As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
Sitting in a field of fifty to eighty people really starts my mind sparking. Since I don't prepare my talks ahead of time, I find myself listening to what I'm saying along with everyone else. This leaves a lot of room for the Dhamma to come up. Just having eighty people listening to me is enough to engage me, stimulate me, and create a nice flow of energy. The actual process of teaching evokes ideas that even I did not realize were being held somewhere in my mind.
Different teaching situations offer their own unique value. In retreat, you are able to build a cohesive and comprehensive body of the teachings. When people are not on retreat and come for one session, it opens a different window. They are more spontaneous and I'm given the chance to contact them in ways that are closer to their "daily-life mind." This brings up surprises and interesting opportunities for me to learn even more.
I'm continually struck by how important it is to establish a foundation of morality, commitment, and a sense of personal values for the Vipassana teachings to rest upon. Personal values have to be more than ideas. They have to actually work for us, to be genuinely felt in our lives. We can't bluff our way into insight. The investigative path is an intimate experience that empowers our individuality in a way that is not egocentric. Vipassana encourages transpersonal individuality rather than ego enhancement. It allow for a spacious authenticity to replace a defended personality.
Citta is occluded by not knowing its freedom. Citta enters the sensory condition, is ‘born’, develops a person to meet ‘the other’. Here is dukkha and personal responses to that don’t work, but dukkha can be released through citta in the body.
Balance is an important aspect of bodily/somatic intelligence. It is alert, free from pressure and sensitive. Attuning to this can bring these qualities into citta.
Use of one’s voice and of giving it to the sacred. Through merging one’s voice and giving into the communal field, citta can rise out of the isolation of personhood.
Find ground in the body as a gift, not worked for. This opens space around the body. Breathing is another given that flows through that, establishing rhythm = natural time.
Citta is awareness, heart and mind. It experiences involuntary and voluntary modes. In the involuntary is release, but the path to that is through intention, disengagement, and discernment.
