Dharma Seed - dharmaseed.org: Tempel Smith's most recent Dharma talks: Recent Episodes
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Tempel Smith spent a year ordained as a monk in Burma and teaches Buddhist psychology and social activism in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently part of the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Once we have a base of simple connection to breath, body, and our immediate senses, we can explore our driven habits of adding a sense of self to these very simple experiences. As stated in the Bahiya Sutta, in the seeing just let there being the seen, with out adding a sense of "you" to what is being seen. We can compare moments of the day where the the mind isn't entangled in concocting a sense of self versus the mind which is adding a very thick sense of self.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) For those new to directing there mindfulness practice towards the experience of self production, there are a few relatively simple practices to expose and let go of the over concoction of a thicker sense of self to life's present time experiences.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The blessings of a strong mettā practice developed on retreat include how we can cultivate wise actions and wise speech when we leave retreat.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) From a base of loving kindness and compassion we can consciously aim our heart's attention into a practice of Forgiveness.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Extending loving kindness meditation from the primary practice of ourselves and a chosen easiest being, we can open at times to include any dear friend whom also easily come to mind. At this stage of practice we are inclining out mettā practice to rest where mettā is easiest. This would be any beings for whom it is easy to see the good in them, and we easily feel warmth.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) What is special about a 9-day Loving Kindness retreat? The form of Buddhist practice helps cultivate positive qualities of friendliness and kindness, it helps purify old habits of defensiveness and hostility, and it help cultivate samadhi (concentration).
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Within our blessed lineages of Venerables Ajahn Cha and Mahasi Sayadaw, and the teachings within the Pali Canon, we have found three kinds of nibbana. Nibbana is closely related to the full liberation from dukkha (suffering). To even talk about one kind of nibbana can be difficult as it is beyond language, yet there is another confusion within western Insight meditation. By practicing in Mahasi's Burmese meditaitons, in Cha's Thai Forest meditations, and here in North America, there are roughly three kinds of nibbana: a) an unperturbed background field of awareness, b) a perfect zero of cessation, and c) a stream of transient mind-body moments without greed, hatred or craving.Knowing of these three kinds of nibbana can clarify what our vipassana practices are aimed at.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We need to explore how to find and develop true compassion which is a beautiful quality of opening our hearts to the suffering inside and outside ourselves. While there is pain in suffering we can actually grow to have a sweet heart of compassion when we know how to breath open heartedly in contact with pain and suffering. When we find true compassion we don't need to shrink back from what is difficult but rather use the commonalities of difficulties to feel warm and expanded.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The Buddha wanted us to learn how to wakefully "stream", to realize we are forever and only a stream of mental and physical phenomena. We have no part internally or externally which is permanent, though in daily life we subjectively feel as if there is a lot of dependably permanent parts of life. With the deepening intimacy of mindfulness all there is is a flow and change. With patience we can learn to find liberation within the universal aspect of impermanence.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) There is a style of mindfulness practice where we lightly attending a central, familiar anchor of attention, such as the breath or scanning the body, and then intentionally choose to watch our minds move through its habits and its nature. In this style of mindfulness practice we can watch our attention move through our six sense doors of stimulation. With this style of meditation we can directly see the dharma nature of our mind.With this style of practice we have to be careful we not lose attentiveness, which can be a shadow side of choiceless attention. We want to keep learning and discovering the dharma, and not space out into half committed mindfulness.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) An incredibly important aspect of mindfulness is to direct attention to "vedana" which is the tone of every moment which is either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. This one tone of conscious experience is at the very root of all suffering and therefore all liberation from suffering.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) 5 mins for chanting refuges and precepts, then a careful guided meditation on mindfulness of thought. We create a base of being mindful with the breath and body to allow us some perspective on thought as a direct stream of phenomena.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Spirit Rock has blessed lineage from both Ven. Ajahn Cha and Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. From our deep connection to these traditional lineages, we can see at least three different kinds of Nibbana: 1. Nibbana for Everyone; 2. Dealthless Awareness; and 3. Complete Zero. As a maturing community of western Insight practitioners rooted in several lineages, we have the benefit of many styles of practice and Buddhist understandings. We also have the challenge of there being so many practices, and experience to where they lead. Here in this talk we explore three common understandings of Nibbana and how the various traditions guide us to them.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) With a wise expectation of the three kinds of vedanā, we steady our mindfulness to intimately connect with unpleasantness, pleasantness, and neutral experiences. This is the first step with vedanā. The second is to cool off the old habits of reactivity , and the third is seeing vedanā is not inherent in the objects of our attention. Vedanā arises due to contact with the 6 sense doors, and operates on its own independent conditinality. This is difficult to see in daily life, and a precious opportunity on silent retreat.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Key to all of our suffering and eventual freedom, mindfulness of vedanā disrupts our unconscious struggle to reject unpleasant experiences, crave pleasant experiences, and ignore neutral experiences. Since vedanā is a tone or aspect of every moment in the stream of our consciousness, it beocmes increasingly clear our agitation with life begins with reactivity to vedanā, and the training of a new kind of well being comes as we develop the ability to breath inside the stream with all three vedanās.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Exploring the third foundation of mindfulness, including emotions and cognitive activities
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) In progressing through the four foundations, we come to my mindfulness of mind (citta). This includes emotions and cognitive states.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) At the beginning of breath awareness practice we can feel our attention is either with the breath or distracted. As we deepen out faith and dedication to mindfulness of breathing we learn to breath in and breath out in all conditions. The breath becomes a sanctuary to accompany us in all conditions.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) In the detailed description of the 16 steps of anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) the first 12 steps develop samadhi (concentration) as a basis for the last four steps (13-16) of insight practice. These are using in and out breathing to become sensitive to impermanence (anicca), and from impermanence to releasing the agitation (viraga) from trying to find security in a fluid and fluctuating world. The second to last step in relaxing into the completeness and thoroughness of endings (nirodha), as a support to the last step of fully letting go.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) After our initial work to begin meditation on in and out breathing we can further relax with total faith into immersion with breathing awareness. Some gentle supporting techniques of counting can be helpful, as well as welcoming an attitude of devotion and patience to support breathing as a sanctuary.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) When the Buddha taught detailed instructions for breath meditation he often used 16 steps from initial meditation to complete freedom. The first 12 steps on the common meditation guidelines to develop stable concentration and experience a mind temporarily free from inner turmoil.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) After exploring many categories of beings to eventually send mettā to all beings, we can now approach each conception of single or many mettā subjects to be places of collected, restful mettā samādhi (loving kindness concentration). It's more simple and humble than many expect it to be.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) This style of meditation practice is designed to support both the strengthening of mettā (loving kindness) and samādhi (concentration). The kind and benevolent tone of the brahmavihārās (sacred dwellings) carries a deep beckoning of our hearts to be whole and steady, so these are wonderful and meaningful qualities to use for samādhi/concentration. After many days of practicing we can taste our hearts becoming whole and can better see the possibility of letting go of old habits based in greed, insecurity and hatred.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Setting up and devoting ourselves to a steady mettā (loving kindness) meditation practice, we start where it is easiest and where we can keep it simple. With a basis of blending a sense of ease and relaxation with patient steady attentiveness, we invite mettā to arise in our hearts supported internally by images and phrases. Though it takes some experimenting to find balance with these tools, the repetition of mettā phrases keeps directing our attention to the purpose of mettā practice. These phrases are so very helpful when we live into more complex or challenging situations.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) As we practice mettā meditation we will have waves where the practice feels easy, intuitive and validating; and we will all have waves where we struggle. There are five very common states which visit us in meditation practice called the "five hindrances". These are commonly named in English as craving, aversion, dullness, restlessness, and doubt. For steady mettā practice our first response to these challenges is to practice more carefully with patience determination. The second response is to offer ourselves kindness and compassion during challenging times. For mettā meditation and for the other three brahmaviharas, our third response to challenging times is to turn wakefully towards the qualities of the challenge and see them as only temporary conditions. We can greatly reduce the experience of suffering in the hindrances when we have mindful experience of them.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) There are so many ways to practice formal mettā (loving kindness) meditation, and they all benefit from a relaxed mind and body. The proximal cause for samadhi (concentration) to arise is from a deepening sense of happiness, calm, and contentment. Many practitioners are drawn to use will and force to concentrate their attention, and this leads to agitation, frustration, and fatigue. With mettā breathing and body awareness we can cultivate the ease so useful for our hindrances to subside.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Sariputta equated the stream of liberation to being the very same 8 fold path of the Buddha's main teachings. The 8 fold path can be summed up as the three higher trainings: training in Sīla, Samādhi, and Pañña. To stay in the stream which only flow in one direction - liberation - we only need to embrace Sīla (ethical attunement), Samādhi (cultivating beautiful aspects of heart), and Pañña (living with wise perspective). Whether you wear robes on the outside of your body or if you are a lay person, we want to ordain our hearts to wear the inner robes of Sīla, Samādhi, and Pañña.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) To find equanimity within us we can reflect on how we naturally feel when in nature. We rarely judge nature or get rigidly stuck on our preferences. We can see a young sapling, a mature tree, a much older tree, and a fallen tree. We can see rabbits and coyotes, insects and birds who eat them. We let nature have its changing seasons. From these reflections we can find the open heart of caring equanimity, just wishing for respectful contact with the truth. Can we bring this to the human realm?
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) While the 3rd and fourth foundations of mindfulness can be taught as their own separate topics, it can be very useful to look at the language and instruction given in both of them together. In the 3rd foundation we rest mindfully in all cognitive and emotional states as they arise and pass with the courage not to change them. In the 4th foundation of mindfulness we use this deeper intimacy from the 3rd foundation to act most skillfully in how we let go of suffering states and welcome wholesome states.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) After receiving many dharma talks and and expanding mindfulness into the 3rd and 4th Foundations of mindfulness, it is important to intentionally return every now and then to 1st and 2nd foundations of mindfulness. This keeps us grounded in the body as a continual pillar of our practice.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) In truth we are in a stream of every changing experiences, both internally and externally. AS we develop greater mindfulness and concentration we see through our direct experience everything which arises also passes away. This is the true nature of all conditioned phenomena. Waking up on our Buddhist path reveals our streaming nature, and this is one way of describing the process of becoming a stream enterer.