Dharma Talks

Mindfulness of mind is the liberating heart of practice. The three orientations of mind—grasping, aversion and confusion—are natural, human problem-solving reactions to the world. They drive our behavior and create much suffering. Yet when we bring awareness to these primal energies, embrace them lovingly, and see them as cries for inner healing, the bodhisattva arises: greed transforms to generosity, hatred transforms to loving-kindness, and delusion transforms to clear-seei

The Vedana , or feeling tone, of an experience is the instinctual sorting of that experience into a category: pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Most of the time we are not aware that we sort our experiences like this, but the feeling tone nevertheless guides our actions in the world. When we become mindful of this largely unconscious sorting, we see into impermanence, let go of the idea of the separate self, and cultivate equanimity.

The Buddha’s teaching encourages us to recognize and practice letting go of the idea of the body, the abstract picture of appearance and boundaries. We are invited to feel into sensation and the body’s own language: mysterious, ungraspable, and always in motion.

Mindfulness is a radical act of focusing the attention onto the present moment without judgment. When we cultivate awareness, we bring the practice off the cushion into everyday life. In the Sutra on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness from the Pali canon, the Buddha instructs his disciples to begin all mindfulness practice with the breath. Let us “go to the forest, to the foot of the tree, or an empty room,” and breathe.

Koans and questions, impossible to keep perfectly, the Bodhisattva Vows are not a project and do not give us an ego boost. Rather, they offer us a life of moving from “yes,” responsive rather than reactive, rooted in belonging and freedom.