This nine-day retreat provides an opportunity to strengthen both the wisdom and the compassion wings of awakening. It explores a variety of different practices taken from the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, alongside the four brahmavihara heart practices of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
Talks and guided meditations from the whole retreat here: Dharma Seed
2019-08-02 01 opening talk and practice: generosity 33:37
Retreat opening talk, focusing on dana or generosity as the foundation of our practice, followed by a guided meditation working together in pairs, exploring our experience of generosity as a support for being on retreat.
2019-08-03 06 talk: refuges and precepts, and ethical conduct as an expression of generosity 27:52
Ethical conduct as an aspect of dana, generosity: the gift of fearlessness. Reviewing the five training precepts and how they can be refined from simply refraining from unethical conduct, to cultivating positive conduct.
2019-08-04 10 talk: the two wings of awakening, wisdom and compassion 45:49
Emphasising the need for balance in our meditation practice, with an overview of all four brahmavihara practices: kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity
2019-08-05 13 talk: befriending the mind 48:50
An exploration of ways that we commonly struggle with our mental activity, how wisdom and compassion can help release the struggle through practising with the Third Establishment of Mindfulness, Mindfulness of the Mind, and understanding the three characteristics of anicca-dukkha-anatta
2019-08-06 18 talk: five hindrances 47:13
An overview of the five hindrances to clear seeing, with a focus on the first one, desire for sense pleasures
2019-08-07 23 talk: five hindrances part 2 – aversion, and compassion as antidote 51:13
Exploring the hindrance of aversion or ill will, and how compassion is both a protection and an antidote
2019-08-08 28 talk: seven factors of awakening 45:56
An overview of the Seven Factors of Awakening, including what is meant by Awakening or Nibbana
2019-08-09 33 talk: the five aggregates subject to clinging 52:01
An overview of anatta or not-self and the five clinging-aggregates: physical form, feeling-tone, perception, volitional formations and consciousness, and how – when there’s no mindfulness – these are used to construct a fixed and solid sense of self, which creates suffering.
Jill Shepherd: insight meditation 