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Retreat Dharma Talks at Cittaviveka

Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload

This on-line Zoom Retreat focused on clearing sensory and karmic overload and residues that impact the heart. Unresolved history can cause us to continue to frame ourselves and others with unhelpful projections. Clearing these within the interactive heart while staying present gives us confidence that we can move forward with a sense of path, of foundation, and of gratitude.

The daily schedule included sitting, walking and standing meditation, Dhamma teachings, chanting and question & answer sessions. Qigong and recorded Dhamma teachings were also offered to support your practice.

2021-05-30 (6 days) Cittaviveka

  
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2021-06-03 Puja – Images of the Sacred 23:11
Ajahn Sucitto
The signs in daily life can be sterile, abrasive, rapid – designed for effective organization, not for organic life. Puja is an occasion to shift gears and cultivate signs of simple beauty, warmth, inclusivity. It’s helpful to have an atmospheric dip every day into signs that cause citta to feel like home.
2021-06-03 Kamma, Signs and Signlessness 56:49
Ajahn Sucitto
We can become flooded by signs that carry meaning according to our kammic histories. To move out of the floods of thought, self, other people, let the sign be a reminder. Go to the body, the felt sense, to the place where the personal qualities are subdued and there’s just the qualities of goodwill and patience. Energies shift and release. This is how we clean out embedded kamma.
2021-06-03 Day 5 Q&A2 54:25
Ajahn Sucitto
Working at our levels but there’s nothing to attain/is citta is inherently pure; how to think about kamma after death; how does being enveloped in compassion feel; after moving energy down into belly deciding to move from samatha to vipassanā; the knower merges with the known and there’s no object left; when beginning to become concentrated I get hijacked into numbness/feeling lost in brahmaviharā; relationship between awareness, citta, mindfulness and the mind.
2021-06-04 Guided Meditation - Quietly Witnessing the Kammic Field 5:30
Ajahn Sucitto
As you review what’s arising and passing for you, establish balance and continue with non-engagement. It’s just the human citta doing what it does. Awareness, firm and focused, lingering – in that you’ll find a quiet happiness.
2021-06-04 Day 6 Q&A1 34:29
Ajahn Sucitto
Is citta able to verbalize/understand words; citta’s role in nightmares; differences between hindrances and fetters; is cultivating bhavana or khanti better for burning off defilements; a lot of pain in the body caused movement in meditation disrupting energy; cultivating mētta; alternative healing methods; startled out of the body when bell rings; locating ancestral exclusions in the body; understanding workings of mind from Abhidhamma perspective vs. contemplation of 4 foundations of mindfulness for realizing non-self; accessing solar plexus during meditation; finding firmness when touching into open spaciousness; musician is torn between music and meditation.
2021-06-04 Puja – Regaining Heart, Regaining Life 42:49
Ajahn Sucitto
We throw ourselves away into identities, sources of stress, comparison, separation. Puja is an occasion for returning to citta’s true home – the sacred that includes it all. Make note of what takes you out and what brings you back home – faith, values – and keep them close by.
2021-06-04 Open Path 46:53
Ajahn Sucitto
An encouragement to continue finding the time and occasion to establish presence to be with all that arises. It’s not about getting through the maze of dukkha but gaining the skills and balance that lift you out. It’s the path of the sappurisa, the person of integrity who attunes to practice with all it requires – faith, open center, with the first movement being goodwill.
2021-06-04 No Beginnings, No Endings, Just Practice 3:03
Ajahn Sucitto
On this last day of retreat, mind might be occupied with comings and goings and what’s next. Remember the stabilizing practices that give citta the strength and encouragement to open despite the bewildering nature of things. Don’t be moved by the change of circumstance, every moment is precious.
2021-06-04 Day 6 Q&A2 – The Sacred, Body, Self and Other 47:37
Ajahn Sucitto
Trying to find triggers and safe space in the midst of health issues that affect nervous system, heart rate and breathing; stiff neck and shoulder muscles keep re-contracting; how to respond to getting so tired; what is the wise and caring response to body; navigating touch and contact skillfully; how can we be heirs to our kamma if there is no self to inherit it; through investigation of qualities of citta clarity and falling away has occurred – how to sustain; the more I see things clearly the more I feel the weight of delusion causing sadness and disgust and feeling of pointlessness for practice; how to approach in and out breath to calm mental activity (citta)/please speak to mindfulness of feeling from the Ānāpānasati Sutta.
2021-06-04 Inching into Uncertainty - Closing Talk and Chanting 28:02
Ajahn Sucitto
A reflection on how this online retreat came together: good people combining their skills towards a wholesome intention. Whatever we embark on has an element of uncertainty and possibility of failure, but the heart doesn’t fail. Stay open, do your practice, and meet the challenges that arise. Best to form a group – it becomes difficult when you feel you’ve got to do it on your own.
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