopping all agenda based activities in the meditation process. 2) The nature of the feeling state in deep meditation. 3) The sense of context that is created in deep concentration. 4) The integration of understanding and affect in deep concentration. 5) Practicing mindfulness in our daily lives.

November 14, 2015

1) The concepts of vitakka and vicara: grabbing and holding. 2) The importance of sustained focused awareness or our general ability to pay attention. 3) The dynamics of focusing on the breath as the object of concentration. 4) The co-relationship between the development of insight awareness and the development of the jhanic states. 5) Sustained focused awareness as the engine for the mindfulness process. 6) Applying the lessons of meditation to our everyday daily lives.

November 21, 2015

1) Contemporary events and their relationship to the concept of gratitude and spiritual awakening. 2) Understanding awakening in terms of truth, beauty, joy, and gratitude. 3) Understanding the constituent elements: concentration practice and the jhanic states. 4) Mindfulness practice: The sixteen stages of insight awareness. 5) Understanding the integration between the unfolding of awareness and jhanic bliss. 6) Integrating the sense of aesthetic beauty in present moment reality. 7) Experiencing the joy of simply being alive. 8) Understanding the transmutability of energy and matter and it’s implications for our human life. 9) Understanding Sat chit ananda.

November 28, 2015

1) Coming to find the meaning of our lives through the spiritual practice and an abiding sense of gratitude. 2) Finding the relationship between the heart and the mind through the concentration and the insight practice. 3) Finding balance in the continuous flow of mindfulness through the five faculties: faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. 4) Developing continuity of effort in the practice. 5) The benefits and pitfalls of noting in the practice.

December 5, 2015

1) Understanding the fundamental importance of non clinging: the Second Noble Truth. 2) Three major areas of clinging in our lives. 3) Understanding the difference between craving and wholesome aspiration. 4) The relationship between craving and the illusion of self. 5) Gratitude, joy and awareness as antidotes to craving. 6) Understanding craving through Dependent Origination. 7) Breaking the chain of craving and attachment.

December 12, 2015

1) Reflections on the larger context within which clinging and craving arise. 2) Understanding why we do not see the world as it actually is. 3) Learning how to relate to the world of illusion. 4) From formlessness to form, from the unconditioned to the conditioned. 5) The original formation of matter from energy and the compounded nature of matter. 6) The evolution of mind and consciousness as the culmination of evolution. 7) The evanescent flicker of life in the flow of evolution. 8) The collateral existence of the unconditioned within our conditioned lives. 9) Coming to gratitude and joy within the brief time that we have. 10) Understanding clinging and craving within the context of our larger human reality.

December 19, 2015

1) Craving as “thirst” or embodied desire, seeing the difference between craving and wholesome aspiration. 2) Contemporary manifestations of desire in culture and society. 3) The three types of craving: the craving for sense pleasures; the craving for existence; the craving for non-existence. 4) The foundation of craving as the sense of self, within the context of unconditioned reality.

December 26, 2015

1) Reflections on the previous weeks guided meditation on the setting of intentions for 2016 and the concept of “Buddha Nature”. 2) Review of the concept of craving: the three forms of craving. 3) Forms of consumption as expressions of self or social status. 4) Understanding the quality of our mind in our actions. 5) The eight worldly dharmas. 6) Overcoming craving and desire with the power of mindfulness. Questions and Answers

January 9, 2016

1) Understanding the thirst for life. 2) The process of becoming. 3) The problem of expectations: the cycle of hope and fear. 4) Understanding the difference between clinging and wanting and wholesome aspirations. 5) Holding the future self and the fear of death. 6) Confronting the delusion of self. 7) What is it that dies at the moment of death. 8) Find the balance between aspirations and present moment reality. Questions and Answers

January 16, 2016

1) Understanding life and death through the teaching of dependent origination and absolute and conventional reality: dependent origination and idea of becoming. 2) Understanding becoming within the context of absolute and conventional reality. 3) Understanding the constituents of the mind and the illusion of time, space, and karma. 4) Appreciating the value of our illusory life and the true potential of the mind.

January 23, 2016

1) Review of the three forms of craving. 2) Understanding the concept of self in the Buddhist teaching. 3) Seeing Self as a form of mirage. 4) What dies when we die? 5) The existential consequence of seeing the truth of ourselves. 6) Seeing the taking of one’s own life as act of delusion. 7) Understanding craving as a form of identification that leads to suffering. 8) Questions and Answers

January 30, 2016

1) Review of craving and attachment: the Second Noble Truth. 2) The concept of anatta or non-self and conventional and ultimate reality. 3) Understanding the reality of life and death in light of the truth of who we really are in terms of self. 4) The teaching of Don Miguel Ruiz and the Four Agreements. 5) The concept of the dream of self and ultimate reality. 6) The concept of the dream and life and death. 7) Understanding the Four Agreements. 8) Coming to terms with our lives as dreams in an affirmative way.

February 6, 2016

1) Understanding craving in terms of the concept of non-self and its relation to illusion and reality and life and death. 2) How to we differentiate between illusion and reality, what is the definition of wisdom and ignorance. 3) Seeing the relationship between reality and illusion as a cosmic dance, the Dance of Shiva. 4) Seeing the relationship between illusion and reality in dependent origination. 5) Understanding suffering and awakening as a result of how we process our experience. 6) Overcoming our narratives to realize our true original nature.

February 13, 2016

1) Reading of the First Foundation of Mindfulness; 2) The benefits of mindfulness; 3) Finding the appropriate location.

February 20, 2016

1) Considerations in our meditative posture. 2) Effects of samadhi on our meditative posture. 3) The importance of relaxation in meditation. 4) The relation between formal and more relaxed postures. 5) Understanding the importance of long, slow, deep breaths at the beginning of the sitting.

February 27, 2016

1) Establishing mindfulness on the object of awareness. 2) Choosing the object as a function of the level of concentration. 3) Deepening the quality of awareness in mindfulness. 4) Understanding the difference between concentration practice and mindfulness practice. 5) Seeing the dynamics of understanding that lead to personal transformation and freedom from suffering. 6) Meditation as a conscious, intentional process. 7) Understanding the progressive degrees of the breath experience. 8) The breath object as the vehicle to Nibbana. 9) Understanding the importance of mindfulness at the moment of death.

March 5, 2016

1) Introduction to the forms of breath contemplation. 2) Understanding meditation as a transition to an alternate state of consciousness. 3) Seeing the qualitative nature of the breath as a pathway to a deeper consciousness. 4) Experiencing the whole body of the breath. 5) Understanding the nature of the object and the difference between samatha and vipassana practice. 6) Using the breath to calm the body. 7) Understanding the breath in concentration practice and mindfulness practice.

March 19, 2016

1) Stages in the investigation of the breath as stated in the Maha Satipattana Sutta. 2) Contemplating the breath internally and externally and its relationship to conditional and unconditional or absolute reality. 3) Contemplating the arising and the passing away of the breath and its opening to the awareness of impermanence and change.

April 2, 2016

1) Seeing the essence of the Dharma in our meditative postures. 2) Understanding the fundamental mechanics of walking meditation. What does it mean to know you are walking? 3) Understanding non-self in the process nature of reality.

April 9, 2016

1) What is the relationship between posture and awakening? The story of Ananda. 2) The seeing of the three characteristics of existence: impermanence, non-self, and suffering. 3) Understanding the relationship between posture and the three characteristics. Attaining pure awareness. 4) Seeing the relationship between postures and suffering. 5) The seeing of non-self or nama rupa.

April 30, 2016

1) Understanding mindfulness as indicative of the Absolute, inherent in every moment in time and space. 2) Seeing the three characteristics of existence: impermanence, non-self, and suffering. 3) Understanding non-self in terms of the process nature of reality and pure awareness. 4) Introducing the psychological concept of flow and the idea of non-self. 5) Introducing the concept of emptiness. Knowing the nature of mind as pure awareness itself.

May 7, 2016

1) Understanding the concept of postures as how we dispose ourselves in everyday life. 2) Experiencing joy and beauty in our moment to moment experience. 3) Understanding the self as a conditioned phenomenon. 4) Three views of non-self: 1. the process nature of reality (nama rupa); 2. pure awareness; 3. the concept of flow. 5) The experience of reality as an aesthetic experience. 6) Overcoming boredom and unfulfilled expectations. 7) Achieving personal transformation through the attainment of pure experience.

May 14, 2016

1) The revelation of ultimate truth in our everyday movements. 2) Understanding the relationship between the enlightenment experience and our everyday behavior in the world. 3) Deconditioning our identification with the body through knowledge of the postures. 4) Operationalizing the transition from enlightenment experiences to everyday behavior.

May 21, 2016

1) The four forms of clear comprehension. 2) Understanding the relationship between behavior, morality, ethics, and karma. 3) Clear comprehension of motivation. 4) Clear comprehension of suitability. 5) Clear comprehension of self restraint. 6) Clear comprehension of non-delusion. 7) Understanding the provisional and operational nature of self.

June 4, 2016

1) Review of the four trainings in clear comprehension. 2) Seeing the truth of the body and the source of delusion. 3) Benefits of the contemplation of the body parts. 4) Understanding how we are “enchanted” by our bodies. 5) Avoiding disgust, aversion, and repulsion of the body. 6) Finding the middle way between lust and aversion. 7) Finding the balance between our culturally conditioned world and our understanding of the truth of our bodies.

June 11, 2016

1) Definition of the four elements as metaphors for our subjective experience of our body. 2) Differentiating our perception of the body as an object or concept from seeing it as a dynamic energy field. 3) Separating our objective perception of sensations and our emotional reaction to them. 4) Seeing sensations as the gateway to our emotions. 5) Understanding the duality of perception as a way to understand our idea of self or ego.

June 18, 2016

1) Understanding our bodies from two levels of perception of reality. 2) Encountering the concept of voidness and emptiness as a manifestation of ultimate reality. 3) Understanding relative and ultimate truth as a way of understanding reality.

June 25, 2016

1) Understanding the difference between conventional and ultimate reality. 2) The concept of the void or emptiness. Understanding the two aspects of reality. 3) Seeing the world as an “optical illusion.” The fallacies of continuity and compactness. 4) Understanding the idea of non-self from the ultimate point of view. 5) Understanding ultimate and conventional reality in the mental and physical realm. 6) Understanding wisdom as the balance between conventional and ultimate reality.

July 2, 2016

1) Understanding how we perceive our body in relative and ultimate terms. 2) Seeing the world as an optical illusion: a world dictated by language and form. 3) Ultimate reality as the reality underlying the world of perception. The ambiguities of quantum mechanics. 4) Understanding emptiness and non-self at the level of ultimate reality. 5) Examples of the interwoven nature of conventional and ultimate reality. Our physical and mental bodies.

July 9, 2016

1) Why we meditate: working with our feelings. 2) Mindfulness as a feeling based practice. 3) The benefits of sensitivity to feelings at the physical and mental levels. 4) Physical sensations as a gateway to emotional awareness. 5) Mindfulness as a gateway to health and wellness and spiritual liberation. The teaching of the two darts. 6) Appreciating the importance of feelings in our practice.

July 16, 2016

1) Understanding “feelings” as the fundamental teaching of the Buddha in terms of liberation from suffering. 2) Understanding “embodiment” as the capacity to embody our feelings. 3) Understanding the physical and mental components of feelings. 4) Understanding feelings as pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. 5) Understanding the roots of pleasure and pain in our lives.

July 23, 2016

1) Understanding afflictive emotions in our relationship to suffering and the Buddha’s teaching. 2) Defining feeling in the Buddhist context: vedana. 3) Feeling as the conditioning factor for actions. 4) Understanding desire, aversion and delusion. 5) The teaching of the two darts. 6) Seeking pleasure to avoid pain. 7) Addressing the process of addiction in the mind.

July 30, 2016

1) Understanding feelings as pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral and their consequences. 2) Understanding the sources of our likes and dislikes through our conditioning process. 3) Patterns of social and cultural conditioning. 4) Patterns of psychological conditioning. 5) Patterns of biological conditioning. 6) Understanding likes and dislikes as hardwired into our brains and behavior. 7) Learning how to recognize and work with pleasant and unpleasant feelings.

August 6, 2016

1) Working with feelings as the path to self realization and fulfillment. 2) Understanding the importance of pleasant and unpleasant feelings and their karmic implications. 3) The difficulty of recognizing pleasant and unpleasant in our experience. 4) The teaching of the two darts. 5) The problem of identification with our experience and the illusion of self. 6) Experiencing extreme emotions in the dream state.

August 13, 2016

1) Understanding feelings as the foundation of the Buddha Dharma. 2) Seeing the impermanent and ephemeral nature of feelings. 3) Working with our feelings with wisdom and spaciousness.

August 20, 2016

1) Understanding the difference between worldly and unworldly feelings. 2) Seeing the suffering inherent in indulging in sense pleasures. 3) Defining unworldly pleasurable feelings. 4) Understanding the realms of unworldly pleasant feelings in the Buddhist teachings.

August 27, 2016

1) Understanding the various forms of unworldly feelings. 2) The 25 beautiful mind states: confidence; mindfulness; shame and fear of harming others; non attachment; goodwill; equanimity; composure; buoyancy; pliancy; efficiency; proficiency; rectitude; right speech, action, livelihood; wisdom; compassion; sympathetic; and lovingkindness. 3) The behavioral model of an enlightened being.

September 3, 2016

1) Review of unworldly beautiful mindstates and the qualities of an enlightened being. 2) Distinguishing the qualities of worldly and unworldly feelings. 3) The beautiful mind states, the conscious/unconscious dichotomy, and the cultivation of intelligence.

September 10, 2016

1) Understanding the tension between MBSR and orthodox Buddhist teaching. 2) Defining “enlightenment” in practical terms. 3) Redefining our understanding of suffering. 4) Redefining our understanding of the spiritual path: the spiritual continuum. 5) The components of afflictive emotions: the emotion, the context, the actors. 6) Embracing the energy of our emotions: relationship to emotional management or MBSR. 7) Freeing ourselves from suffering: understanding the actors and the context: the concept of “karmic alignment.” 8) The wisdom path and awakening from suffering.

October 8, 2016

1) The significance of thoughts in determining our destiny. 2) The Third Foundation of Foundation of Mindfulness. 3) “Knowing” our mind states and their consequences. 4) Knowing the unwholesome roots and their opposites. 5) Morality and ethics as the foundation of the Dharma. 6) Thoughts and the problem of self judgement. 7) The problem of identification. 8) The inherent nature of thoughts: the pathway to awakening.

October 15, 2016

1) Knowing how to “know” our mind states. 2) The fundamental function of meditation as the refinement of our capacity to perceive our sensate experience. 3) Cultivating the wholesome skillful mind states. 4) Finding ethical balance in our lives through the awareness of our skillful and unskillful mind states. 5) Understanding unwholesome mind states as not innate to the mind or the mind as inherently clear, pure, and luminous.
October 22, 2016

1) Awareness of unwholesome and wholesome mind states as a way of cultivating choice in the path to freedom. 2) Cultivating depth of sensitivity and perception in perceiving our thoughts. 3) Knowing the mind that is constricted and scattered. 4) Cultivating the five faculties of enlightenment. 5) Understanding the power of bare attention of our mind states: when you see it, it disappears.

October 29, 2016

1) Articulation of states of consciousness related to awakening. 2) Understanding the eight mundane and supra-mundane levels of concentration or jhana. 3) Understanding the classical teachings on enlightenment. 4) Attaining momentary or neighborhood concentration. 5) The ability to accept whatever occurs in the mind. 6) Building a relationship with our thoughts and emotions. 7) Understanding the difference between awareness and thoughts.

November 19, 2016

1) Understanding the four foundations in terms of the relationship between self and other, the fundamental importance of morality and ethics. 2) Contemplating the body, feelings, and consciousness internally. 3) Contemplating the body, feelings, and consciousness externally: insight by inference or induction.

November 26, 2016

1) Understanding how our conditioned patterns affect our relationship with others. 2) The dynamics of reactivity and projections in our response to the feelings of others. 3) Steps to become aware of how we react to others. 4) The power of judgment and its relationship to greed. 5) Contemplating both internally and externally, understanding anatta in both self and other.

December 3, 2016

1) impermanence and the three characteristics of existence. 2) Understanding impermanence as the path to insight and awakening. 3) Seeing the arising and passing away of mind states from moment to moment.

December 17, 2016

1) Introductions to the Sixteen Stages of Awakening. 2) Understanding the arising of phenomena. 3) Understanding the passing away of phenomena: fear, anguish and disgust, the desire for deliverance. 4) Relationship of the path of awakening to the concept of impermanence. 5) Understanding the relationship between renunciation and the joyful acceptance of present moment reality.

December 24, 2016

1) Modern existentialism and the classical Dharma. 2) Understanding bare awareness. 3) The nature of conditioned illusion. 4) The effortless nature of bare awareness.

December 31, 2016

1) Defining dharmas in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness. 2) Defining the five hindrances. 3) Understanding the hindrances as personality types. 4) The simile of the bowl of water. 5) Seeing how the hindrances lie behind our patterns of dysfunctional behavior.

January 21, 2017

1) How our thoughts create our behavior patterns and personalities. 2) Understanding the causes of suffering and the possibility of awakening: the concept of neuroplasticity. 3) Seeing enlightenment not only as spiritual transformation, but biological transformation. 4) The basic misperception of what causes happiness.

February 11, 2017

1) Review of the five hindrances, the way they express our personality traits, and the five ways of working with our hindrances. 2) Seeing craving and desire as surface manifestations of deeper psychological issues. 3) How mindfulness makes the hindrances disappear. 4) Using wise reflection to see the consequences of our actions. 5) Seeing the deeper causes of our psychological needs.

February 18, 2017

1) The relationship between the hindrances and deeper behavioral patterns in our lives. 2) How our personality changes from childhood to old age and its relationship to a stable unchanging self. 3) Understanding our capacity of behavioral change in a positive way: the possibility of awakening. 4) The five ways of working with our hindrances. 5) Knowing how to avoid the future arising of the hindrances.

February 25, 2017

1) Understanding the significance of aversion in our lives. 2) Seeing the conditioned selfless nature of phenomena. 3) Understanding the relationship between aversive states and hatred. 4) The significance of self hatred and afflictive emotions. 5) The five ways of working with aversion. 6) The corrosive effect of expectations in creating suffering. 7) Understanding physical pain.

March 4, 2017

1) Coming to terms with pain as a process of compassionate engagement. 2) Working with dental pain. 3) Working with the limits of medical pain. 4) Working with emotional pain.

March 11, 2017

1) The relationship between trauma and emotional pain: the work of Bessell Van der Kolk. 2) The function of mindfulness in accessing our sensate experience. 3) The difference between naming and feeling a mental state in our body. 4) Working with our mental states through the meditation process: the three levels of awakening.

March 18, 2017

1) What is a thought? The sequence of cognition, thought and emotion. 2) How thoughts trigger emotions. 3) The nine kinds of aversive thoughts. 4) How aversive thoughts arise even in meditative settings. 5) The basic cause of aversion: not getting what we want.

March 25, 2017

1) Review of the Four Foundations and the Five Hindrances. 2) Working with afflictive emotions that have arisen. 3) RAIN: recognition, acceptance, investigation, and non-attachment. 4) Why do emotions disappear when they are noticed. 5) Using the power of investigation. 6) The power of conditioned habitual thinking. 7) Skillful means of working with emotional pain. 8) My personal relationship with anger.

April 1, 2017

1) Understanding the relationship between meditative insight and wise reflection. 2) Who suffers when we experience afflictive emotions? 3) Understanding righteous anger: is our purpose to be right or to be free? 4) How do we live lives of purpose and moral efficacy in the face of injustice in the world. 5) The importance of patience. 6) Knowing when to let go.

April 8, 2017

1) Understanding loving kindness as an antidote to emotional pain: learning how to love ourselves. 2) Seeing and understanding our own suffering as a way to understand the suffering of others. 3) The relationship between insight and lovingkindness: the Wisdom Path. 4) The unconditional nature of lovingkindness. 5) How hatred can “objectify” the other. 6) Experiencing the “dark night of the soul” as a positive aspect of our practice.

April 15, 2017

1) Definition of sloth and torpor. 2) Understanding sloth and torpor as indications of deeper psychologically rooted behavior patterns. 3) Understanding the function of the unconscious in influencing our everyday life decisions. 4) Henry Grayson and the three factors that influence our unconscious motivations.

April 22, 2017

1) Giving unwise attention to our thoughts and how they lead to sloth and torpor. 2) Understanding boredom. 3) Avoiding difficult emotions that might arise. 4) The problem of over-eating. 5) Understanding the balance between energy and concentration.

April 29, 2017

1) Understanding how mindfulness works with sloth and torpor. 2) Additional measures to counteract sleepiness: adding touch points, developing radiance of mind. 3) Understanding the notion of mindful presence. 4) Last measures to avoid sloth and torpor.

May 6, 2017

1) Reflections on the preciousness of human existence. 2) Reflection on impermanence and death. 3) Developing good friends and profitable talk.

May 13, 2017

1) Definition of restlessness and worry. 2) Obvious and subtle forms of restlessness. 3) The metaphor of the train of thought. 4) Seeing cause and effect and having compassion for ourselves. 5) The difference between thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

May 20, 2017

1) Understanding the chain of causality that creates suffering. The relationship between thoughts and emotions. 2) The teaching of the Dharma in the knowing the truth about one’s self. 3) Seeing restlessness as a basic imbalance of energy in the body. 4)
Giving unwise attention to the content of our thoughts. 5) Getting lost in thought as a form of vanity. 6) Question: What is the Buddhist teaching on suicide?

May 28, 2017

1) Thoughts as the cause of emotions and actions and how they can trigger suffering. 2) How anxiety and worry can arise by giving unwise attention to our experiences. 3) Disquietude as a form of vanity. 4) The relationship between thoughts, feelings, and emotions. 5) Restlessness and worry over past unskillful actions.

June 3, 2017

1) Learning to work with difficult situations in our lives that require our attention and action but then to evoke emotional reactions. 2) The problem of restlessness as a form of vanity. 3) Understanding the resolution of restlessness as a means to achieve equanimity and peace in our lives. 4) Working with restlessness with mindfulness. 5) Taking a wider more spacious view or taking a more focussed microscopic view of the mind states. 6) Question: Is self hatred a form of vanity? 7) Question: Does mindfulness work for good emotions as well as bad emotions?

June 10, 2017

1) Basic mindfulness of our agitated states. 2) Reflecting on the purpose of our practice. 3) Reflecting on our basic goodness and its roots in our Buddha nature. 4) Reflecting on fundamental awareness.

June 17, 2017

1) Three different interpretations of the word “Satipattana”. 2) Definition of “dhammas” in the fourth foundation. 3) Seeing the connections between the small dramas and the overall Dhamma. 4) Suffering as form of disconnection. 5) Seeing dramas in the fourth foundation as categories of mind states according to their function. 6) the fourth foundation as translations from concept to direct perception and experience.

June 24, 2017

1) Recognizing when doubt is present. 2) The damaging effect of skepticism and doubt. 3) Differentiating between conventional and absolute reality. 4) Doubt about the teachings of the Buddha. 5) The question of reincarnation and rebirth and the importance of this present life. 6) The question of the relevance of the Buddha’s teaching today.

July 1, 2017

1) Doubt about one’s ability to do the practice. 2) Coming to understand the benefits of the practice: developing basic emotional intelligence. 3) Understanding the difficulty of mindfulness practice. 4) Seeing how we personally benefit from the practice. 5) Ninety percent of our afflictive emotions are about not getting what we want.

July 8, 2017

1) Feeling moments of deep relaxation and peace. 2) Clarity and focus of mental concentration. 3) Gaining insights into one’s suffering. 4) Learning how to have compassion for one’s self. 5) How to get out of the mind and into the body. 6) Gaining an understanding of natural pain and self created suffering. 7) Finding energy and commitment to move forward in one’s life.

July 15, 2017

1) Developing basic mindfulness of doubt and the distracted mind: learning how to recognize thoughts and letting them go. 2) Appreciating the empowerment of developing awareness of our thoughts and their implications. 3) Learning to recognize when doubt is not present 4) Understanding the causes of doubt and how to remove them when they arise. The problem of unwise attention. 5) How to prevent future un-arisen doubt from arising. 6) Freeing ourselves from “the movies in our mind.”

July 22, 2017