Emaciated Buddha figure, Spirit Rock The ascetic Buddha Back at the end of July, I was an assistant teacher on a nine-day retreat at Spirit Rock, together with a friend and fellow teacher-trainee, DaRa Williams. One day, as we walked from the teacher housing to the meditation hall, I happened to notice a solitary BuddhaContinue reading “September 2016 full moon – wisdom and (self) compassion”
Category Archives: dukkha or unsatisfactoriness
July 2015 full moon 2 (blue moon) – anatta or not-self
‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ ‘There is nothing in the experience of the cosmos that fits the bill of being eternal, unchanging, or that deserves to be clung to as “me” or “mine.’ In last month’s post, I wrote about dukkha, the second of the three “universalContinue reading “July 2015 full moon 2 (blue moon) – anatta or not-self”
July 2015 full moon – dukkha
In last month’s full moon post, I wrote about impermanence. Impermanence or anicca is one of the three “universal characteristics” recognised by the Buddha as being inherent in all experience; the other two being dukkha (usually translated as “suffering,” but more accurately, unsatisfactoriness), and anatta, or not-self. Deeply understanding these three characteristics leads to theContinue reading “July 2015 full moon – dukkha”
Jill Shepherd: insight meditation 