Meditation x Attachment with George Haas

George is joined by long-time entrepreneur and meditation student Ben Smith for an in-depth discussion about the connections between meditation and finding meaning in work. In this insightful episode, George and Ben touch on having a supportive community, what healthy attachment looks like, and how it all connects back to being an entrepreneur.

When most teachers discuss "attachment" in relation to meditation, they're talking about the Buddhist sense of the word. However, there's also many links between psychological attachment and meditation practice. George goes a step further and discusses how this all relates back to the classical non-goal of enlightenment (or liberation) through meditation.

George discusses the body-mind and how attachment strategies are connected to our physiological experiences. Recorded live at our new weekly drop-in class on the Mettagroup terrace in Los Angeles. If you would like to engage in the practice of dāna (generosity), you are invited to help support us by purchasing an item from our shop at mettagroup.org/shop, where all proceeds go to the Mettagroup Scholarship Fund.

Captured during the first class of The Meaningful Life Six-Month Intensive (now called Meditation x Attachment), this brief talk gives an  overview of George Haas's signature teaching. Drawing connections between meditation and Attachment Theory, he explains how these tools can have a profound effect on your life.

This special episode of the podcast offers a highly informative introduction to George’s signature course Meditation Interventions for the Addiction Process (MIAP). Drawing on the same attachment-based healing that’s the cornerstone of all of Mettagroup’s teachings, this podcast - and course - are specifically designed to address addiction and addiction-related issues. Interested in the upcoming six month MIAP class? Read more at mettagroup.org/addiction-treatment.

Recorded on day three of this past Winter Retreat in Central California, George explains how as your practice develops you can learn how to recognize and regulate your mind states, and how that is an essential aspect of spiritual development.

Welcome to the Meditation x Attachment with George Haas Podcast. Our new format will explore the connections between ancient Buddhist meditation techniques and modern psychological attachment theory. This first episode was captured on The Meaningful Life Retreat in Central California just over a month ago, and explains the basics of George's hybrid Metta-Vipassana meditation techniques and how they connect to psychological attachment theory. Welcome and enjoy! 

Marking the end of our journey exploring Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight, this podcast is from the final Deepening Your Practice class in Echo Park. This dharma talk explores metta jhana, going back to the Pali term “piti” and how it relates to its English translation as “rapture” and how mind-states affect the sense of self. Stay tuned for our new class - and podcast - format which will start with some archival talks from George over the next few weeks while he is away in retreat in Burma.

George takes a break from Mahasi Sayadaw’s Manual of Insight to acknowledge the role of New Year’s resolutions and how they affect practice. Jumping off from there, he gets into Dr. Dan Siegel’s “windows of tolerance” and how to eliminate negative mind states.

Branching out from the traditional Theravada Buddhist view, George explains how his teacher, Shinzen Young, takes a more distinctly American view of the ten fetters. This continues the Contemplation of Mental Objects section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

George explains how the arising and passing (appearance and disappearance) of physical phenomena occurs with the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking.

Starting with a brief discussion of Burma's influence on Western meditation styles, George then delves into the text of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight, drawing connections between the experience of senses, Western Attachment Theory and the big questions around self.

regret, and doubt, and delves into the context of how they unfold. This marks the beginning of the Contemplation of Mental Objects section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

Vedna, the Pali word for feeling tones, describes the capacity to sense, which can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. The experience breaks down further into worldly and worldly. George explains it all, from the Contemplation of Feeling section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight. 

Delving deeper into the concept of awareness of awareness, George unpacks how the experience of the self is dependent on the conditions of the moment. He also tells the story of the Buddha and the mustard seed.