I began formal Zen practice in 1993, in a tiny rural monastery in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico known as Bodhi Mandala (now Bodhi Manda — hippie era mistranslation finally corrected after 30-some years). They gave me a cot in a rickety old ex-Catholic dormitory, a black robe in two pieces called kimono and hakama that I had […]
Reflections on/of the Heart Sūtra Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181113-satsang-unrighteous-rulers-weather-disruption-fires.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreThe worst fire ever in California history in terms of death toll (the “Camp Fire”) just burned down the entire town of Paradise, outside of Chico. And the president, as usual, said unfactual, unhelpful, unkind things (like that if people had just raked leaves more, like they do in Finland, this wouldn’t have happened). Wow. In so
Wildfires, Unrighteous Rulers Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181106-satsang-hopelessness-election-samsara.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreWe gather in a small group on election night 2018, before the results came in for the midterms that would initially look meh but roll slowly into a nice blue wave, with a few big disappointments (Gillum, Abrams, O’Rourke) and some big delights, particularly the wave of women and POC who just retook the House for the
Election Night, Hopelessness, Saṃsāra Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181030-satsang-metta-is-a-prayer-for-world-peace.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreA few days after the Pittsburgh Synagogue bombing by an anti-semitic white nationalist, we practice and discuss the radical communal prayer called mettā (Loving-kindness, benevolence, friendliness). How radiating mettā to All Beings, including the difficult ones, is the same as praying for world peace. Meditation: Breath, whole body, and radiating mettā to all beings (10.30.18) Talk: Mettā
Mettā is a Prayer for World Peace Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181023-satsang-toward-an-enraged-buddhism-2.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreContinuing from Part 1, I talk here more about the value of anger, and differentiating types of strong aversive emotion. Anger, rage, critique, and tone. What’s skillful or unskillful for individual or communal liberation? Self-protective nervous system responses, tone-policing, who gets to decide who speaks and how, and how a classical Buddhist approach might not actually be
Toward an Enraged Buddhism, Part 2 Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181016-meditation-stillness-state-wise-effort.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreOne way to think about mindfulness and effort in meditation practice is to imagine a graph where the X axis is volition (doing things on purpose), and the Y axis is consciousness, or being aware of what’s happening. Here’s a talk on this model, some pictures, and a handout to put on the fridge. Meditation: stillness of
4 Modes of Attention Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181009-satsang-rage-anger-injustice.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreReevaluating anger and rage on a week where writing about rage, and especially women’s rage at injustice, is hitting threshold in my community. A simple promo post for this talk initiated a lovely, spread out conversation with folks on FB, including Rebecca Solnit, who has written eloquently (as always) on this. There’s a bunch of good links
Toward an Enraged Buddhism, Part 1 Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20181002-meditation-sounds-listening.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreLike so many folks, I was troubled by the Senate hearings on Brett Kavanaugh’s fitness for the Supreme Court. Besides the disgusting display of male privilege and delusion the entire thing displayed, AND the heartbreakingly familiar ritual of powerful men completely dismissing a woman’s fully respectable testimony, there was the lying, plain and simple. And of course
Reflections on Right Speech After the Kavanaugh Hearings Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180911-meditation-center-body-relax-center-mind.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreTwo talks on the complex current discourse known as “positionality”, which basically means that the social roles and conditioned state we experience the world through determine how and what we can perceive and know. I propose that the practice of inquiry into positionality is both a foundation for the insight into the emptiness of the sense of
Positionality is Ancestral Karma Read More »
https://seanfeitoakes.com/talks/20180615-meditation-posture.m4aSubscribe: RSS | MoreA series of talks on “Mindfulness,” the great universal self-improvement practice. Ok, not quite. But mindfulness is awesome. Just not in the way the magazines want you to think. We’ll start with the basics of Buddhist Mindfulness. What it is and may not be, how we can discern its presence or absence as an embodied state, why it’s
Mindfulness and its Discontents Read More »
May the forces of delusion
not take hold, nor
weaken my resolve.
(Sharing of Merit)