Is awakening a sudden experience, or is it a gradual process. Do you wake up with a radical explosion into seeing the non-dual nature of reality? Or do you come to “unity consciousness” through a series of smaller steps of insight until gradually you are living a life of non-duality? In this Dharma Bite meditation teacher Patrick Cassidy speaks about “Integrating The Non-Dual Perspective.”
What does it mean to be “Awake”? There is a common assumption that once a person “awakens” they are somehow, forever and always in an elevated state of spiritual perfection. However, the fact is that awakening is an evolving process. One where you will move through stages that oscillate between wakefulness and forgetfulness. Between egoic identification, and the end of all identity. In this Dharma Bite, psychiatrist and meditation teacher Dr. Dominique Cassidy explains this process as “The Wisdom Of Oscillations.”
Spiritual traditions have always taken as their goal the liberating experience of awakening to absolute reality. This experience may be called emptiness, oneness, non-self, non-dual, unity consciousness, unconditional love, or God. Whatever the name may be, the experience is always one of wholeness and perfection. Nothing needs to be added, and nothing can be taken away. Because when you glimpse through a window into the absolute… everything is always, already, present.
What does it mean to have a “balanced mind”, and how can mindfulness meditation help to cultivate it? Mindfulness-based meditation practice has very positive effects on the mind that are experienced as temporary states. A long term committed practice will transform these temporary, positive states into permanent traits… into new a way of being. Buddhism lists these beneficial qualities as “The 7 Factors Of Awakening”, with the culmination in that list of “equanimity”, an exquisitely balanced mind. In the below interview excerpt Vipassana meditation teacher Sayadaw Vivekananda speaks about how “mindfulness cultivates equanimity”.
Awakening is the goal of meditation. But like the old quip says “when it comes to awakening you can’t get there from here.” Therein lies the rub. If a non-dual realization if your goal then “doing a practice” implies that there is somewhere to develop, something to achieve… an obvious duality (or maybe not so obvious). Of course, meditation is a practice leading to awakening, but it is still just the finger that points to the moon of awakening. Join Dr. Dominique Cassidy and I as we explore this paradox of non-duality in our discussion of meditation and why you can’t get there from here.
What does it mean to be responsible? Ultimately, completely, and radically responsible? Does one need to have a radically responsible life in order to have a radically meaningful life? These are the questions I explored with Dharma teacher Fleet Maull Roshi, whose new book “Radical Responsibility” is launching May 14th, 2019.
Day Retreat | Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group
Wake Up, Grow Up, & Show Up – A Meditation Day Retreat w/ Miles Kessler
In this retreat you will work on three aspects of Dharma practice: awakening to deeper meditative states, transforming temporary states into permanent traits, and how to have an impact in the world as a student of the Dharma. This daylong retreat will be a combination of sitting practice, dyadic inquiry, the “Big Mind” process, and some Aikido-based embodiment practice.
| Date: | May 27, 2019 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 10:00-4:30 |
| Event: | Day Retreat | “Wake Up, Grow Up, & Show Up” | with Miles Kessler |
| Topic: | Wake Up, Grow Up, & Show Up – A Meditation Day Retreat w/ Miles Kessler |
| Venue: | Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group |
| Location: | Sacramento, California |
“Dharma & The Evolution Of Conflict” Tele-Summit, Free Online Global Event, March 20 – 24, 2019. Come together with Ken Wilber, Diane Musho Hamilton, Terry Patten, Wendy Palmer, Steve McIntosh, Keith Witt, Ginny Whitelaw, Greg Thomas, Fr. David McCallum (and many more) as we explore the practice and application of “Dharma & The Evolution Of Conflict”!
What does it mean to “embody conflict resolution”? In the below “Darma Bite” I continue the series of Dharma Discussions with Integral Facilitator & Zen Sensei Diane Musho Hamilton. In this excerpt from our discussion, we talk about conflict resolution in the field of mediation as compared to Aikido, and how they are in essence the same thing. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this short excerpt on “Embodying Conflict Resolution”.
