IPP Meetings

Intensive Practice Program Monthly Meetings

  • Concentration - month 2
    • Purpose of Buddha's teachings: "the sure heart's release"
      • Not concentration or insight
      • Interesting because meditation traditions in india were centered on concentration.  Buddha said concentration, insight, rapture, etc. are secondary to ending suffering.
    • Concentration: samadhi
      • 5 constituents of meditative absorption (jhana):
        1. Applied thought
        2. Sustained thought
        3. Physical rapture
        4. Mental ease
        5. One-pointedness of mind
      • 4 levels of jhana:
        1. 1-5 (applied thought, sustained thought, physical rapture, mental ease, one-pointedness of mind)
        2. 3-5 (physical rapture, mental ease, one-pointedness of mind)
        3. 4-5 (mental ease, one-pointedness of mind)
        4. 5 (one-pointedness of mind)
      • Limit to concentration; crucial, necessary base, but not sufficient for ending suffering
        • Thus, important to cultivate concentration, and more.
    • Asking:
      • What is keeping me aligned with my vision?
      • What supports it?  Hinders it?
    • What we embody, others will mirror.
    • Concentration is not enough to end suffering; necessity of balance with awareness and insight - equanimity, compassion, acceptance.
  • Mindfulness in Daily Living - month 3
    • Mindfulness bleeds into all areas of our life
    • Conscious embodiment
    • Informal practice
    • Essential to find what works for us - our anchor, that which we always return to
    • Mindfulness activities: do ones that are good for you, not forced
    • Creating a Mindful Life
      • Setting awareness and intention:
        • Who do we want to be, in the world?
        • Who do I want to be, in the world?
      • Intention as aspiration - what we put breath into, what we put life into.
        • Diana's intention: "May I be the ground of love for all beings."
        • My intentions: "Ripple presence; ripple compassion."
  • Relational Mindfulness - month 4
    • Attraction vs. Aversion
      • Conceptions/instincts about people that tend to melt away when we practice relational mindfulness; neutrality/openness takes opinion's place
    • Experience in the Hot Seat
      • Authenticity above all else in life.
      • Gift of presence is the greatest gift you can give another.  Attending to them.
      • Give others the gift of listening deeply to them as they speak.
      • Give yourself the gift of listening deeply to yourself as you speak.
    • Diana, on teaching:
      • "The Four Knows"
        1. Teach what you know
        2. Don't teach what you don't know
        3. Don't be afraid to say that you don't know
        4. Know that there's a lot that you don't know
  • Obstacles - month 5
    • Five Hindrances (Buddhism)
      1. Craving -- countered by mindfulness
      2. Aversion -- countered by faith
      3. Sleepiness -- countered by energy
      4. Restlessness -- countered by concentration
      5. Doubt -- countered by wisdom
    • Bare attention for all that arises + equanimity (balance between being drawn to positive or negative emotions; harmony with experience)
    • Turning obstacles into allies
    • For perfectionist personality: obstacles tend to be doubt and restlessness.
    • Noticing obstacles, labeling and exploring them in the moment, throughout daily life.
    • Asking:
      • Can I be with the obstacle as it arises?
      • How will I meet this, hold this?
    • Bringing mental states clarity and disidentification.
    • Catching obstacles when snowflakes - a breeze in your landscape - rather than snowballs.
    • Snake analogy: how does a snake feel while shedding its skin?  Painful/uncomfortable?  Joyful release?  This is us on our journey with mindfulness and obstacles.
    • Practice:
      • What would be here if this obstacle weren't?
  • Difficult Emotions - month 6
    • Regarding all beings: bringing non-resistance to who they are.
      • As we progress through life, we learn more and more who others are, such as our parents/friends/partners.  This, we must accept.  We cannot change or fix another.  Resisting only makes us suffer!
    • Non-resistance to difficult emotions.
      • Resistance increases suffering!
      • "This is here, I allow it, I am not it."
    • Remind self:
      • I am not alone in this.  common humanity + non-self
      • "Live with yourself as your island of refuge and not someone else; with the truth as your island of refuge and not something else."
  • Positive Emotions - month 7
    • Resisting negative emotions vs. attachment to positive ones (both forms of resistance)
      • Attachment = resisting impermanence
    • Practicing with pleasure like practicing with pain.  Equally important.
    • Learning to be in a mindful relationship with positive, difficult, neutral states; authentic experience.
    • 4 Immeasurables (Brahmaviharas):
      1. Loving-kindness (metta)
      2. Compassion (karuna)
      3. Appreciative joy (mudita)
      4. Equanimity (upekkha)
  • No-Self - month 8
    • anatta: no permanent, abiding "self," soul, substance
    • Person = interconnected stream of causes and results, experiences, memories; can feel like a permanent "me" when in it
    • Our experience is an interplay of causes, conditions, and constant change
    • Questioning what feels like common sense; do I actually have an unchanging, core essence?  Am I not always changing?
    • Common humanity + disidentification = no-self practices
      • All about letting go
      • Common humanity: "I am not alone" // "We are not alone"
      • Disidentification: "This is not me, this is not mine" // "This is not us, this is not ours
    • Diana translation: no-self-centered
      • Noticing how we create our sense of self through identity, body, thought, emotion, clinging.
      • Letting go is the freedom, the moment of wider perspective; "it's all about me" goes away.  Connection is what is left.
      • How we hold our identity is the issue.  Do we hold it lightly, or do we cling to it?
    • Wherever you find freedom, notice this and follow this.  In non-self?  In identity?  In connection?
    • Breaking away from concept of dichotomy/separation; bring in compassion, "They are me" and "I am them."
    • No-self: interconnectedness.
      • We are all made of the same starstuff.
    • Source of suffering not the identity, but clinging to the identity.
      • Our "identities" are beautiful, enrich the world and each other!  (Especially when we have clarity about what "identity" means for us.)


Notes from MARC IPP Monthly Meetings, led by Marvin Belzer and Diana Winston, March 21, 2018 - October 17, 2018.

Comments

Post a Comment