Spiritual Growth and Practices
Study Guide
Audio Dharma Talk
You may not be distinguishing between calm and equanimity in your practice. It’s skillful to be calm in your practice, and you certainly want to cultivate the ability to be calm. However, equanimity is a steady quality of the mind that can receive any experience without being overcome by it, even such emotions as anger, anxiety, or fear. It is through equanimity that you are able stay with and examine difficult mind states and learn to release them.
The Three Wholesome Exchanges are needs or instincts you may have felt at one point in your life. Have you ever felt the need to be called forth by someone or something? Have you ever felt the need to be witnessed? Have you ever had the desire to share your blessings, knowledge or happiness with others? You can spread so much joy if you are awake enough to share your good fortune and you can see and accept the innate worth of others. (This talk focuses on the need to share what has been learned.)
Metta phrases such as “May you be safe from internal and external harm” need not be used to practice loving-kindness. It’s a practice of intention, not a results-oriented practice. Your intention to incline the heart to loving-kindness is what matters, with or without phrases.
There IS a path that leads to the end of suffering.
The eight path factors or elements are often presented as three classifications of practice: panna or wisdom practices, which include right view and right intention; sila or virtue practices, which are right speech, right action, and right livelihood; andsamadhi or concentration practices, which include right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. There is a spiraling, dynamic quality to the Eightfold Path; each element enriches the others directly and indirectly.
In his foremost teaching on mindfulness, the Satipatthana sutta, the Buddha recommended that in any given moment we cultivate awareness of what is happening both externally in our environment and internally in our body, and heart-mind. In this way we have more choices, instead of feeling like a puppet at the end of a string.
Explore how concentration directly affects your practice as a function of the mind, an essential part of the dharma, and an immediate felt experience.
In the course of your daily life, practice being aware of just one moment. This could be an inhale—one to three seconds of concentration. Or if you are stuck in traffic, simply notice your hands on the steering wheel. This will allow the mind to get used to being aware and bring you closer to an aim of vipassana practice: moment-to-moment mindfulness. Ask yourself: Am I awake or not in this moment?
