tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14825803201266061072024-03-07T23:34:40.021-06:00Interpersonal PracticeReading <i>Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom</i>, paired with practice and discussion is a healthy support for personal and professional relating. The work is also an excellent means of coming to experiential understanding of the Satipatthana Sutta. (<i>Insight Dialogue </i>text Gregory Kramer © 2007 - Commentary Mary Rees © 2007 - current date)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-1028884983098555932011-10-13T14:41:00.000-05:002014-02-15T10:09:07.618-06:00Interpersonal Practice Online<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you have been following this Interpersonal Practice blog, you might enjoy applying what you have learned and deepening your skill on line. Learn Insight Dialogue through Gregory Kramer's <a href="http://www.metta.org/">community and website</a> or work with Mary's related practice: Interpersonal Insight Meditation or Relational Vipassana<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Interpersonal Insight Meditation / </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Relational Vipassana</span> </span><br />
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Relational Vipassana or Interpersonal Insight Meditation is different from Insight Dialogue in its emphasis. Our relational courses emphasize stabilization of your personal practice as a primary component for wise and compassionate interactive skills.<br />
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We prefer some prior meditation experience. Experience <i>from any tradition</i> is a necessary foundation for learning and integrating interpersonal insight practices.
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We offer periodic direct instruction in Interpersonal Insight Meditation, but also teach relational practice through integration in all our courses. See current courses <a href="http://www.consciousdynamics.com/courses.html">HERE</a> (link updated 2014 02 15)<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-46822693953251423682009-08-31T13:53:00.006-05:002009-08-31T14:06:40.376-05:00Speak the Truth<span style="font-style:italic;">Virtue makes our social lives livable and lays the groundwork for happiness and ease. Morality inhibits detrimental actions such as harsh speech and helps create harmony. When harmony is established, peace can be cultivated.</span><br /><br />GK p.164<br /><br />Right speech is a central element in virtuous behavior, a small but important thing we can do in any moment to create harmony and help cultivate peace in ourselves, in our relationships, in our world.<br /><br /><br />How did the Buddha describe right speech?<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of goodwill.</span><br /><br /><br />Read Chapter 15: Speak the Truth pp. 163-180Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-89802979229556676182009-07-17T22:20:00.004-05:002009-07-17T22:45:13.228-05:00Listen DeeplyListening Deeply feels like a bottomless practice opportunity. In how much of our lives do we actually listen? Experiment with the following exercise.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">When you call to mind Listen Deeply, let it be a call to awaken more fully into the moment. That is, step into mindfulness with particular attention to what is being said. As you listen, mindfulness is alert with a question something like, "What is happening now?" The ears are attuned, but the heart, too, is open. You are listening to a fellow human being. Listen with kindness. Let the words, the stories, touch a compassionate heart. So we see that Listen Deeply is a reminder to allow ourselves to notice fully and be touched by the experience of another.</span><br /><br />GK p. 150<br /><br />Suggested Reading: Listen Deeply, Chapter 14Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-81028468079126161082009-03-23T13:10:00.002-05:002009-03-23T13:24:31.071-05:00Trust Emergence<span style="font-style:italic;">With this instruction we are invited into the numinous but observable impermanence of all experience.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Trusting Emergence is rooted in the wisdom aspect of [practice]. That is, it supports our seeing things as they are--unstable and far more complex and fluid than the mundane glance can know. The dynamic quality of experience demands robust practice and provides the object of that practice: change itself. The instruction to Trust Emergence invites us to dive headlong into the tumbling moment by providing guidance for how we relate to each other and to the totality of experience. To 'trust' is to make the leap of faith required to enter the seething sea of change. 'Emergence' refers to the process by which the complex things we experience arise spontaneously from underlying contributing factors.</span><br />GK p. 139<br /><br />suggested reading: Chapter 13 Trust EmergenceAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-67275486272952245562009-03-09T03:29:00.008-05:002009-03-09T14:57:11.460-05:00Open<span style="font-style:italic;">...The Open component of Pause-Relax-Open does not incline us toward spatial precision, toward awareness of you or me. It suggests a flexibility that can move with ever-changing experience. Explicitly internal awareness, explicitly external awareness, and awareness that is both internal and external--all of these are valued and practiced. The mind unencumbered by clinging becomes malleable and learns to navigate internal and external freely, without distinct boundaries or transitions. We enjoy vibrant rest amid the wide sea of experience. GK p.132</span> <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><blockquote>As you practice Open and your mindfulness becomes more steady, you may become aware that you can notice thoughts arising as easily as you notice bodily sensations. It is just like looking at a tree and the next moment giving your attention to hearing some insects or birds. You can attend just as easily to internal or external phenomena. So I am inviting you to cultivate a malleability of mind. See how it is to be mindful of rising and falling emotions and then attending to the words or facial experiences of people around you. Sometimes your attention may be very focused; at other times quite wide. Sometimes it may be internal, sometimes external. Let the reminder to Open be an invitation to you to move freely through the field of awareness, without clinging to anything whatsoever. GK p.132-133</blockquote></span><br />Suggested reading Chapter 12 <span style="font-style:italic;">Open</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-78466056922939751432009-02-14T19:15:00.005-06:002009-02-14T19:35:39.049-06:00Relax<span style="font-style:italic;">Pause, Relax, Open</span> can be seen as three parts or three aspects of the same moment. The moment may be long or so brief to not be separate from a flow of experience. But it is helpful to experiment with each of these three parts separately.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The second part of the core interpersonal meditation instruction is Relax. We Pause into awareness and Relax the body and mind. At its basic level, this instruction is as simple as it sounds. We bring mindfulness to those parts of the body where we tend to accumulate tension and allow the tension to relax. Becoming aware of the body as a whole, we give ourselves permission to let down, to let go, and not grasp at the reactive state we find.<br /><br />In this practice we recognize tension and choose ease. There is no other practice, really than letting go. We only need to choose the ease. Choosing the ease over and over again is itself the practice. Our formal support for making this choice, for remembering that this choice is available to us, is the simple instruction Relax.</span><br /><br />GK p. 119<br /><br />These comments are just the beginning of <span style="font-style:italic;">Chapter 11: Relax</span>, pages 119-128Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-83274677670943503402009-01-29T02:01:00.005-06:002009-01-29T07:41:13.897-06:00Pause<span style="font-style:italic;">To pause is to interrupt a movement, a step out of the habitual rush forward. Pausing allows reflection, reconsideration, rest. In Insight Dialogue, the movement that is interrupted is the sensitive body-mind's incessant grasping at whatever contacts it: sights, sounds, touches, smells, tastes, and thoughts. The habit of grasping is very strong in the interpersonal realm. Seeing another person, the mind grasps to hold or to push away, to know or to be known, to touch, to fix, or to adjust. Yet, strong as these urges are, it is possible to step outside them momentarily, to bracket their driving concerns: to pause.</span> Greg Kramer, p. 109<br /><br />To pause is to begin to recognize at increasingly subtle levels the degree to which we are pulled along by grasping mind. Awareness of the minds clinging is the first, and often the only step necessary for freedom and ability to fully enjoy current experience of simply being alive.<br /><br /><br />I have taken a long pause from entering posts. But during my pausing I did back-to-back weekend Dharma Contemplation and week long Insight Dialogue Retreats with Gregory Kramer, a combined retreat experience I highly recommend. <br /><br />Then I took some time to read the whole book. It is very full, I have appreciated moving slowly through the text and practices, but reading it through as an informational text was a special experience of its own. I have found this to be true of most dharma books. There are two different ways of reading - each yielding its own special benefits.<br /><br />It seems wise to begin renewed work with the text by going directly to instructions on meditation in Insight Dialogue. We have done this consistently in the sitting group since 2002, but it is time to revisit the instruction with greater depth.<br /><br />Begin now by reading the introduction to Insight Dialogue Meditation Instructions on page 107 for an overview of the practice. Then turn to the chapter on Pausing, p. 109, and take your time moving through it. I think you will find it inspiring to read and practice a little at a time.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-81466835245332245382008-10-22T21:50:00.006-05:002008-10-22T22:29:21.289-05:00Hungers Fadingpp.56-59<br /><br /><em>The desire for pleasure has as its handmaiden the fear of pain, the hunger for being seen is shadowed by the fear of invisibility, and the hunger for escape brings with it the fear of engagement and intimacy. At the root of all these fears is a terror of emptiness, the concern that this self - personal or social - will die in a cold nothingness. This terror is usuaslly kept beneath the surface of consciousness, recognized only by its surface manifestations: an avoidance of being alone, the fear of being criticized,a pulling back from close relationships.</em><br /><br />GK p.57<br /><br />Do you find yourself avoiding being alone? Fearing criticism? Pulling back from close relationships? <br /><br />Can you recognize one of these as a personal pattern? Can you choose which hunger is predominant in your experience and investigate it more closely? <br /><br />This segment of the text will support such an investigation as it addresses the fading of each of the three hungers in turn. <br /><br /><br />GK p. 57 continued<br /><br /><em>...the hunger and the fear are two facets of the same thing...when the meditative mind sees the root fear and meets it with acceptance, [the fear] begins to diminish - and all the hungers dissolve with it. With such fading, relationships cease to be powered by longing and desperation.</em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-41017799311115449152008-10-07T10:08:00.005-05:002008-10-12T22:15:17.440-05:00CessationWbat is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering?<br /><br /><em>Cessation refers to the lessening of toxic qualities in our lives: specifically lessening of the hungers for pleasure, being, and nonbeing and diminishment of the unwholesome roots of greed, hatred, and delusion nurtured by the hungers. Ignorance about the nature of identification and impermanence also diminishes in this cessation. As these intoxicants fade, the quality of life improves. Part of the path of their fading involves the cultivation of certain qualities, such as clear awareness, compassion, wise attention, and insight. But fundamentally, the focus is on the fading. What remains is ease, goodness, wisdom, and joy.<br /><br />The happiness born of peace, when the hungers subside like the last receding wave on a glassy summer sea, is exquisite and stable.</em><br /><br />GK, pp.55-56Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-51734498055701138222008-10-05T19:11:00.003-05:002008-10-05T19:17:43.248-05:00The End of SufferingGradual Cessation pp 54-56<br /><br /><em>What would it be like to live with less hunger? What would it be like to see the world, to meet other people, free from the anthill obsessions that occupy our thoughts and congest our emotions? It may be simpler than it first appears. We do not have to try to be happy, cultivate compassion, embrace some religions concept, or withdraw from other people. We can speak simply of the ease at the storm's end.</em><br /><br />GK p. 54Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-65225570765928313092008-09-05T17:36:00.005-05:002008-09-05T18:51:21.590-05:00Fundamental ChangeThe Energy that Drives Greed, Hatred, and Delusion (pulling, pushing, and foggy disregard) pp 50-53<br /><br /><em>Just as hurricanes and tornadoes are fed by the larger forces of sea and air, ...movements of the mind are fed by the weather systems of the basic hungers. Our lives are beset by agitation and dissatisfaction. If we seek relief, short-term benefit can come from addressing the obvious manifestations of greed or lust, hatred, and hazy delusion. We can change our behavior, watch the mind, or alter our environment. Truly fundamental change, however, will come only from addressing the underlying hunger--the energy source driving all these roots, thoughts, and actions.</em><br />Greg Kramer p.52<br /><br />This kind of fundamental change is what is possible with our meditation practice. We are in the very interesting and exciting process of transforming our consciousness, of changing our brains.<br /><br />I have found this exploration we are doing with Gregory Kramer into the causes of suffering manifesting through interpersonal practice helpful and highly revealing. I am now looking forward to moving into the Third Noble Truth, the end of suffering as it relates in this investigation to interpersonal relationship.<br /><br />If you are following along with us, consider reading these pages, reviewing earlier parts of the book, and working with the exercises on page 53.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-74499500176483955352008-06-29T17:13:00.006-05:002008-06-29T17:39:29.182-05:00Feel inadequate?Greg Kramer's description of how feelings of inadequacy are constructed:<br /><br /><em>First there is sensory contact with the world: we seek hear, touch, or remember another person. The subject-object split happens instantaneously; we experience me and them. Then the deeply conditioned view of separateness and difference arises. We feel fearful, unsafe. Entering this view, we compare ourselves to others; inevitably we either come up on top--and are tense because we seek to be recognized for our superiority, fearful to lose that recognition--or we come out on the bottom and are tense because we fear the social death of rejection. These feelings are being constructed anew in every moment. They are not permanent, but continually reconstructed. This is key. Once the thoughts "I am inferior," "I am inadequate," "I am unworthy," are constructed as mental images and as a felt bodily sense, we cling to them and believe in them as if they were stable and permanent. We don't notice that we re-create them all the time.</em><br /><br />GK p47<br /><br />If you are reading the newsletter or Insight and Meditation blog, you may recognize the experience being described as the flow of aggregates arising out of current experience and the resulting dispositions built up over a lifetime. By recognizing the arising formations, the arising process, we have an opportunity to modify our behavior, influencing dispositions toward future experiences.<br /><br />Notice any ways you make comparisons - and build on them. Be aware also of any negative effects such comparisons have on your sense of well-being, or your quality of mind. (see Gregory's exercises on page 48)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-25496299152879310512008-06-01T17:38:00.003-05:002008-06-01T17:41:55.502-05:00Third Hunger (cont'd)<i>When we speak ill of ourselves internally, we are both perpetrator and victim. Each self-criticism is a dart that contracts the heart in pain.</i><br /><br />Greg Kramer p.46Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-24900330323867682752008-05-29T19:01:00.009-05:002008-05-29T20:40:24.312-05:00Third HungerThe Hunger to Avoid Being, and the Fear of Being Seen (pp.45-48)<br /><br /><em>The hunger for what the Buddha called nonbeing is the urge to escape....It is a fundamental recoiling from the hurt of life... <br /><br />And just as the interpersonal hunger for being is the urge to be seen, the interpersonal hunger for non-being is the urge not to be seen, to be invisible, to escape, to shrink from interpersonal contact and its possible hurt.</em><br /><br /><em>The hunger for escape also takes the form of fear of losing current safety.</em><br /><br>Gregory Kramer, p.45Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-21405597971852939242008-05-20T16:13:00.005-05:002008-05-20T16:30:50.976-05:00Second Hunger (cont'd)<i>To properly understand the power of the hunger to be seen, and its accompanying fear of invisibility, it is essential to understand its relationship with our elemental fear of death and of existential emptiness... If we understand this...we may soften our judgments of social longings--our own and others'--that we might judge as trivial.</i><br><br>Gregory Kramer, p.41Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-64103394178094901762008-03-07T09:17:00.006-06:002008-05-29T20:39:39.338-05:00Second HungerThe Hunger to Be and the Fear of Nonbeing (pp.41-45)<br /><br />This passage warrants careful attention. Gregory makes some very interesting and challenging connections. The second noble truth opens deep insights by inviting us to look into interpersonal suffering. <br /><br />Read the entire passage, then consider reading again and stopping after every paragraph. Ask yourself what the passage means in your personal experience. Make a few notes, creating a paragraph that is significant for you.<br /><br />Do the three exercises at the end of this passage. Which one was most powerful for you? What have you learned from being with this passage?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-49700449375049938952008-02-08T23:23:00.001-06:002008-02-08T23:48:33.267-06:00Forming the Relational SelfThis significant segment describes briefly the way the self is formed as well as its concomitant sense of separation (pp. 35-38).<br /><blockquote><i>...Each moment of interpersonal contact generates feelings of private autonomy. This is universal and by no means bad. When we fail to recognize this identification, however, we lay the foundation for loneliness and other forms of anguish.</i> p. 36<br /></blockquote> <br />The passage also includes three valuable excercises. Each practice is an opporunity to explore, in your immediate experience, your own experience of separation. Spend several days with each one: looking at superiority and inferiority, looking at your family relationships, and noticing the sense of separation when observing people on the street.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-25568883488069007482008-01-14T09:51:00.000-06:002008-01-19T19:50:45.957-06:00three basic hungers<div>hunger for sensual pleasure<br />hunger for being<br />hunger for non-being<br /><br /><i>What, friends, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering? It is hunger, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that; that hunger for sensual pleasures, hunger for being, and hunger for non-being. This is called the noble truth of the origin of suffering. </i> SN 56.II<br /><br />Gregory's comments on this passage from the Buddha's teaching are alone worth the price of the book...especially his comments on the hunger for non-being.<br /><br /><i>...the urge for non-being seemed downright cryptic... The hunger for non-being, I came to understand, was not only the urge to escape this crazy and painful life but also the urge to escape existing in relationship. Inherent in this urge, I saw, is the fear of being seen, the fear of intimacy.</i> p. 34</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-7268072703406215022008-01-13T22:53:00.001-06:002008-01-14T09:48:00.088-06:00clinging/grasping<i>Grasping is the link between hunger and suffering...</i> p32<br /><br />We have had a wonderful holiday. Neither my husband or I really wanted to take down the Christmas Tree - a sign of the holiday's ending and the beginning of a year we cannot foretell - a year that, like all other years, will have its joys and it sorrows. So we hold on to the tree and the colorful lights - but in doing so add the suffering of clinging to the pleasant. <br /><br />This passage (pp. 31-33) and the suggested exercise give you an opportunity to explore the links between suffering and grasping in your life and relationships. Notice especially how we cling to both pleasant and unpleasant connections.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-49930025708699963052008-01-11T12:47:00.000-06:002008-01-11T12:51:31.170-06:00Causes of Suffering<div>Interpersonal Hunger is Gregory Kramer's coining of the Second Noble Truth in this book. He includes the elements listed below in his discussion of the causes of suffering. He is sharing traditional teachings applied to contemporary living in a very practical and understandable way.<br /><br />Study the headings before working with the chapter. What do you already know about these? Think of your own personal experiences in relationship to the headings. Do you have any experiences like those you think he might discuss here? Consider changing each item into a question and writing your own answer.<br /><br /><br />Clinging to Hunger Causes Suffering<br /><br />Three Basic Hungers<br /><br />Forming the Relational Self<br /><br />The Hunger for Pleasure and the Urge to Avoid Pain<br /><br />The Hunger to Be and the Fear of Nonbeing<br /><br />The Hunger to Avoid Being, and the Fear of Being Seen<br /><br />The Hungers Intermingled<br /><br />The Energy That Drives Greed, Hatred, and Delusion </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-2410574969308953232007-12-29T18:22:00.000-06:002007-12-29T20:22:29.617-06:00A Realistic First StepInterpersonal suffering is part of being a human being. Everyone of us experiences loneliness, doubt, and fear - but do we recognize it? It is gift to be able to feel the suffering that arises in normal life experiences - though we certainly don't desire or seek suffering. Recognizing what is true does not exacerbate the pain and sorrow that exists. Being in contact is the way to release and freedom.<br /><br />In the deliniations of kinds of suffering this passage (pages 26-30) can help us recognize suffering that is ineveitable, suffering that connects us to humnanity, and suffering that is optional.<br /><br /><i>Interpersonal suffering is the suffering that stems from our associations with other people. It is a vast subset of psychological suffering. Stresses with family members, coworkers, and friends are interpersonal suffering. Loneliness and disconnection are also part of interpersonal suffering. Each of us regularly experiences interpersonal suffering. Simply recognizing these dynamics at work, and knowing that they arise as constructions of the sensitive heart-mind, can be helpful. (pp. 26-27)<br /><br />To observe life this directly is not pessimistic; it is realistic. Ignoring the problem doesn't help. Indeed ignorance keeps the suffering invisible, assures its continuity, and establishes it as determining the tenor of our lives... If we can see things clearly, we can begin to reorient our lives toward happiness and freedom. Understanding the causes of suffering is the first step toward freedom. (pp.29-30)</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-50875174542726229452007-12-21T09:43:00.000-06:002007-12-23T19:56:36.672-06:00Bare AttentionA Bare Assessment of Suffering - pages 24-26 - an excellent description of the teachings of the Satipatthana Sutta in action. <br /><br />You will find in these pages a clear description of ordinary everyday suffering and a personal description of its causes and conditions in the subtle unfolding of experience, both pleasant and unpleasant. The author's personal examples are a helpful model for looking at your own experience in ways possible with a trained mind.<br /><br />Develop your own mind by rereading this passage and working with personal experience. Your ability to observe as discretely as Greg does will increase, especially if incorporated with a formal daily insight and mindfulness practice. <br /><br />These pages warrant careful attention. Stay with them several days and return to them periodically as you progress through this book.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-89032036013862528722007-12-19T16:32:00.000-06:002007-12-19T16:39:21.950-06:00Loving KindnessNoticing your own suffering is a compassion practice <i>(karuna)</i>. We cannot be compassionate to others without compassion for ourselves - certainly if we are not even aware of our own suffering or our need for compassion. <br /><br />Compassion begins with self-care. As you become aware of subtle and ever present sufferings it is important to maintain a quality of loving kindness <i>(metta)</i> toward yourself.<br /><br /><blockquote>May I be peaceful and happy, <br />May I be safe and protected,<br />May I be healthy and strong.</blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-33663399753316480492007-12-18T22:10:00.000-06:002007-12-18T23:04:14.123-06:00The Fact of SufferingWe begin the exploration of Interpersonal Suffering, the First Noble Truth, with the Fact of Suffering. pages 21-23<br /><br /><blockquote><i>When we look honestly at the human condition, we see stress.<br />Stress is sometimes hidden because it is mingled with happiness...<br />Some experiences of stress are unmistakably miserable... Many... are less obvious...<br />...even joy can be stressful because we reach out to grasp the source of happiness...<br /></i></blockquote>Gregory's clear descriptions of the kinds of stresses present in an ordinary day help open our eyes to our more subtle experiences and to our ways of responding to ordinary suffering. <br /><br />After reading these three pages spend several days observing subtle experiences. Include pleasures, but especially notice the little aversions that impinge on your sense of ease and well being. As you do so, keep in mind the good news that by <i>looking clearly at how things actually are, we can escape from the jungle of unnecessary anguish....</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1482580320126606107.post-14255400041921537052007-12-16T22:16:00.001-06:002007-12-16T22:27:18.862-06:00Part Two: Four Interpersonal TruthsPlease notice that in this section, Gregory is reframing the four noble truths in a vital and intriguing way!<br /><br />Chapter Four : First Noble Truth - Interpersonal Suffering<br />Chapter Five: Second Noble Truth - Interpersonal Hunger<br />Chapter Six: Third Noble Truth - Cessation<br />Chapter Seven: Fourth Nobel Truth - The Full-Spectrum Path<br /><br />Before beginning reading consider what you already know about the four noble truths and where you thing Gregory might be going with this.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627001977768767704noreply@blogger.com0