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Retreat Dharma Talks at Cittaviveka

Love as the Breath of Life - an online retreat with Ajahn Sucitto and Willa Thāniyā Reid

In the Buddha’s Dhamma, the four expressions of the loving heart establish the atmosphere for our practice. Combined with the opening and enrichment of the body’s somatic presence, they clear negative patterns such as fear, guilt, self-criticism and resentment. In this retreat, the cultivation of breathing, devotion and wise reflection are offered to further this process.

2021-07-10 (6 days) Cittaviveka

  
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2021-07-10 How to Use the Body 54:02
Ajahn Sucitto
Instructions for establishing an upright, open posture where you can relax and let breathing happen. The body recognizes that. When the body is relaxed and peaceful, mind sees things clearly. Introduction to chanting as a means for expressing our faith and aspirations. This is how to set up a meditation temple in your own body.
2021-07-10 Love, Breathing and Life – an Outline 49:10
Ajahn Sucitto
An introduction to the theme of the retreat that redefines traditional meanings of love, breathing and life. Breathing provides the foundation from which we can open to circumstance without fighting, without grabbing. And isn’t this what love is? Just staying with the restrictions, not asking for anything, just flowing through. This is what it means to live a meaningful life – to meet and show up for this experience.
2021-07-10 Guided Meditation - Deepen and Breathe 34:23
Ajahn Sucitto
Begins with standing posture, aligning the posture so muscles can relax deeply. Flows into sitting posture without breaking the deepening process. Energies from the depth rise up and concoct scenarios that carry the flavor of what’s unresolved – passion, despair, worry. Breathe through it, cooling and steadying the energy in your body.
2021-07-10 Day 1 Q&A – Common Problems 53:19
Ajahn Sucitto, Willa Thaniya Reid
How to deal with bodily pain; what to do when mind is obsessively thinking; mind goes dull and I keep falling asleep; what to do with weird energies that can happen; I can’t seem to do breath meditation.
2021-07-10 Relaxing into the Flow of Breath 64:35
Willa Thaniya Reid
As we establish this time of practice, we approach it with faith in the possibility of awakening. Upright in the energetic sense of heart and body, open to what is here. Let the beautiful energy of breathing stroke through the whole of experience of body. Soothing, calming, bringing well-being.
2021-07-10 Guided Meditation - Trusting the Process 10:06
Willa Thaniya Reid
Establishing uprightness of mind, heart and body - ground and feel ourselves here. With friendliness and non-contention, opening and attuning to what’s here, establishing presence with the way things are.
2021-07-10 Inflections of Love 53:02
Willa Thaniya Reid
We practice coming into full presence with the unshakable qualities of heart the Buddha pointed to. Noticing what is here, our relationship with it and the different inflections of the heart. If there’s hostility or unkindness, these are not true, they are defilements that obscure the truth. They need meeting and understanding, but not believing in. What is needed now is the quality of mettā, that deep well-wishing with the absence of any kind of hostility.
2021-07-11 Puja – Coming into Uprightness 46:45
Ajahn Sucitto
The upright is both an anatomical and psychological reference. It’s from the upright that we deepen, moving through difficult territories without getting hooked, arriving at places of authenticity and clarity. Puja offers an occasion for opening and deepening.
2021-07-11 Wholeness and Fragmentation 59:39
Ajahn Sucitto
Upright is both a physical and psychological feature. We can feel the balance, and if attention is sustained there, afflictive energies pass through –confusion transmutes into sanity. Because of ignorance we lose touch with wholeness, energy scatters and spills out through the khandas. Return to the wholeness, extend love and gentleness. Linger in skillful perceptions and the heart will reform itself in line with those meanings.
2021-07-11 Returning to Surface 15:11
Ajahn Sucitto
Whatever arises from the depth, it’s not yourself. It’s citta territory – nothing to fight with, claim or stir yourself up with. Stay with the center, the quality of uprightness and the ground from which it arises.
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