The effect of feeling, agreeable or disagreeable, touches the citta. The practice is not to contract around the resonance, don’t grab the feeling. It’s the clinging reflex that creates the person. Maintain open stable presence – go bigger and wider than the activations – and the grasping lessens.
We need to train and tame thought so we can use it carefully for inquiry and investigation. Steering away from the conceived, find out how citta is being affected. Supported by embodiment and qualities of goodwill and compassion, the tamed, trained thinking mind gives rise to insight – it’s a liberator.
What is practicing directly; differences between sāti sampajañña and sātipañña; meandering/curious attention when practicing; how important is jhāna; help working with our habits and blind spots; how to work with the inner critic; when to address things internally or externally with regards to other people.
Body’s somatic intelligence is receptive to signals – suggest signals of safety, space, freedom. Settle more deeply into the core stability of the body, where it’s not mediating with internal or external phenomena – restful, like a tree.
Realization can’t be taught, but it can be induced. Stable in one’s presence – open, listening, attentive – one comes to know one’s own range, the place where your potentials can properly unfold without getting tangled and without overreaching. Absorb into this steady place to begin clearing the floods.
With recollection, we drop meanings into the heart and listen. It’s how we come to know experience directly. Recollections of Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha help frame up our meditation and cultivation – how to act, what to put aside, what to say no to, what to say yes to, and how to do that in a measured way.
In this practice we are gently peeling back the layers of time and identity to come into something much more sensitive. The act of puja is a sign for citta. Praising and recollecting in both meaning and enactment mark the path of the here and now.
Once an open stability has been established, we can work from this basis, engaging decisively from the place of giving. Bringing the quality of a giving heart to mind, allow yourself to be touched and feel moved. Continue practicing with the resonances of the brahmaviharā.
In meditation we’re resetting the dynamic movement of mental and physical energies with open energy. Using body as a guide, resonate the sense of balance and stability throughout. Let mindfulness deepen and maintain a wide-open energy that is receptive.
