Seattle Insight Meditation Society

Awakening is an embodied experience that is supported through moment to moment awareness. The Nine Bodies teachings is an embodying awareness practice that offers a moment to moment tracking and classifying of meditative experiences. As an insight practice, these teachings provide the means to explore ever more subtle levels of consciousness that can strengthen concentration and brighten awareness. The explorations, grounded in the present moment, can lead to a level of stillness that supports greater clarity and understanding into the causes of suffering and the way leading to the end of suffering. Friday night is a dhamma talk on utilizing the nine bodies as a support for our insight meditation practice.  This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1187

This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1185

Practice and Reflection: Contact, Dependent Origination When quiet and attentive, practice with the actual moment of sense contact. Sound, sensation, smell and taste may be easiest. Try to relax and release the tendency to label and to react. Just rest with the direct knowing. Practice with sensitivity, with non-resistance, and with non-self. Notice how your relationship to the moment’s experience may shift.   This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1181

This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1180

This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1179

This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1178

Practice & Reflection This month we are exploring and practicing with the six senses.  The sense doors are the fifth link in the chain of dependent origination.  One of the main insights in this link is the recognition of mind as a sense door.  This recognition enables us to become less identified with our thoughts.  The less identified we are with our thoughts, the more aware we can become of the other five senses.  From time to time this month, stop and let your thoughts settle.  Open to what you are experiencing in the moment through the other five senses.  Let the sense sensations be present but do not elaborate on them.  Let the sights, sounds, smell, tastes, physical sensations, and mind activity (thoughts/ideas) be just what they are.  Allow awareness to be large enough to hold them all.  Ask yourself what else there is in life that is true beyond these sense impressions and this encompassing awareness? Is the commentary true, are reactions true, or are these merely arising in response to the six senses?  It may dawn on you that the six senses and the awareness that holds them are all that is, and that everything else is an imaginative response to this. This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1173

Practice & Reflection This month we are exploring and practicing with the six senses.  The sense doors are the fifth link in the chain of dependent origination.  One of the main insights in this link is the recognition of mind as a sense door.  This recognition enables us to become less identified with our thoughts.  The less identified we are with our thoughts, the more aware we can become of the other five senses.  From time to time this month, stop and let your thoughts settle.  Open to what you are experiencing in the moment through the other five senses.  Let the sense sensations be present but do not elaborate on them.  Let the sights, sounds, smell, tastes, physical sensations, and mind activity (thoughts/ideas) be just what they are.  Allow awareness to be large enough to hold them all.  Ask yourself what else there is in life that is true beyond these sense impressions and this encompassing awareness? Is the commentary true, are reactions true, or are these merely arising in response to the six senses?  It may dawn on you that the six senses and the awareness that holds them are all that is, and that everything else is an imaginative response to this. This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1172

This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1169

Practice and Reflection What has living in a world of COVID19 taught us about Wise Intention? Specifically reflect on Non-Harm, Renunciation, and Non-Ill Will. What lessons can carry over to living in a world with a Climate Crisis? Can we live in a simpler way that expresses Wise Intention toward the Earth? This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1168

third of four talks recorded during a weekend non-residential retreat This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1166

fourth of four talks recorded during a weekend non-residential retreat This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1167

first of four talks recorded during a weekend non-residential retreat This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1164

second of four talks recorded during a weekend non-residential retreat This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1165

This talk is also presented in video here: https://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Talk/TalkID/1163