In meditation the ground has to be both clear and enjoyable. Make a joyful kind of effort. Refer to breathing to give focus; refer to the physical when the mind spins out. Track energy along the chakras – expand it, spread it around. May this be well.

A reflection on the theme of being a person without a self. Only working with what can be defined – knowing what is skillful and unskillful, what causes suffering and what causes non-suffering. Far more than the benefit of calm, you’re then working with the roots of this personhood, learning how to handle aspects of the person without constructing a self.

Meditation is not about getting any particular state or feeling. It’s about knowing what’s happening without getting bonded to it. Only by handling experience is there freedom. What we handle is our precious, necessary flaw – our suffering. Meet it and know it as Mara.

The process of samādhi is as important as anything else, wherever the process lands. Give priority to 3 fundamental roots: inclination towards kindness/well-being; protection/warding off what’s harmful; letting go of sense contact.

There is some kind of personhood that is enriched, that realizes. This is different from self, which is imagined, generated out of grasping. Come out of the story line of self, and into basic presence. A purification of this personhood – resilience, strength, clarity, heartfulness – comes about naturally as we meditate.

This teaching encompasses all forms of experience, and the liberation from it all. Held with right intention, forms can be used for their benefits without clinging to them. Use forms – the body, the monastery – as props, to purify intention.

Beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle, beautiful in the end. This is one of the expressions of the Dhamma. Puja is one skillful means for expressing this beauty – uprightness of posture, steadiness of presence, chanting, praising, beautiful intention.

Can we be willing to be in the dualistic experience of me and other without understanding it, controlling it, needing it to be complete? Bear presence with the disturbances, not just witnessing, but with anukampa – trembling with. Feel it in the body, in the heart, empathize with it. Experience the roots of experience and it becomes simple.