Unfettered Mind

Participants' experience with compassion meditation and related reading including experiences with heartbreak and movement of energy; being present in the suffering of others; are goals useful in practice; intention and results; compassion and boundaries; what is meant by 'the open space of no response'; what is meant by 'non-residing'; working with the line 'May I experience the world wishing me freedom from pain'; the satisfaction of despising. Commentary on adolescence striving and parental mind; meditation instruction for compassion.

Participants' experience with loving-kindness meditation including opening to what arises; doesn't wishing oneself to be happy actually separate you from certain experiences; is it unrealistic to think of the world wishing you happiness and peace; how this meditation impacts life off the cushion; is there a specific order to the immeasurables; how to work with fear; what is meant by 'opening' to experience; the purpose of practice and its effect on one's life; is our natural state to be open or closed to what arises. Commentary on decay and corruption in the four immeasurables; meditation instruction for compassion.

Reading assignments for class; participants' experience with equanimity meditation including preference and prejudice towards one's self; willingness, know-how and capacity in applying the immeasurable; reaction to 'experiencing the world knowing me just as I am'; judgement versus discernment; sitting in experience versus deduction and analysis. Commentary on the two types of experience: social/shared experience and individual/actual experience; being complete in the world of individual experience; how equanimity arises naturally in the world of individual experience; questions from participants on the two worlds of experience; meditation instruction for loving kindness.

The context for the four immeasurables in Buddhist practice, how they differ from other emotions including their power to transform ordinary experience into presence; how different traditions view the immeasurables; clarifying pain, hurt, suffering and harm; the purpose, cost and benefit of practicing the four immeasurables; meditation instruction on equanimity practice, Q&A

Explanation that this retreat is based on two letters by Takuan Soho: The Mysterious Record of Immovable Wisdom and The Clear Sound of Jewels (these can be found in a collection of his writings entitled The Unfettered Mind); the three requirements to practice in the way described in The Unfettered Mind: ability, principles, technique; responding versus reacting; overview of what will be done in the retreat's body movement sessions.

Knowing versus understanding; mind as experience; the relationship between mind and reality; Buddhism as a set of tools to understand how things are; seven techniques for mind nature practice: letting the mind settle, dropping the mind, opening the mind, looking at the mind, letting the mind go, focusing the mind, and joining the mind with the object; questions from retreat participants; instruction on sky gazing.

Review of previous day's talk (recording of talk not available due to technical difficulties); defining integrity; integrity as a value; integrity as balance (rather than standing on principle); addressing imbalance as the essence of ethics; becoming an ongoing response to the pain and suffering of the world; questions from retreat participants.

What is meant by 'immovable wisdom' in the text The Unfettered Mind; how to know imbalance; taking action to address imbalance; seeking the lost mind; how integrity looks in action; seeking balance in the whole; questions from retreat participants.

The session begins by explaining there are different levels of understanding found in the first two spiritual paths (traditional path and path of cutting through conditioning). These paths have a vertical dimension. A person can become aware of new levels in two ways: through interaction with a teacher or through interaction with fellow students who have more experience. Practice only grows if one works at the edge of one's practice. Working the edge can be difficult: it is often experienced in the body as panic or nausea and in the mind as uncertainty, or confusion. Finding the edge often requires interaction with a teacher, especially if the student experiences a feeling of not getting anywhere, staleness, or coasting in practice. Physical signs of being over the edge include a sense of being out of balance, engulfed, isolated, failing, or bewildered. The discussion then turned to different levels of practice, this time from the perspective of 'doing what you know needs to be done' as opposed to 'being good.'

The session begins by explaining there are different levels of understanding found in the first two spiritual paths (traditional path and path of cutting through conditioning). These paths have a vertical dimension. A person can become aware of new levels in two ways: through interaction with a teacher or through interaction with fellow students who have more experience. Practice only grows if one works at the edge of one's practice. Working the edge can be difficult: it is often experienced in the body as panic or nausea and in the mind as uncertainty, or confusion. Finding the edge often requires interaction with a teacher, especially if the student experiences a feeling of not getting anywhere, staleness, or coasting in practice. Physical signs of being over the edge include a sense of being out of balance, engulfed, isolated, failing, or bewildered. The discussion then turned to different levels of practice, this time from the perspective of 'doing what you know needs to be done' as opposed to 'being good.'

Participants share what each has learned on how to proceed with their practice. Included in this discussion are questions regarding how to know you are working the edge of practice as opposed to falling off the edge, how transmission between teacher and student works, and how to recognize patterns.

Participants share what each has learned on how to proceed with their practice. Included in this discussion are questions regarding how to know you are working the edge of practice as opposed to falling off the edge, how transmission between teacher and student works, and how to recognize patterns.

How do you know your next step in the spiritual path? This class explores this question through three different approaches: a traditional path, a path based on cutting through four types of conditioning, and a path based on personal experience. The book Wake Up To Your Life describes one traditional path: developing attention through basic meditation, cutting through conventional notions of success and failure, recognizing patterns, and working with the five elements. This leads to breaking down emotional reactions and dismantling the sense of "I". The section closes with comments on about additional practices, the need to adjust practice to the student, and the importance of working with a spiritual teacher.

How do you know your next step in the spiritual path? This class explores this question through three different approaches: a traditional path, a path based on cutting through four types of conditioning, and a path based on personal experience. The book Wake Up To Your Life describes one traditional path: developing attention through basic meditation, cutting through conventional notions of success and failure, recognizing patterns, and working with the five elements. This leads to breaking down emotional reactions and dismantling the sense of "I". The section closes with comments on about additional practices, the need to adjust practice to the student, and the importance of working with a spiritual teacher.

The second approach discussed is to cut through four types of conditioning: sociological, psychological, perceptual, and cultural. To cut through sociological conditioning one contemplates on death and impermanence. Contemplating on karma cuts through psychological conditioning. Breaking through the I-other framework cuts through perceptual conditioning. And development of compassion cuts through cultural conditioning. The third approach is based on personal experience: study and practice everything you can, make the path your own based on what works for you, and stand in your own knowing. Discrepancies between your intention and experienced results are reliable indicators that you are not standing in your own knowing. A flat or stale practice may indicate you've exhausted your intention and signal the need for redefining your intention in practice. Keep an eye out for chronic imbalances, as they indicate something is not working. The session ends with a group discussion on whether or not compassion or forgiveness towards oneself is important, especially if there is no self, and how to detect imbalance.