Morality, etc.

Okay. An expected result of my most recent intensive practicing (about 10 months now) is an awareness of how I behave,especially towards myself.
The vipassana practice both on and off the cushion has really shown me all (okay, not ALL just yet) the ways I think and act that cause suffering. These thoughts and actions, clearly, effect the quality and the progress of my practice.
I didn't ask for this, I was looking at one thing and saw another.
And, now, I'm really finding value in the more touchy feeling therapuetic-style vipassana podcasts such as Tara Brach. Such talks are really helpful in finding ways to live more peacefully.

I support you, Mike. Now is a very good time to learn how to be a person. I want to learn, too. Is there any particular Tara Brach podcast you recommend?

Kenneth

"I support you, Mike. Now is a very good time to learn how to be a person. I want to learn, too. Is there any particular Tara Brach podcast you recommend?

Kenneth"

I'm curious about the phrasing "how to be a person" rather than how to live more peacefully, etc. It's like you are saying that you aren't a "person" until you learn certain skills. Am I missing something or is it just innocent cleverness I may be reading too much into?
Tara has a website which contains her weekly talks over the past several years. I'd recommend going on and just picking and choosing by subject because they are all pretty good. The latest one is very nice so far.

www.tarabrach.com/

Just pick "free audio talks" and browse.

She has several recurring themes that I am just starting to get a sense of. One is "coming home," which means to return to an awareness of the body in the present moment as a way to get out of the "trance" (another theme). Also she is always quick to remind listeners to not beat themselves up, etc. and is very good at reminding us to be gentle with ourselves. She learned to teach under Kornfield and you can really see his infuence: gentle, rolling cadence and an ability to come up with just the right funny or touching story or anecdote to illustrate her point.

I also enjoy listening to Ed Brown and Steven Weintraub of SFZC, mostly because their talks make me laugh. Look here for them:
www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=1,10&pageid=440

Other SFSZ speakers don't really appeal to me as much, but I need to try a few more.

Also, of course, there is this place with endless amounts of talks:

www.dharmaseed.org/teachers/ which maybe you should get your talks onto.

"touchy feeling therapuetic-style"

Who knows? You might like this: www.soundstrue.com/podcast/?p=1027

I found it really helpful at the same time I was also reading tara brach. For me the "touchy feely" theme seems to come up when I'm blaming myself too much for the situation I find myself in. We all have to emerge from where we come from.

Thanks for the tip Mike. I know that no matter what having a solid base in morality really eases the day along... does that mean I always do everything as well as I could... of course not... but thanks for bringing up this topic... I will check out some of those talks

"She has several recurring themes that I am just starting to get a sense of. One is "coming home," which means to return to an awareness of the body in the present moment as a way to get out of the "trance" (another theme). Also she is always quick to remind listeners to not beat themselves up, etc."

Just to like to share with you guys a similar approach to practice from Sayadaw Tejaniya of Burma. It is not the same as Tara Brach but it has helped me immensely.

I'll keep it short to the point but how I found about this monk is shown below.

His approach is to work with your attitude, to check your attitude when meditating and throughout the day in a systematic fashion and to genuinely relax when practicing. More information can be found at - sayadawutejaniya.org/teachings/ also some of his talks can be downloaded at www.audiodharma.org/talks/SayadawUTejaniya.html

He has a decent book called 'Don't look down on the defilements '“ they will laugh at you'

The description of right attitude is given as 'Right attitude allows you to accept, acknowledge, and observe whatever is happening '“ whether pleasant or unpleasant '“ in a relaxed and alert way. You have to accept and watch both good and bad experiences. Every experience, whether good or bad, gives you a learning opportunity to notice whether the mind accepts things the way they are, or whether it likes, dislikes, reacts, or judges.'

About relaxing, so far I have learnt that he does not like to use the words meditation, concentration and focus when teaching. This is because many ppl (me in particular) go in with the attitude that something is going to occur when practicing and when it doesn't the reaction is to put more effort focus harder when this shouldn't be the approach. He prefers to use words like observe, watch, pay attention etc etc.

Basically his approach is to work with attitude and defilements when doing insight practice. A short summary of questions that he made for his students is shown as below:


What is the Right Attitude for Meditation?

1. Meditating is acknowledging and observing whatever happens
'”whether pleasant or unpleasant'”in a relaxed way.

2. Meditating is watching and waiting patiently with awareness and
understanding. Meditation is NOT trying to experience something
you have read or heard about.

3. Just pay attention to the present moment.
Don't get lost in thoughts about the past.
Don't get carried away by thoughts about the future.

4. When meditating, both the mind and the body should be
comfortable.

5. If the mind and the body are getting tired,
something is wrong with the way you are practising, and
it is time to check the way you are meditating.

6. Why do you focus so hard when you meditate?
Do you want something?
Do you want something to happen?
Do you want something to stop happening?
Check to see if one of these attitudes is present.

7. The meditating mind should be relaxed and at peace.
You cannot practise when the mind is tense.

8. Don't focus too hard, don't control.
Neither force nor restrict yourself.

9. Don't try to create anything,
and don't reject what is happening.
Just be aware.

10. Trying to create something is greed.
Rejecting what is happening is aversion.
Not knowing if something is happening or has stopped
happening is delusion.

11. Only to the extent that the observing mind has no greed, aversion
or anxiety are you truly meditating.

12. Don't have any expectations,
don't want anything,
don't be anxious, because
if these attitudes are in your mind,
it becomes difficult to meditate.

13. You are not trying to make things turn out the way you want them
to happen.
You are trying to know what is happening as it is.

14. What is the mind doing?
Thinking? Being aware?

15. Where is the mind now?
Inside? Outside?

16. Is the watching or observing mind properly aware
or only superficially aware?

17. Don't practise with a mind that wants something or wants
something to happen. The result will only be that you tire yourself
out.

18. You have to accept and watch both good and bad experiences.
You want only good experiences?
You don't want even the tiniest unpleasant experience?
Is that reasonable?
Is this the way of the Dhamma!

19. You have to double check to see what attitude you are meditating
with.
A light and free mind enables you to meditate well.
Do you have the right attitude?

20. Don't feel disturbed by the thinking mind.
You are not practising to prevent thinking;
but rather to recognize and acknowledge thinking whenever it
arises.
21. Don't reject any object that comes to your attention.
Get to know the defilements that arise in relation to the object and
keep examining the defilements.

22. The object of attention is not really important; the observing mind
that is working in the background to be aware is of real importance.
If the observing is done with the right attitude, any object is the
right object.

23. Only when there is faith or confidence (saddhā), effort will arise.
Only when there is effort (viriya), mindfulness will become
continuous.
Only when mindfulness (sati) is continuous, stability of mind will
become established.
Only when stability of mind is established (samādhi), you will start
understanding things as they are.
When you start understanding things as they are (paññā), faith will
grow stronger.

I started off the post digressing when I initially wrote it, so I have cut it and put it below.

As a beginner (still) this approach to practice has seamlessly combined with the noting practice that I am doing at the moment. Let me give a little bit of background how I came to this monk's teachings. I went to a western insight group's dhamma talk last week. It was kind of a ok but slightly boring talk about right intention or wise intention (as a part of a series about the 8-fold-path). This monk's name cropped up he uses intention or "attitude" as a fundamental approach to practice which is quite different to the normal mode of teaching vipssana in the Burmese Mahasi tradition. The speaker mentioned that Sayadaw Tenjaniya was a lay man who had many problems and a serious alcoholism issue. From time to time he would go to the monastery to sort out his issues. Finally things culminated for him in that his wife left him and he had come to some sense of a crisis. At this point it seems he earnestly began practicing and also worked on his defilements to beat alcoholism and eventually became the abbot of a monastery and is apparently very well respected now for his teachings. When I heard this my ears were pricked. I went and googled Venerable Tejaniya (not knowing how it was even spelt) and was not expecting any accesible teachings from a monk I had never heard of previously.

Anyway, his teachings have helped me a lot. Maybe it will be beneficial for others too.

Apologies for the long posts.

Thanks Putthajana, all that is really helpful. Seems to be something I needed to hear.

Yes, thanks for that. For more along the same lines, check out Shinzen Young's notes on equanimity.

www.shinzen.org/shinsub3/artEquanimity.pdf

In my experience, equanimity interacts with concentration. It is easier to be equanimous when you are concentrated, and easier to be concentrated when equanimous. I chronically have trouble with equanimity, so starting my sessions by just allowing myself to become absorbed in the sensations of current experience is often useful to help establish equanimity. Perhaps the same trick works in everyday life as well.

I've recently come across this practice by psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin called "focusing." It seems right up the alley of this thread. The technique seems like a cousin of vipassana, adapted so that its aim is to work on the bodily/psychological level rather than the fundamental level. As near as I can tell the practice is essentially to establish equanimity, note/label bodily sensations, and then inquire into the source of those bodily sensations. But special emphasis is placed on finding bodily sensations that correspond to a "felt sense" or implicit understanding of some psychological situation, rather than just any kind of sensation; special emphasis is placed on finding the label for this felt sense that seems "just right", rather than using an arbitrary or good-enough label; and special emphasis is placed on allowing answers to inquiries into the felt sense to arise from the felt sense itself, rather than from the thinking mind. The idea is that by exploring psychological situations on the level of "felt sense" in this way, one comes to change that felt sense and thus dislodge problems that might be resistant to other kinds of strategies, like exhortation or analysis.