Intention is the basis for action, giving shape to what we do and who we become. Conditioned intentions around beliefs, work and security cause stress. The process of meditation takes us into the somatic domain, to the roots of the mind. Here intentions and reflexes can be reset to be lighter, more flexible and comfortable.

Please describe āsava in relation to citta; nagging sense something is wrong with me; how to access kalyāṇamitta for support in Dhamma practice; neck and head feel separate from body in meditation; please clarify terms vitaka-vicāra, dhammavicaya and vimaṃsa.

Please describe āsava in relation to citta; nagging sense something is wrong with me; how to access kalyāṇamitta for support in Dhamma practice; neck and head feel separate from body in meditation; please clarify terms vitaka-vicāra, dhammavicaya and vimaṃsa.

Instructions to help empty the sense fields and cultivate the right kind of attention. Sustain a wide focus as sense objects arise in awareness. Practice with spreading attention on body, the wider visual field and the quality of breathing.

Instructions begin with dissolving: guidance for disengaging from contact, soothing and steadying the mind. Instructions end with consolidating: determining what I want to move forward with in the future, and what’s been learned or left behind.

Although Dhamma practice is often geared to dissolving the sense of being a person, ‘the person’ is a required entity in the everyday world. The firm center and open awareness developed in Dhamma practice work together to support this person. They provide stability and allow duties, purpose and engagement to arise straight from the heart rather than from mental habits, or from the idea of a person. Then the beauties, steadiness and generosity of Dhamma practice and Dhamma fruitions arise in our everyday lives.

Body and mind work together to bring about the sense of stability and balance. Disengagement is then possible, becoming your frame of reference as phenomena arise. Agreeable feeling comes from disengagement.

Aspects of this human life – where we live, what we do, who we associate with – become reference points for the person. How we relate to them affects how the person manifests. We can train in a relating that is stable and disengaged, neither favoring nor opposing, no longer finding fault with the world and thereby dismantling worldly attitudes.

In meditation we’re making a shift from being engaged to being attentive but disengaged. Disengagement has a cool, easeful quality to it, giving us leverage against the strong emotional pressures of the mind. From this place we can make peace with the mind that is never at ease.

What is sati; How to stop awareness landing on negative thoughts; ‘Energies’ don’t seem to be mentioned much, what are they; What to do about lots of romantic preoccupations; Please review 4 relationships mentioned in last Dhamma Stream teaching: to self, to nature, the sacred, to other people; How to handle toxic relationships/ones that require forgiveness; How to deal with clashes with views in relationship; How do you maintain awareness in relationship?

Dhammavicaya gives us a way to acknowledge and explore phenomena without getting caught up in them. The act of acknowledging provides a place of stability and clarity, so you can relate to experience rather than be in it. Energy then shifts from the phenomena and reactivity to acknowledgement, truthfulness and relationship. This is where suffering can be allayed.

Worldly systems and structures keep us filled with activity, leaving us depleted and restless. What’s missing is pausing and discharging that any natural system includes. We can use the natural bodily system to reset body and mind and come into presence. This is where rest and replenishment are found.

Instructions to establish an upright, open and relaxed posture, following the natural expanding and subsiding of breathing. This allows the internal aspect of the body to become more apparent. Train the mind to relax its preoccupations and return to the simplicity of body breathing.

Mind always has some purpose to it. The aim is to keep refining that, keep it from becoming corrupted. Sustain inner awareness and disengagement. The unshakable deliverance of mind is the ultimate goal, not shaken by the circumstances of life, aging, sickness and death. (Sutta reference: MN 29)

Chanting is like a subtle yoga. It uses your whole body in a non-straining way. We bring something forth into the world with our voices, and we open awareness to what’s around us, to the persistent flow of mental and emotional arisings. Don’t try to change anything, but receive it all with a kindly devotional heart.

Citta’s awakening intelligence is in its capacity to know and be touched. Rather than trying to change or complain about our situations, embrace the human condition with the qualities of pure citta and let that do the work. Citta is the most important thing – it’s what suffers, what leads and directs us, and what gets liberated.

Encourage attention to find its way back through the tangle, back to the basis of citta. Sentient, present, withdrawn from the mental landscapes and the personal scenarios. Fully dwelt in, lingered in, citta, in its basis, is happy.

We seek steadiness and happiness from that which is inherently changing and unsteady – the constructed notions of future, past, myself and others. Withdraw from the tangle, acknowledge without getting involved. When you collect your heart with presence and acknowledge the tangle and the stress, there’s empathy rather than agitation. Good qualities naturally arise from that stable empathetic basis.

Mind is always searching – in the personal, social and sensory realms – for solidity and satisfaction. But to find this, we must go forth – set aside the virtual world that we compulsively create and come into presence. This is the place of realization, where we meet what arises with the compassion, goodwill and discernment of the heart.

The cycle of saṃsara develops from feeling. Perceptions then form that stimulate particular actions that can be stirring, disturbing, exciting. Investigate these from the stillness and stability of presence. What’s needed?

Please explain why you got the COVID vaccine as I am hesitant; can meditation help with IBS; can’t exhale completely because in breath rushes in; does it matter if formal practice/meditation is less; is manas an impediment to citta or can it be used beneficially; how to get over the pain of divorce; how to ask someone to leave a community due to ethical reasons; when desire is abandoned how is avijja eliminated; elaborate on terms samādhi, atammayatā, nibānna.

We can use the occasion of puja to cultivate signs of purity, beauty, liberation. You’ll feel it changes the rhythm of the mind – heart opens, thinking mind slows down and bodily presence wakes up. Anxieties and agitations are held in this open presence, felt in the body, and allowed to pass and dissolve.

Our apparent reality arises from moods and interpretations that generate the world of time and space, self and other. It’s possible to meet the moods and mental states directly without creating stories or identities until the signs dissolve and only clarity remains. Meditation and engagement are skillful means to understand the dependent arising of our world, of suffering, and of skillful dhammas.

Use the three intelligences of heart, mind and body to create a sense of calm and happiness. Body helps restrain mind; heart generates an atmosphere of gentleness and goodwill. Know what’s worth giving attention to for liberation.

One of the most fundamental requirements in meditation is restraining the mind. Rather than running out, energy can settle and calm. Then one’s effort is neither straining towards some goal, nor enmeshed in agitation. There’s space for sensitivity, receptivity, listening. When the outflows are restrained goodwill, compassion, clarity and wisdom come forth on their own.