I'm going to talk about, and we'll meditate on, compassion tonight. Compassion is one of the qualities that is so rare for humans to have… true compassion for ourselves, for our own pain… true compassion for others, including not just our loved ones. There are certain people who are easier to have compassion for than others, but the practice is to actually have compassion for all living beings.

We just, we just did completed a 10 week series on the Buddha's teachings on mindfulness and the four foundations of mindfulness. We took two and a half months to go through that. I wanted to shift from the mindfulness based meditation instructions to heart practices. Practices around developing kindness and compassion and forgiveness and appreciation, generosity. So I think I'll spend the next few weeks doing meditations on that. I thought I'd start tonight with the kind of umbrella term of...

We're at the final section of the teachings on mindfulness that I've been discussing over the last couple months. This section is about mindfulness of the Four Noble Truths. Turning our awareness towards our experience of suffering, the cause of suffering, those times where we're not suffering, the cessation, the end. Those moments throughout our lives where there's no suffering and the goal of living more and more into a life where we're not suffering about what's happening. And the...

Mindfulness is the seventh aspect of the Buddha's eightfold path. The eight Aspects of practice that will lead to freedom from suffering. Alleviating the unnecessary levels of suffering that we experience. There are four foundations of mindfulness.

The section tonight is mindfulness of the six sense doors, mindfulness of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling bodily sensations, and mindfulness of thoughts of the mind.

The topic for tonight's aspect of the mindfulness teaching is the five aggregates or five Sconda. The five aggregates, probably the best translation, it's the five aspects of our experience that we tend to be identified with as self. The aggregates, sometimes this term sconda or aggregate, is also like a heap.

Tonight's topic is the Buddha's teachings on how to train the mind to see clearly and to to free ourselves from suffering. We're on the fourth section tonight, which I think I'm going to spend three or four weeks on this fourth section, mindfulness of the Dhammas. Dhamma translates as Dharma, as what's true. But it starts with the five hindrances. So tonight we're going to meditate, discuss and look at the text on the mindfulness of the five hindrances.

Tonight's topic is the third foundation, which is the mind, our brains, how to bring mindfulness to what your brain is doing, what kind of thoughts are arising, what kind of attitude the mind has. Whether the mind is experiencing wisdom or ignorance. For many people it's one of the things that really sets Buddhist meditation apart and mindfulness apart from a lot of other meditations.

So for a topic tonight: your relationship to pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. Just thinking about these three feeling tones. Maybe there's somebody here who you know, joining us tonight, who feels like actually pleasance is quite hard to tolerate…

Tonight I'm going to do a little bit on this mindfulness of the body, becoming mindful of the four elements in the body and then we're going to do a meditation. It's called a charnel ground meditation or a corpse meditation, where we reflect on the impermanent nature of the body. Then we'll have some discussion about death. What’s your relationship like with death? When’s the last time you experienced death? How do you relate to the fact that your body is only going to live so long?

Tonight I'm going to continue what I started last week and probably will do the next few weeks. It's the Satipatthana, the four foundations of mindfulness the way they chant it, as they practice it in the monastery.

Tonight I'm going to start what will turn into several weeks series on mindfulness, the seventh factor of the Eightfold Path and the primary meditation technique that the Buddha taught and encouraged for freeing ourselves. Freeing ourselves from the causes of suffering. Mindfulness, present time inquiring with an attitude of friendliness or kindness, meta loving kindness attitude.

I’ve gotten some sh*t for saying this in the past, but I haven't learned. Some of Martin Luther King's views and politics, I believe, are inspired by Buddhism. One time I gave a Dharma talk that MLK was a Buddhist, and then I got a whole bunch of sh*t about it, because he was very much a Christian. But a lot of his politics in civil rights and in fighting ignorance and oppression were influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent approach to creating change.

I'm going to talk a bit about the Buddha's first noble truth, that the beginning of the path to freedom starts by acknowledging and turning towards becoming fully aware and breaking any shred of denial that we might have about our suffering, about the dukkha, about the sorrow, the grief, the sadness, the loneliness, the afflictive emotions that we experience as humans. As well as all of the loss and the sadness and difficulty, the difficult situation that we're all born into.

I feel like the core of what I'm going to talk about tonight is Sangha, it's community and the importance of drawing near and sustaining connections with Sangha. With people who are wise, or at least trying, attempting to be wise and have the intention to be wise.

What comes up for you around the holidays? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you bring your practice into it?

Tonight I'm going to talk about the reality of the suffering in the world and the suffering of existence. Why life is not easy and pleasant and why people aren't wise and compassionate.

The topic tonight is about love and loving ourselves. A core part of what the Dharma is teaching us is to love ourselves and each other.

Tonight I'm going to talk about maladaptive strategies. It's that strategy that's like, well, it feels really good when I do it, but I know it's creating negative karma for me because I'm lying or stealing or cheating. I love lying and stealing and cheating. It feels so good. But I know that in the long run, it's an unhealthy behavior. In the long run, it destroys my f*****g life.

I'm going to talk about how Buddhism, the Buddhist teachings and this path that we call the middle path, is meant to be practiced in every aspect of our life. Our mindful awareness, intention to be kind, sexuality, our relationships, our relationship to money, our relationship to work, responsibility, our relationship to the world, politics, all the intention is that we bring this practice and these wisdom perspectives to every single aspect of our life.

I don't really have a topic topic tonight. I'm just going to do a Q and A. I'm not going to do a full Dharma talk, but we’ll be reflecting on what you understand of Buddhism so far. Maybe some people are pretty new to Buddhism, but reflecting on what you do know of Buddhism. Is there anything that you know about Buddhism that doesn't quite fit or that you kind of have questions about? Like, the common one is, “is reincarnation really true?”

I'm gonna to focus on the Buddhist teaching on non attachment, letting go. The teaching of accepting the impermanent nature of all things and trying to see how much suffering we create for ourselves when we cling or get attached. Also, the antidotes to the suffering that is based in attachment is letting go or letting things be impermanent rather than trying to create permanent structures out of that which is constantly changing. What is something you’d like to let go of?

So tonight the topic for exploration, meditation, and, discussion is death. We talk a lot about impermanence and the Buddha had a lot of teachings about death. So we're gonna talk about death tonight, our relationship to death and the importance of having a relationship with the reality of these temporary nests of our lives and of the lives of everyone that we know and care about. The reality on this planet that we don't last all that long. What is this body? How do you feel about dying? Do...

Tonight I'm gonna talk a lot about suffering, the first noble truth. We're gonna do a Tibetan meditation tonight called Tonglen. We’ll breathe in the suffering and breathe out compassion. Developing an attitude of friendliness and care, warmth and mercy, compassion towards pain. Our pain and each other's pain and the pain/suffering in the world. What are you suffering about today?

The Buddha says “in order to really have loving kindness, we have to free ourselves from ill will. Let none despise any being in any state”. So this is a instruction… Just for a moment reflecting on how many people you actually despise. That's maybe not the way you think about it, but think of the people you judge, that you resent, that you wouldn't mind if they didn't exist… What does this topic of forgiveness bring up for you?