Unfettered Mind

Importance of clear intention; when translation problems arise in source material for practice, problems often result in practice; practice is developing capacity to experience whatever arises; constraints due to limits on willingness, capacity or know-how.

Subjects include: dealing with negativity, the four immeasurables, nervousness, and Mother's Day.

Verses 22-end; review of last week’s meditation instruction; two qualities of mahamudra: resting and precipitating shift; experience without struggle; pitfalls of emptiness; aspiration vs ambition; cutting the root of mind; mind without beginning; transforming energy into attention; importance of faith.

Verses 15-21; participant’s response to last week’s question: what’s the use of non-referential experience?; find your own motivation; view, practice, behaviour, result; absolutely nothing to save us; actionless action; experiencing the pain of letting go of the conventional way of seeing the world; defining ourselves as what we oppose; recognizing sheer clarity; meditation instruction: in addition to first two steps add open your heart to everything you experience and ask the question - what experiences?

Dakini practice - Explanation of element reaction cycles: earth, water, fire, air and void; walkthrough of corresponding dakini practices; hollowness; knowing; pristine awareness arising within reaction. This class was recorded to help students with the Dakini practice. Transcript online at UnfetteredMind.org

Subjects include: how to deal with distractions, finding a path and different practice traditions.

Verses 10-14; feeling tones; effort in primary practice; increasing capacity; where is mind?; mind without reference and its use in day to day life; wanting prevents opening; no wandering, no control, no working at anything; the light of the teaching; rebirth in samaras; energy of teacher; question: what’s the use of non-referential experience?

A series of guided meditations beginning with "body like a mountain", opening to the experience of the body sitting, free from any kind of effort, and grounding awareness in the present. With "breath like the sea", opening to the constant movement of the breath, like the waves in the sea, up and down. Finally, "mind like the sky", receiving everything that arises and not reacting or controlling. Participant experience at each stage of the process. Transcript online at UnfetteredMind.org

Verses 1-9; being in vs watching our experience; opening to all of us; nothing to attain; meaning of “ mugu”; looking into space; looking into thoughts; sheer clarity of mind; content of experience vs experience; look in the resting, rest in the looking; meditation instruction: rest in breathing, open to sensory experience, open to thoughts and feelings.

Introduction to text; historical context; Tilopa and Naropa; three doors to practice; mahamudra as a way of experiencing; metaphors of space; letting experience be just as it is; meditation instruction for the next week: rest in experience of breathing, open to sensory experience.

Review of main points from first talk; two practical frameworks for implementing right action; right livelihood is to bring attention to how you provide for life; livelihood in terms of how we interact with others around earning our living; economies based on consumption vs economies based on intention; right effort is to bring attention to how we are making an effort; four dimensions of capacity; right attention, or mindfulness, is to bring attention to how we are direct attention; right absorption or samadhi is to bring attention to how we rest in attention.

The Four Noble Truths are about finding a way to live without struggling with what we experience; why "struggle" may be the more appropriate term in English to dukkha; the Eightfold Path as a description of a way of living, but usually interpreted as a prescription for practice; confusion of descriptions of results with means of practice and problems that arise; the fallacy of rational decision making and utility theory as a basis for economics, sociology, and spiritual practice; examination of the first four elements of the Eightfold Path from the perspective of practice; right view is practiced by bringing attention to how you view things; the result will be the traditional description of the characteristics of right view; right intention is to bring attention to intention, what am I doing right now and why?; right speech is to bring attention into the act of speaking, listening to the sound of your own voice when you speak; right action is to bring attention into the experience of action, leads to a relationship with power, makes action more effective.

Discussion of meditation postures; guided meditation on experiencing discomfort; holding emotions tenderly in attention; no expectations.

Faith as a willingness to open to whatever arises; faith in Buddhism; 3 types of faith; faith vs belief; point of faith?; faith as an immeasureable; faith and rational thought; cultivating faith.

What would you like to change about you or your life?; primary practice; changing me; introducing a new dynamic through meditation; why do I practice?; what to do about Christmas?.