Dharma Talk and Meditation Podcast

I'm gonna do a little bit of an abbreviated version of class tonight and probably end a little bit early because I'm going to a show. So we're gonna meditate fast and then I'm gonna talk fast and then we're gonna leave early.

The second aspect of the fourth foundation of mindfulness, which is the seventh factor of the eightfold path. I know it's a lot of math, a lot of lists in Buddhism, which are kind of nice. Once you are studying Buddhism for a while, you can kind of start to organize like, okay, there's four noble truths.

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 I'm gonna talk about the fourth foundation of mindfulness: Dhamma nupasana, dhamma, truth, mindfulness of the mind objects, what arises in our mind, what we become aware of when we meditate.

It's several teachings in one. In the fourth foundation all of the Buddhist teachings are in these different lists and then sub lists. So this is the fourth part of the mindfulness list. Then there's five different lists within this fourth section. The first one is the five hindrances, the five things that make meditation difficult, that make happiness difficult, that make freedom from suffering difficult, that hinder our ability to see clearly and respond.

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Tonight we're talking about mindfulness, the seventh factor of the Buddha's teachings. The Eightfold Path, the eight things that need to be practiced, developed, experienced in order to find liberation freedom. The seventh factor is mindfulness, and mindfulness is broken down into four categories.  Tonight we're on the third of the four categories, which is mindfulness of the mind.

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Tonight's topic is the second foundation. The mindfulness of the feeling tone of all of our experience. This also applies to all of the sense doors, hearing, seeing, smelling and tasting and all the physical, emotional, and mental phenomena…

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 I thought I'd start over tonight with, for at least the next four to six weeks going through each foundation of mindfulness. The first foundation of mindfulness is a core Buddhist practice, core teaching. It is very central to what we're doing. It comes in the Buddha's teachings of the fourth truth, in the eightfold path, as the seventh factor.

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Tonight's topic, I'm gonna talk about mindfulness as the core meditation teaching of the Buddha. I’ll explain how it works and why it's so important, how it fits within the Buddhist tradition and teachings. One of the, kind of, sub texts of mindfulness, Satipatthana, Four Foundations of Mindfulness, is the direct path to realization.

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Tonight I want to do the forgiveness meditation and talk about forgiveness. We’ll discuss the idea of learning to train the heart and the mind to forgive and to let go as the topic tonight.

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 The core of this teaching is learning and having the experience of empathizing with the happiness of others. Actually experiencing a genuine feeling of “I’m happy with you. I'm happy for you”. In some ways, this is the opposite of jealousy and envy when somebody else is getting what you want and you feel like, “fuck them”.

How dare they get what I want. The enlightened response, which is, “I’m happy for you getting what I want, getting what you want”.

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In some ways, equanimity it's a balancing factor to compassion. Compassion is the skill, the experience, the intention to meet all of the pain in our lives and all of the pain in the world, all of the confusion, all the ignorance with compassion. Rather than judgment, fear and hatred, actually having compassion for all of the pain.

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 Last week I started a series, we did loving kindness practice. I gave you homework, those of you who were here last week, to do META loving kindness practice all week, and what a week it has been in Los Angeles. I hope that, um, you did do loving kindness, whether you're here or you're visiting a, joining us from somewhere else in the state or country appropriately. The topic in the series for tonight is compassion.

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 I'm going to start tonight a series of heart practice teachings and practices. We'll start with Loving kindness tonight.

 So the Buddha said, “This is what I did and it led me to a place of compassion and of loving kindness and of equanimity, appreciation, it ended suffering. And when suffering was ended, what remained was a feeling of loving kindness for all living beings, feeling of compassion for all living beings, a feeling of equanimity and appreciation.”

But in the teaching in the Eightfold Path, he doesn't say anything about loving kindness and compassion. He says, “Here's what you do, and the outcome will be loving kindness and compassion.” Mindfulness will lead to compassion. As you are mindful and we turn towards our pain, you will develop compassion for pain.

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Some reflections on renunciation tonight. What is it? Of course the whole conversation in the Buddhist context is, how do we end suffering? How do we find a way to live our real lives that doesn't make it more difficult than it needs to be? So that we don't create extra suffering on top of the already often uncomfortable reality of having a body, a nervous system and a mind. The context is important that, in Buddhism, when we talk about ending suffering, we're not talking about ending pain.

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I don't have a lecture prepared. I don't have a Dharma talk topic for tonight but I'm open to discussing and sharing my thoughts, perspectives and understandings with you, for any, any topic, any questions you might have about meditation, about Buddhism, about teachings that you're aware of or that you'd like to hear some thoughts on…

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I'm going to talk about the eightfold path, the core directions of how to wake up. I'm gonna talk about a bunch of stuff tonight. I thought I'd talk about ethics, meditation and the wisdom that comes from that. It's called Sila Samadhi Panya. For the topic I think I'm going to go a little bit hard on ethics tonight and the precepts and the importance of Ethical behavior…

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I've gone back and forth on what I want to talk about tonight. I was thinking of talking about desire and the second noble truth: craving is the cause of suffering. 

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Good to see everyone. I'm glad to be back. I missed the last two Mondays because I was out of town. I was in India with about 28 people from the Sangha, I thought I would reflect a little bit on this. We were on a Buddhist pilgrimage, I’ll talk a little bit about that tonight…

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How To Respond

I thought I'd talk tonight about confusion, about ignorance, about suffering. About Buddhism and Buddha's teachings on how to respond to the confusion in the world, the suffering and the reality of the human condition. How confusion is actually more ordinary than wisdom. Wisdom is rare…

Was the election outcome pleasant, unpleasant or neutral?

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A huge part of, of what Buddhism asks us to do is to see clearly the nature of the human mind. We turn towards it, we observe, we investigate, we look at the impersonal and often unpleasant nature of having a self centered human mind.

What’s your biggest fear? What are some of the big fears you’re experiencing?

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Tonight and maybe next week we’ll bring up politics. It feels like, it’s true for most people or a lot of people, the political impending election is a topic of conversation. It’s on our minds. It brings up, for a lot of people, a lot of fear, a lot of judgment, a lot of craving for a certain outcome. Craving for another outcome to be in favor of whatever side you're on.

How is the election effecting you? Is this one of the ways you experience suffering? Or are you unengaged?

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Treating The Human Condition

I'm going to talk about this perspective that the Buddha is referred to as the great physician. That Buddhism is medicine to heal and treat the human condition. The First Noble Truth, the suffering of the human condition, and that it can be treated.

How sick are you? How is this practice helping to cure you?

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