Healing The Heart Mind With Insight: A Path To Psychological Freedom

This module begins with inviting the listener to reflect on their intentions for attending this course. It also introduces the listener to the basic framework of the Buddha’s teaching. It provides some teaching on the Buddha’s four noble truths. The module also explores what stress is in relationship to the four truths. It provides two short meditations. It also invites the listener to explore the experience of stress.

This session puts emphasis on the importance of ethics as the foundation of meditation. The four noble and ennobling truths as two cause effect relationships: un-statisfactoriness (dukkha) and its origins and psychological freedom and the causes of this. In this session, we will also talk about how the four truths can be relevant for noble awakenings, as well as everyday stress.

This session is a reflection exercise. Participants are invited to reflect on the nature of stress in terms of the four truths: how it is experienced, what its origins are, how it would be to be free from stress, and what practices would help one realise freedom.

This session presents the Buddha’s approach to mindfulness, the four establishments of mindfulness, and the first establishment: mindfulness of body.

This recording is a guided mindfulness of body exercise based on the contemplation of the four great elements: earth, water, fire, and air, as they are perceived as physical sensations or the four elements of the body. Earth element: hardness, roughness, heaviness, softness, smoothness, lightness Water element: flowing, cohesion, stickiness, slipperiness, dryness ​Fire element: heat, cold, warm, cool ​Wind element: supporting, pushing (movement, sensations of energy moving) We will practice an Elements meditation: first, directly perceiving earth element. Then, scanning down, for earth, up for water, down for fire, then up for wind, eventually shifting to awareness of breathing as the wind element.

Much of what happens in life is beyond our control. We do, however, have a choice in how we respond to events that come our way and we can set wholesome directions for our lives. It is this choice that influences whether a bad situation gets worse or improves. This choice is called intention and in the Buddhist eightfold path, right intention is the second factor of the path. The first factor is right view. These two factors make up the wisdom component of the path. The eightfold path involves wisdom, ethics, and the cultivation of insight and serenity. This module involves training in mindful standing and walking, a meditation based on developing intentions of good will and presentations based around the Buddha’s eightfold path. Session 6:This recording involves the first meditation of Module 2. It guides the listener in mindfulness of body, the first establishment of mindfulness. In particular it guides in mindful standing, walking, and movement. Session 6b: Added information about mindful walking and mindfulness in all activities. This sub-session provides more clarity about how to practice mindfulness in daily activities, as well as mindful walking. With mindful walking, there are a few different methods, which are explained.

This is the first presentation from Module 2 of healing the heart mind with insight. In this session we will consider what wisdom means for us and how we can cultivate it. We will consider the first two factors of the Eightfold path, view, and intentions. According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “the Buddha had a simple test for measuring wisdom. You're wise, he said, to the extent that you can get yourself to do things you don't like doing, but know will result in happiness, and to refrain from things you like doing but know will result in pain and harm.” A path of cultivating discernment is as follows: Dana (generosity) - the joy of letting go and giving-the foundation for Sila (ethics) - not harming self or other, respect for interconnection of life, the basics of compassion and kindness-foundation for Samadhi meditation (cultivation) - balancing insight and serenity-supported by the four heart qualities - foundation for Punya (wisdom) - understanding and intentions of goodwill, letting go and harmlessness The Eightfold path is: Wisdom 1. Right view, conceptualisation, or understanding 2. Right intention, aspiration vision, or thought Lifestyle or ethics 3. Right speech 4. Right action 5. Right livelihood or occupation Cultivation 6. Right effort or energy 7. Right mindfulness or attention 8. Right concentration or focus Right view includes: Everything changes (anicca). Everything is interdependent/ not self-anattā. Nothing is certain. Impermanent things cannot be the source of enduring happiness (dukkha). Causes have effects. Actions have consequences. Right intentions include: Good will - e.g. warm friendliness, compassion, gratitude, etcetera Harmlessness - not causing harm to self or other; includes compassion Renunciation or letting go - involving the release of grasping, clinging, and craving to views, concepts, experiences and objects. Right intentions can also refer to right thoughts, decisions, and aspirations. Aspirations are wishes and visions for the future arising as intentions in the here and now. Intentions to do something will increase the possibility to act in that way. Neuropsychology - “that which fires together wires together” (e.g. Siegel, 2010). Imagination can actually activate neuronal growth. Ethics are the types of behaviours that are not harmful and are conducive to long-term well-being and happiness for oneself and others. Right speech: Speech that is truthful and useful, leading to unity, harmony, and peace Right action: Bodily action that leads to unity, harmony, and peace Right livelihood: Making a living in a way that promotes the welfare and happiness of ourselves and others Sensitivity to suffering with the commitment to reduce it (compassion) (Adapted from Patrick Kearney)

Before or during this meditation please reflect on the following: What does genuine happiness mean to you (if you resist the term happiness, try peace)? What do you need from the world and others to achieve peace? What hinders you internally, and how do you see yourself overcoming the hindrances? How can you share and influence other to realise peace or genuine happiness? This session involves a meditation based on four aspirations. The first aspiration is for genuine happiness (or peace). The second is for receiving what is needed from the world of people and things to realise happiness. The third is about aspiring to overcome barriers and becoming what you aspire to be. The fourth is about aspiring happiness for others. The four aspirations are intentions of goodwill in the form of meditation. Metta meditation is an example of an intention of goodwill in the form of a meditation. The four aspirations meditation is in many respects a metta meditation. Credit is given to Dr B. Alan Wallace for teaching me this particular meditation.

Serenity and insight are the two aspects of meditation. This session involves a presentation on the differences between serenity and insight meditation. Then, the features of the serenity aspect of meditation will be highlighted. The features of the cultivation of serenity includes an emphasis on concentration or unification of mental energies and an inclination to absorb into experience. The Pali term for meditation is bhāvanā. Bhāvanā means “bringing into being” or cultivating. “What a person considers and reflects upon for a long time to that his mind will bend and incline” (according to Wallace 2008, see also MN 19, Nanamoli and Bodhi, 1995 p. 208). Two aspects of meditation are the cultivation of insight and the cultivation of serenity. Meditation can also refer to familiarization. Meaning, to get to know oneself in the sense of discovering and awakening to what is happening. All meditation involves courage, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. Serenity meditations emphasize concentration and absorption. Most insight meditation practices emphasize mindfulness and enquiry. Right effort = balanced energy Serenity meditation is based on cultivating samādhi (“concentration” or “unification”). Samādhi, from sam (= “with”) + ā (= “towards”) + √dha (= “to put or place”), refers to unifying the heart-mind, so attention rests on a single place. It can be called serenity, calm abiding, or tranquillity, as it leads to relaxation of the body, stilling of the mind, and easing of the heart. Right concentration - samadhi is the gathering of attention and placing it on one thing in a wholesome manner, not wrong samadhi. Mental energies are unified, where the disparate parts of our mind are collected and work together in a unified manner. When there is a unified mind there is also stillness, calm, tranquility, and power. Sometimes, this refers to deep states of concentration called jhanas. With serenity meditation the practitioner maintains attention on a single object of awareness. Distractions are put aside and awareness is absorbed into the chosen object. It is often experienced as a stilling, stabilising, centering, and settling of the heart-mind. Serenity meditation soothes emotional and physical disturbance. It helps us feel at ease, relaxed, happy, peaceful, and serene. It creates a sense of composure and integration. With insight meditation one enquires into and investigates experience related to ourselves and the world around us. We begin to understand cause-effect relationships: what leads to what and how things change. The four truths. We begin to see and know experientially three characteristics of life: impermanence, dukkha, and not self. Serenity and insight support each other. Serenity allows for deep rest, rejuvenation, and physical healing. Serenity provides the power to penetrate phenomena. Insight enables understanding of life in terms of it characteristics and also cause-effect relationships, and as such, the opportunity to change one’s direction.

This session involves guidance in a serenity meditation practice based on absorbing into the experience of breathing. First you will be guided to relax the whole or parts of the body with the breath, releasing thoughts. Then, there will be guidance in stabilising attention with mindfulness of breathing by paying continuous attention to the movements at the abdomen. The third aspect of focusing on the breath will involve attending to the vividness of sensations of the breath at the nose tip. Please note that if focusing on breathing causes any distress, then just focus on something on the periphery of your body or something outside your body, such as sights or sounds. Session 10B: This short presentation explains the features of the five Jhana factors. Jhanas are states of refined concentration. Though we may not yet have achieved these states, knowing about their factors helps in the development of concentration. The five jhana factors are initial application (vitakka), sustained application (vicara), joy (píti), happiness (sukha); and one-pointedness, unification of mind or absorption (ekaggata).

In the last module we began considering the Buddha’s Eightfold path, and we focused on intention, the second factor on the path. This module will focus on the first factor - right view. In direct relationship to right view, module 3 begins to consider the insight aspect of meditation. This is also called insight meditation. We will also explore the second establishment of mindfulness, related to feeling. Session 11: Presentation - insight meditation The aim of this session is further understanding about meditation, highlighting the features of insight meditation. This recording also clarifies the practice of the second establishment of mindfulness: feelings. Feeling are the hedonic qualities of pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. Being mindful of feelings can short circuit our tendencies to be caught in reactive psychological cycles. Mindfulness According to Ven. Anālayo, mindfulness can refer to: Soft Awake Presence The acronyn PEARL is also used: P - protective E - embodied A - attentive R - receptive and L - liberating Insight When we closely observe and track experience, we begin to understand it. This understanding is also called insight and it seems synonymous with right view, the first factor on the path. Satipatthana Vipassanna Vipassana means insight (seeing clearly or distinctly). It involves cultivating right view. Satipatthana vipassana literally refers to practicing the establishments of mindfulness for the development of insight. Insight meditation With insight meditation, one enquires into and investigates experience related to ourselves and the world around us. We begin to understand cause-effect relationships: what leads to what and how things change. The four truths. We begin to see and know experientially three characteristics of life: impermanence, dukkha, and not self. Three universal characteristics of existence (1) For the Buddha, “insight” emerges as an understanding of: 1. Impermanence (anicca) – the inescapable fact of change; implying 2. Unreliability (dukkha) - the fact that in the final resort, nothing can be relied upon; implying 3. Not-self (anattā) - the fact that there is no-one in charge, existing somehow separately from life as it is lived (credit to Patrick Kearney for this information) Three universal characteristics of existence (2) 1. Impermanence, change or transitoriness - e.g. all difficult thoughts, emotions, and situations do not last 2. Unreliability, ambiguity, or uncertainty (e.g. thoughts are not facts). 3. Interdependence, no-thing-ness, no self-ness, insubstantiality, contingency, or emptiness (e.g. you are not your emotions, “defusing” from thoughts). Four establishments of mindfulness 1. Body: bodily sensory and tangible experience 2. Feelings: qualities of pleasantness, unpleasantness, and/or neither (that which moves us) 3. Heart mind: states and our inner centre of subjectivity 4. Phenomena: objects of mind, interaction of mental-emotional processes, and phenomena in general; the events of our lives seen in the context of whether they move us towards suffering or freedom (Credit to Patrick Kearney) Feelings Feelings refer to the hedonic tones of experience as pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. These feelings arise when the mind comes into contact with an object. Feelings move us. We often seek out the pleasant, avoid the unpleasant, and may become ambivalent, stuck, or procrastinate about that which is neither. Features of feelings They arise in the body and in the mind. We can also distinguish them as worldly and unworldly. Worldly relates to those feelings that arise in relationship to the world that may influence craving, to push away or pull in and therefore, increase dukkha. Unworldly are those feelings related to moving along the path.

Session 12 involves guidance in a meditation directed at cultivating insight. You will be invited to be attentive to body, and wind element of breathing, then shift to tracking feelings, both bodily and mentally. Session 12b involves providing more understanding about insight meditation, as well as mindfulness insight meditation, which emphasises two other factors: investigation and energy. Investigation or enquiry can be discursive or not discursive. That is, we can literally ask ourselves what is happening and how it is happening. We can just develop enquiry as an attitude, or a perspective that is not verbal. With enquiry we generally avoid asking why, as this gives rise to too much speculation and assumption. Rather we we develop that curiosity of a scientist, looking at the data of experience in an objective, clear, and discerning manner, rather than being filtered by biases or projections. Right energy or effort Viriya is the Pali term for effort. It comes from the root "viro". One way this term is translated is heroic, because it takes courage to stop and look at ourselves. Right effort needs to be balanced. Not too much and not too little, not overexertion and not too lax.

This sessions begins with a reflection on what blocks our progress with life. Then, there is a presentation that clarifies the five hindrances to meditation (and life): obsessive sensual cravings, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and paralysing doubt, with a focus on sensual craving. It is also mentions urge surfing as a way to prevent being sucked in by unhelpful cravings. Analogies for the hindrances are as if one looks at one's reflection in a bowl of water and is not able to see the reflection clearly. In this respect: Obsessive sensual desire is like colored dye in the water. Ill will is like the water is boiling. Mental thickness and dullness is like algae is growing on the water. Restlessness is like the water shaken and ruffled by the breeze. Doubt is like the water is muddy and in the dark. Some ways we work with the hindrances include: Knowing them (being aware of them) Knowing how they arise Knowing how they cease Knowing how they may cease in the future Sensual desire is based on craving for worldly pleasures. It is seeking out pleasant feelings. It obscures consciousness, and is like dye in a bowl of water, providing a reflection and colouring our perceptions. In sensual desire, love is blind. We project our perceptions on to the object. It pulls us out of accurate perceptions and we become a slave to our desires. Antidotes to obsessive sensual desire when it is a hindrance are: - Reflecting on the true nature of what we crave for; impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty of substance (fantasy is better than the real thing) - Contemplating what is unattractive with the object - Being mindful and knowing this hindrance’s arising, how it arises, how it ceases, and how to prevent it arising in the future Joy is useful to counteract the hindrances. It is a light feeling of being uplifted. It is one of the factors of awakening. There are many possibilities to find joy in life. One way is the acknowledgment that the hindrances are at bay, albeit temporarily. 1. Being free from obsessive sensual desire (even temporarily) is like being debt-free. 2. Being free from ill will (even temporarily) is like overcoming a terrible illness or affliction. 3. Being free from mental thickness and dullness or sloth and torpor (even temporarily) is like being released from prison. 4. Being free from restlessness and worry/rumination/anxiety is like being freed from slavery. 5. Being free from doubt is like reaching a destination, with all our possessions unharmed after an arduous and dangerous journey.

This is a basic insight meditation involving mindfulness of feelings and some consideration of the five hindrances and surfing urges. The listener is invited to remain motionless, or still for at least a few minutes. Urge surfing refers to not acting on urges or impulses that perpetuate reactive cycles. Urge surfing includes: - Maintaining awareness and balance while experiencing the wave of desire to pull something towards oneself - Maintaining emotional balance with a wave of aversion, manifesting as an impulse to push something away or avoid - Staying balanced with poise and either riding an urge wave, or moving through it gracefully in some way or other - Not being dumped and drowned by the wave’s force Urge surfing practice: - Bring to mind something you often yearn for or crave. Focus on feelings as they arise and pass. Sit still without moving for at least 3 minutes. - Sit still and choose the action you will do. You have no choice but to choose. Surf the urge. - Know and understand painful feelings as painful feelings, pleasant feeling as pleasant feeling, and neither pleasant or painful feelings as they are.

Module 4: Thinking & The Choice To Engage Or Disengage A passage in a classic Buddhist text called the Dhammapada goes something like this: “We create the world with our mind”. This session is an introduction to the third foundation of mindfulness, heart-mind, which includes mental processes or thoughts. In this module we begin to address ways to understand and work with thinking processes. With mindfulness it is possible to be aware of the types of thoughts that are helpful and those that are unhelpful in our endeavour to discover psychological freedom. With that awareness, we are more able to to release the unhelpful and cultivate the helpful. Session 15: A Basic Insight Meditation Practice It begins by settling in the body with relaxation, then scanning for the hindrances to meditation. Being aware of the hindrances, we can put them at bay, then incline the mind to the development of insight. To repeat from a previous session, joy can arise from recognising even temporary freedom from the hindrances. 1. Being free from obsessive sensual desire (even temporarily) is like being debt-free. 2. Being free from ill will (even temporarily) is like overcoming a terrible illness or affliction. 3. Being free from mental thickness and dullness or sloth and torpor (even temporarily) is like being released from prison. 4. Being free from restlessness and worry/rumination/anxiety is like being freed from slavery. 5. Being free from doubt is like reaching a destination, with all our possessions unharmed after an arduous and dangerous journey. Session 15B: Noting and other tools and strategies with insight meditation This sub-session clarifies the understanding of primary and secondary objects in insight meditation. This sub-session also clarifies how to use the tool of noting, or labelling our experience with a word.

This presentation is about thinking and how sometimes our thinking processes can be at odds with the way things actually are. There is a discussion about how to view thoughts as mental events and not necessarily facts to be believed. By being able to track thoughts with mindfulness we are able to be free from unhelpful thoughts and nourish helpful ones. Contemplating citta or heart-mind is the third establishment of mindfulness. It includes remembering to be attentive to emotions, states of mind, and thought patterns. This domain includes awareness of specific mind states both wholesome and unwholesome, as well as states of mind related to refined states of concentration, boundlessness, and states of mind such as metta and awakening. When we practice this establishment, we: - Attend to the experiences of heart-mind. - Explore it with courageous energy. - See it from all angles (above, below, and within). - Track the experience, seeing along with it to develop understanding. - Are open, accepting and discerning - Choose the wholesome and let go of the unwholesome. Mental formations (thoughts) are mental creations. They create our worlds and drive our actions. They can sometimes be completely at odds with the way things are. Mental proliferation is called papañca in Pali. It is imagination gone wild and out of control. The thinking process proliferate, one thought leading to another until the whole process becomes at odds with what is really happening. Worry is an example of mental proliferation, so is rumination. Worry and rumination: Worry - thinking excessively about solutions to a problem where there may be a number of negative outcomes. Different from calm and purposeful problem solving. Rumination - one “chews over” an issue but does not think of any solutions. No resolution. One focuses repeatedly upon one’s distress and its circumstances. It is different from pondering, reflecting, or “processing” in that there is less control and more unhelpful outcomes. Tendencies with anxiety and depression: - Rumination, worry, and catastrophising - Negative and inaccurate views of self, world, and future - Inaccurate evaluation/ interpretation and prediction - Self is perceived as disconnected, hopeless, helpless, worthless, unsafe, or insecure. - Erroneous thoughts are believed as accurate representations of reality Mindfulness of thoughts: - Prevents relapse of depression because breaks automatic thinking habits - Can cut short proliferation and losing contact with the reality of a situation - Changes content of negative thoughts by changing relationship to thoughts - Relationship to thought changes by bringing attention to the nature of thoughts: impermanent, dukkha, and not-self. Thought are not facts. Strategies to work with unwanted thought: Step back. Disengage. See thoughts as they are. They are not self, they are changing. Let go of need to control thoughts. Let them be. Be content and curious with whatever thoughts arise. Sit back and watch the show. Investigate their nature. Give thought space.

This meditation invites the listener to be attentive to sounds, seeing the changing nature of sounds. The listener is then invited to shift the focus to thoughts and to see that thoughts also change.

This presentation provides ideas to being able to step back from being entangled in unhelpful thinking patterns. The presentation also provides some clarity about the hindrance of restlessness and worry. Restlessness: 'It has the characteristic of disquiet, like water whipped by the wind. Its function is unsteadiness, like a flag or banner whipped by the wind. It is manifested as turmoil, like ashes flung up by pelting with stones...’ (the Buddha according to the suttas). Worry (rumination): ‘It has subsequent regret as its characteristic. Its function is to sorrow about what has and what has not been done. It is manifested as remorse. Its proximate cause is what has and what has not been done. It should be regarded as slavery...' (the Buddha according to the suttas). Antidotes to restlessness and worry: - Impeccable ethics; not acting in ways that that will later cause remorse - Calming the mind e.g. mindfulness of breath as a serenity practice - Seeing with insight causes and ways to be free Session 18B: Presentation - Some Strategies To Manage Unwanted Thoughts This brief session mentions some strategies the Buddha suggested for working with unwanted thoughts. Working with thought: - “For the moment, what we attend to is reality.” (William James, 2012, p.322) - Wise attention: choosing what we attend to - Two approaches: serenity and insight Vitakkasanthana Sutta (MN 20) (The Removal of Distracting Thoughts) Five methods the Buddha suggested: 1. Replacing e.g. loving kindness for thoughts of anger   2. Reflecting on the dangers of the thought 3. Forgetting i.e. not giving it energy 4. Stilling the mind/ serenity, so it loses relevance 5. Clenching/ crushing mind with mind, or just saying no Choosing to attend - the serenity approach: - Focusing on and believing worry and ruminations will feed into them - Like a well-worn pathway, or a trickle becoming a steam - Pulling attention away and placing it somewhere else can create new pathways Seeing clearly with insight: With mindfulness we enquire into the nature of thoughts and see them clearly. They are impermanent, unreliable, and not self. We can engage or disengage.

This meditation is about stepping back from thoughts and letting them be. In letting them be, we don’t feed into them and they disentangle themselves and settle. Credit is given to the respected teacher, Dr B. Alan Wallace, for sharing the wonderful practice. Session 19B: Reference To & A Passage From The Buddha’s Bahiya Sutta This is a reading from one of the Buddha’s shorter suttas. The Buddha gives Bahiya the essence of the teachings. Here is a translation of parts of the Bahiya Sutta: "Herein, Bahiya, you should train yourself thus: 'In the seen will be merely what is seen; in the heard will be merely what is heard; in the sensed will be merely what is sensed; in the cognized will be merely what is cognized.' In this way you should train yourself, Bahiya. "When, Bahiya, for you in the seen is merely what is seen... in the cognized is merely what is cognized, then, Bahiya, you will not be 'with that.' When, Bahiya, you are not 'with that,' then, Bahiya, you will not be 'in that.' When, Bahiya, you are not 'in that,' then, Bahiya, you will be neither here nor beyond nor in between the two. Just this is the end of suffering."

This module is about reducing the suffering of emotions that are painful and problematic. During this module we will explore what an emotion is and their evolutionary derived function. We will also consider more about the third foundation of mindfulness and how to use mindfulness to cultivate wholesome emotions and tame destructive ones. The takehome message from this module is that states of heart-mind, which include emotions, have a natural function and purpose. The way we relate to and utilize emotions, however, becomes crucial in whether emotions lead to happiness, well-being, calm, and insight or are destructive. It is possible to reinforce destructive emotions and it is also possible to cultivate and develop healing emotions. The focus of this session is about being able to let go of destructive and painful emotions and latter sessions will focus on how to cultivate healing emotions. Mindfulness of heart-mind is one way that we can gain some peace and freedom with destructive states of heart-mind. In this module we will also consider the hindrance of ill will and how we can overcome what is sometimes considered as an affliction. Session 20: Meditation - Grounding In The Present: This session entails a meditation based on being present with experience extending awareness to include states of mind, moods, and emotions. It will begin by setting an intention of goodwill, then reviewing the mind for hindrances, then celebrating in joy of freedom from the hindrances, albeit temporary, then using wind element in the abdomen as a default focus to open awareness to whatever is arising in the body and mind. It is using noting to keep focused and present.

During this session we will consider some contemporary perspectives on emotions including the differences between constructive and destructive emotions. We will also explore three emotional systems that aid in humans surviving, thriving, and connecting. The word emotion originates from the Latin "emovere", which means to disturb. The first part of the word, "e", means “out”, and “movere” translates as “to move”. When we need to function effectively in a demanding world, emotions efficiently move us to action. Balanced emotions save live. They motivate behaviour and are essential to formation of relationships. They are aroused in response to satisfaction or thwarting of basic needs, and they communicate these needs. Constructive emotional behavior: - Emotions in the right amount, proportional to the event that called them forth - Expressed at the right time - Expressed in the right way, appropriate to the emotional trigger and the circumstances and in a way that does no harm - Furthers – cooperation/ collaboration/ understanding between you and the other person Destructive emotions: At times emotions may not serve a positive function or may be destructive. When emotions become excessive, deficient, or dysfunctional, they can move us to act unskillfully with dire consequences. Destructive emotions can be distressing and lead to more suffering. It is possible to allow destructive emotions to extinguish - that is, by not reinforcing them, they can be tamed and sometimes fade away. How emotions can sometimes get us into trouble: - We feel and show the right emotion but at the wrong intensity (e.g. over-reacting) or for an inappropriate duration. - We feel the appropriate emotion, but express it in a hurtful way (e.g. passive-aggressive). - An inappropriate emotion is triggered, we feel the wrong (inappropriate) emotion. - We are unaware of our emotional experience and the way we express it. - Nearly all emotions can be expressed in constructive or destructive ways. Cultivating the helpful and letting go of the unhelpful: - It is possible to cultivate and reinforce constructive and helpful emotions, moods, and states of mind. - It is also possible to decondition, release, let go of, and not reinforce destructive and unhelpful emotions, moods, and states of mind. We can balance the emotional system by being mindful, getting to know emotions, understanding them with insight and making choices, increasing and cultivating calm, as well as other wholesome states of mind such as gratitude, peace, joy, loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.

This session introduces the acronym: RAIN (Recognise, Accept, Investigate, and Non-identify). Another way of understanding the N of RAIN is as Nurture. The listener is guided through this exercise by bringing to mind a mildly distressing experience.

This recording further explores the constructive and destructive aspects of emotions and ways to work with them. Some ways include naming the emotion, honoring them, noticing our urges, seeing them as emotional waves that come and go, and bringing an attitude of kindness to your emotions. Then, it highlights the third foundation of mindfulness as one way to reduce the suffering of painful and destructive emotions. Working with painful emotions: Label them. Let them be. Surf reactive urges. Avoid fuelling their story. Shift attention to a different perspective e.g. the felt sense of emotion. Note their presence. Step back. Get unstuck. Experience them as waves. Don’t suppress, don’t deny. Embrace the emotion. Be willing to allow them to be. Bring kindness and compassion to the experience. Remember that you are not your emotions. Emotions are acts, not the actors. Do not get hijacked by emotions. (Goleman) Step back, but without dissociation. Don’t get caught up in thoughts. Be aware before suppression. See emotions from a perspective of “knowing” or “awareness”. Alter your perspective: Be like a solid mountain in a storm. Be like the depth of a still lake. See the emotion like a visitor to your home. Understand the totality of the experience. Be with the spaciousness of your mind, rather than identifying with the distress. Contemplating (mindfulness of) heart-mind: - Turning attention to current experience of the heart-mind and exploring it with courageous energy - Seeing it from all angles (above, below and within) - Being open, accepting, and willing to let it be and let it change - Track the changes. Session 23B: Meditation - Mindfulness of heart-mind This recording is a guided meditation demonstrating some ways of practicing the third establishment of mindfulness. It invites the listener to track with mindfulness the changes in states of mind including moods and emotions, seeing that they need not be taken personally and that they are simply events that move through our bodies and our consciousness.

During this session we will explore the second hindrance to meditation and life: ill will or aversion. We look at how it manifests and how we can overcome it. From the Suttas: "Just as, brahmin, if there is a pot of water heated over a fire, bubbling and boiling, and a man with good sight should consider his own facial image in it, he could not recognize nor see it as it really is. So too when someone abides with their mind pervaded by ill-will, overcome with ill-will ... " (Thiradhammo, 2014, p. 87) Ill will: Ill will includes unconstructive and unfounded criticism, condemnation, and negative judgements towards others and self, as well as other kinds of hatred and avoidance. It narrows and limits perceptions. It is painful, divisive, and isolating. Ill will includes all kinds of thought related to wanting to reject: feelings of hostility, resentment, hatred, and bitterness. Sadly, often depression is an expression of ill will directed towards oneself. Antidotes to ill will: 1. Loving kindness - the cultivation of warm openness and acceptance or benevolence to beings and experience (especially with anger). 2. Mindfulness - the courage to look into, face up to what we are avoiding, investigate and see clearly (especially with anxiety) 3. Compassion - the cultivation of self-compassion and befriending self (especially for depression)

During this session the listener is invited to firstly reflect on something mildly unpleasant. Then, guidance is provided to a MSC (Mindful Self-Compassion) procedure that utilises mindfulness, as well as compassion to cope with painful emotions. The formulae is name, feel, soften, soothe, and allow. (Credit to Chris Germer and Kristin Neff for developing this procedure) Name, Feel, Soften, Soothe, and Allow (MSC): - Name the emotion - Feel it in your body - Soften - relax into the experience and let go of resistance - Soothe - bring kindness and gentleness to the experience e.g. words and soothing touch - Allow - bring openness and peace to the experience. Let go of struggle (also give yourself support touch, such as hands over the heart) Session 25B: This brief appendix to session 25, explains the soothing component of the strategy explored with Name, Feel, Soften, Soothe, and Allow.

Module 6 continues to look at how we work with painful emotions. Its focus, however, is on how we cultivate wholesome and positive states of mind to counter the negative. We also discuss happiness and other states of well-being and how they can be cultivated using serenity meditation. The hindrance highlighted in this module is sloth and torpor, or mental thickness and dullness. This session involves a metta or warm benevolence meditation. Technically, metta is a serenity meditation practice. It involves developing samadhi where the object of our composed and collected attention is warm benevolence. We begin this practice by rousing the quality of benevolence. We rouse metta with thoughts or imagination or recollection about it or whatever works. Once we have roused this quality, we let go of thinking about it and become absorbed into it. As we become absorbed into this experience we may notice it becomes boundless, both in the sense of being no barriers between self and other and also in terms of spaciousness. Session 26B: This brief appendix session to the previous meditation on metta provides some information about this practice including its benefits. There is much we can say about metta and the three other boundless divine abodes: compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. However, just a few comments will follow. Metta or loving kindness is the direct antidote to ill will, therefore it creates much more ease with our practice. Loving-kindness is a remedy for fear, hate, paranoia, and loneliness. It can promote health, beauty, restful sleep, pleasant dreams, concentration, interpersonal harmony, and greatly undermines the obstacles of ill will and self-loathing. It is a divine abode and enhances concentration.

This session will focus on how we can cultivate joy, happiness, contentment, and equanimity with Samadhi. It will revise some information mentioned about dependent arising and how we can use focusing on one wholesome state of mind to give rise to a more refined state of mind. Serenity gives muscle to insight. When I was monk the in the forests of Thailand, the instructions where to develop a still and quiet mind, then enquire. It is helpful to remember that samadhi and the pleasant experiences they engender is not the endpoint. It is wisdom that is liberating. Nonetheless, serenity provides very pleasant and sometime blissful support, on the path to awakening. Cutlivating the good: It is possible to decondition, release, let go of, and not reinforce destructive and unhelpful emotions, moods, and states of mind. It is also possible to cultivate and reinforce constructive and helpful emotions, moods, and states of mind. States of mind that will naturally counter the negative impact of the hindrances and the destructive. Not only is joy good to experience, it is also useful. Joy is a light feeling of being uplifted. It is one of the factors of awakening. There are many possibilities to find joy in life. As we discovered in the last module, one way to bring about joy is the acknowledgment that the hindrances are at bay, albeit temporarily. Another way is to have ethical integrity and be generous. Joy can also arise from a concentrated mind. Neuroplasticity: "Use it or lose it"- the natural process of culling neurons and allowing neural pathways to fade away. "Neurons that fire together wire together"- practice makes new neural pathways possible. Factors of neuro-development: Duration - how many times and how long Intensity - engaging the senses Novelty -salience - how it is relevant to you Interest – rewarding and if it is pleasurable Gladness -spiritual pleasure: Concentration has a proximate cause: happiness. Happiness has a proximate cause: tranquility. Tranquility has proximate cause: rapture. Rapture has a proximate cause: gladness. (SN 12.23) (in Shankman. The Experience of Samadhi p. 41). Gladness arises when the hindrances are absent. Gladness is a form of spiritual pleasure. Don’t be afraid of pleasure. Attention: When our attention, gathers around an object, it becomes pleasurable. If we have spiritual pleasure and we focus on it, it can give rise to joy. When we focus on the joy, it gives rise to a more subtle happiness. When we focus on happiness, a more refined feeling of contentment can arise. When we focus on contentment, a deep sense of peace with equanimity can arise.

In this session you will be invited to practice a serenity meditation where you will be invited to first focus at the experience of breathing in your nostrils, then become aware of pleasure, joy, happiness, contentment, and peace.

This session is about HEAL, which is an acronym refering to "Having Enriching Absorbing and Linking" as a way of healing. The acronym HEAL and this formulation is credited to Rick Hanson. It is a practice that strengthens awareness of the positive and eventually links it to the negative, so that the latter fades away. HEAL: H - Having or imagining or remembering a positive experience E - Enriching it with words, feelings, reminders, images, and imagination A - Absorbing into it, like relaxing, sinking, and marinating into the experience L - Link or Learn; linking it with a negative experience (only when the time is right) H - Having a positive experience: Acknowledge what’s good right now or in recent past, in your conditions, your own character, the experience you have had, or imagination. Recognize the good qualities, facts, or contributions of another and your relationship to them. Realizethe good feelings in your body right now. E - Enrich (increasing neuroplasticity): Duration - coming back to it, keeping it nourished with your attention Intensity - paying attention to the nuances, so they become strong Multimodal - open up to senses Novelty - curiosity; fresh “beginner's mind” Salience - how it is relevant to you Notice what is pleasant, joyous, relieving, relaxing, satisfying, and peaceful about the experience. A - Absorb: Notice the pleasantness, contentment, satisfaction, and how safe it feels. Relaxing and focusing and naturally sinking into the experience Marinating in the experience Remembering your intentions Put aside everything else and absorb into the experience. L- Link: Linking a negative experience with the strong positive mind state, so that the negative just dissolves. The negative is reframed with a new perspective. Reciprocal inhibition (the positive outweighs the negative). There is no room for the negative. The good, positive, healing, uplifting, and wholesome becomes central in the way things are. Note: Only when the time is right HEA-Link: Linking positive associations to negative experiences enables change and reconsolidation of memories and a general deconditioning, so that the negative is decreased and replaced by the positive.

This meditation involves guidance in applying the HEAL acronym. As mentioned in the last session, HEAL refers to Having a positive experience, Enriching it, Absorbing into it, and Linking it with a negative experience in order to transform the latter. Please note that linking a positive experience to a negative one should only occur when the time is right for you. Most often we just stay with the HEA of our positive experience, so that it becomes strong. Often the linking happens naturally and organically at a later time.

This recording is about the hindrance of sloth and torpor: what it is, what causes it, and how we can work with to reduce its obstructive influence. Sloth and torpor, or mental thickness and dullness, manifests as: - Lethargy and drowsiness - Being energetically flat. At mental, physical and spiritual levels, you experience no energy, like running out of fuel - Mental dullness - Paralysis due to lack of urgency, and loss of vigour; no driving power - Unwieldiness - Nodding and sleep Sloth and torpor's function is to smother. They're seductive and deceptive, because it can be pleasant. Possible causes: - Physical health issues - Lack of exercise or healthy diet - Lack of motivation or incentive - Sleep deprivation. Once we stop we go to sleep. - Overexertion physically and or mentally - Discontent and resistance; a subtle avoidance - Disappointment and discouragement - Lack of inspiration or interest How to work with it: Be mindful. Get enough good rest and sleep. Rouse energy with movement, investigation, getting interested in something; brighten up the environment/ turn the lights on. Make the resolve to investigate the hindrance and life. Awaken the factors of mindfulness, investigation (interest), energy (effort), and rapture (joy) Brighten up one's mind and life. Visualize light and brightness.

During this module we will briefly consider the four noble truths in another way. You will be invited to explore the fourth establishment of mindfulness: phenomena or Dharmas. In reference to the fourth establishment, one important subdomain, the seven factors of awakening, will be highlighted. The session 32 recording invites the listener to an open awareness or open presence meditation.

This brief presentation discusses the Buddha’s first discourse to five ascetics about the four noble truths. He explained these truths as if in a sequence where understanding the first truth of un-satisfactoriness eventually leads to psychological freedom. It explains how suffering can be transformed to wisdom and freedom, like a beautiful lotus growing out of the slimy mud at the bottom of a pond. The turning of the wheel of Dharma: In the first discourse, the Buddha spoke of the middle way as being a path of no extremes, neither indulging in the senses nor one of self-mortification. During the first discourse, the Buddha expounded the four truths. He stated that craving was the root cause of dukkha. The truths as tasks: According to the Buddha, the first truth, dukkha, is to be understood. The second truth, the origins of dukkha is to be abandoned. In regards to the third truth, that of liberation, it is to be realised. Finally, the fourth truth, the Eightfold Path ‘leading to the cessation of suffering”, is to be developed. Understanding the four truths gives us strength to tolerate the diificult experiences of life and wakes us up to the realities of life. The four truths explains how suffering can be transformed to wisdom and freedom. The lotus plant is often a symbol of Buddhism because its beautiful flower is something that grew from the slime, sludge, and smelly mud at the bottom of a pond. No mud, no lotus (Thich Nhat Hahn): A lotus growing out of the mud provides a wonderful analogy for life’s difficulties, because when approached skilfully, dukkha can provide the stimulus for the growth of wisdom. Without mud, there is no lotus. Session 33B: This experiential exercise invites the listener to reflect on the value of lessons learnt from difficult experiences.

This session outlines the fourth establishment of mindfulness, phenomena. Then, it focuses on one subdomain, which relates to the seven factors of awakening: mindfulness, investigation, effort, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. The fourth establishment, Dharmas: A dharma can refer to an experience of something. It can also refer to nature and to the overall context of experience. How can we find meaning in life? How can we “read” our experience? Understanding comes through an appreciation of context. Seeing the broad patterns in experience, we can understand how our lives can transform (credit to Patrick Kearney, 2011). The fourth establishment has five subdomains: 1. Phenomena that block well-being (five hindrances). 2. Phenomena that aid well-being (seven factors of awakening). 3 and 4. Phenomena from which we construct an identity within a world, based on cognition (five aggregates) and affect (six sense fields). 5. The four truths - seeing which indicates “awakening" itself (credit to Patrick Kearney, 2011). Contemplating (mindfulness of) phenomena: - Noticing the interactions, what triggers what - How do thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviours interact? - When this is, how that is Contemplating phenomena - hindrances and awakening factors: - Like working with schema, we develop understanding the arising and passing; also understanding the possible causative and maintaining factors (of the hindrances, as well as the factors of awakening) - Knowing how to respond in a way that abandons the unhelpful and cultivates the helpful. The seven factors of awakening: 1. Mindfulness 2. Investigation of phenomena or enquiry and interest 3. Energy 4. Rapture or joy 5. Tranquillity (relaxed body and calm mind) 6. Unification (samādhi) 7. Equanimity Cultivating the factors: Mindfulness gives rise to investigation, discernment, and interest. Investigation gives rise to sustained effort. Energy gives rise to joy. Joy calms body and mind. Tranquillity of body and mind give rise to unification. All the previous nourish equanimity, which in turn nourishes all the others (credit to Patrick Kearney, 2011). The 7 factors as balancing - energising and calming: Mindfulness is always balanced. If, however, one’s practice is a bit sluggish (not sloth and torpor), we can energize it with investigation, energy, and joy. If one’s practice is a bit excited or too energized, we can calm it with tranquility, concentration, and equanimity.

This session first invites the listener to review the state of their mind to be aware of the hindrances. After realising some freedom from the hindrances, you will then be invited to launch into a sequence of using the seven factors of awakening. It describes and guides in how the seven factors build on each other to arrive at the peace of equanimity.

This session is about the fifth hindrance to meditation: paralysing doubt. It describes this hindrance as chronic procrastination and uncertainty. Like a person at the fork of a road not knowing which way to go, the hindrance paralyses us, so that we do not progress anywhere. The antidotes include contemplating dependant arising and developing confidence and trust. Paralysing doubt includes: - Self-doubt, confusion, worry, and indecision - Chronic uncertainty and procrastination/ being perplexed - Skeptical about the teaching, so much so that it paralyses - Doubt about the teachings/ does not give rise to energy, perseverance, or right effort It is related to delusion (moha) and ignorance (avijja). Possible causes of doubt as a hindrance: Many things can trigger doubt. However, inappropriate attention compounds it. Self-doubt is fueled by high self-criticism, negative self-judgments, and self-disparagement. Attending to things clouded with views and misperception can fuel unhelpful doubt. Mental proliferation can influence misperception. Ways of working with doubt: - Contemplating dependent arising (the way things arise, change and pass away) - When this is, that is; because this arises, that arises. When this is not, that is not; because this ceases, that ceases. (The Buddha) - Understanding, with direct experience, interdependence and cause-effect relationships - Do not believe based on hearsay, the Internet, or by mere reasoning. - Develop confidence, trust, and faith based on direct experience.

During this meditation session, you will be invited to rest in awareness, viewing life arise and pass away. You will notice the connections between causes and conditions.

This is the final module of this online course. During this module we will consider what progress may mean and how to maintain any gains that may have been made by attending this course. We will also discuss equanimity or peace and how we can cultivate it. We finish this module and the course with a meditation reflecting on our efforts and cultivating appreciative joy. The session 38 recording involves a meditation that touches on each of the four establishments of mindfulness: body, feelings, heart-mind, and phenomena. It is in part a combination of many of the meditations learnt in previous sessions.

This session involves an explanation of what equanimity is and how we can cultivate it. Equanimity refers to a balanced state of mind that is unshaken by the ups and downs of life. One way we cultivate this powerful state of mind is with mindfulness. We can also cultivate it via reflections on the nature of human endeavors and cause-effect relationships. This balanced state can also be cultivated as a divine abode where it is essentially a serenity meditation. Equanimity is a quality of being centred, stable, emotionally balanced, and unshaken in the midst of the vicissitudes of life. Other words for equanimity include peacefulness, impartial responsiveness, calm, still, stable, unshaken, evenhanded, serene, impartial, equipoise. A Pali term for equanimity is "upekkha". One translation for upekkha is “to look over”. Another is “to see with patience”. We might understand this as “seeing with understanding”. A second Pali term sometimes use for equanimity is "tatramajjhattata". This terms means “to stand in the middle of all this” or “being in the middle”. It refers to balance, to remaining centered in the middle of whatever is happening. Other terms that may represent equanimity: - Wisdom - Committed purpose - Inner stability - Resilience - Strength - Sense of being centred - Emotional flexibity, like bamboo in the wind Equanimity is stable and balanced in the midst of the eight worldly winds. The eight worldly winds are four pairs of opposite circumstances that blow us around and within which we inevitably become entangled. They are: - Praise and blame - Gain and loss - Pleasure and pain - Fame and disrepute (social acceptance and social rejection) Equanimity arises as the result of living with ethical integrity. It also grows as a result of insight, seeing the way things, are as well as serenity practice. Being a feature of the third and fourth jhana - calm and unshaken, it is also the result of a deeply concentrated, quiet, and still mind. It is the culmination of the previous six factors of awakening. It is a wisdom and a quality. It is also a divine abode, where is it is experienced as boundless. The far enemies (opposites) of equanimity as a divine abode are: - Being emotionally overreactive to changing life events - Feeling responsible for other peoples’ actions - Taking things personally - Having poor relationship boundaries - the push-pull of attraction and aversion - Compulsiveness The near enemies (false representations) of equanimity are: - Disinterested indifference - Emotional dissociation or flatness - Distant impartiality - Too many boundaries, cut off - Aloof superiority

This meditation invites the listener to contemplate the peacefulness of equanimity. Then, the listener is invited to let go of thoughts about this quality and notice their heart's response. One allows equanimity as if to drop from one's head and emerge in one's heart. From the heart, the listener is then invited to let this quality of peacefulness radiate boundlessly.

This session provides some ways to consider what progress may be. It provides some ideas about freedom from stress, anxiety, and depression. It also provides some information about the stages of awakening. There is also discussion about lapses and relapses on the path to freedom. You will be invited to consider: What is progress? How do we measure it? What has changed for you? Has wisdom grown and matured? What will you remember from this course?

This recording is a simple meditation on appreciation and gratitude for oneself and others. It focuses on the ways we can cultivate and abide with joy. Finally, we will conclude the cause with a traditional Buddhist practice called “dedication of the merits”. There are many ways to experience joy. These ways include practicing generosity, being with grandchildren, doing good deeds, being kind, concentration; and simply appreciating life, the world, others, and/ or ourselves. Joy is a necessary aspect of waking up. It gives us the resources to have the courage to look at and understand dukkha, the first noble truth. Mudita is boundless appreciative joy. One way we can stimulate appreciative joy is by thinking of something one appreciates and focusing on the heart’s response. Then, let it grow and radiate in all directions. Thank you for your attention and may you be happy, peaceful, and free. 