Category: impermanence – anicca

daily life, death and dying, dukkha, impermanence - anicca, Insight Meditation Society, retreat, Ten Parami, Uncategorized

December 2017 super moon – impermanence, vastness, and intimacy

Impermanence This month’s full moon post is a little late, because just this morning, I finished co-teaching the last six weeks of the three-month retreat at IMS in Barre, Massachusetts. The ending of any period of intensive meditation practice is poignant, but even more so when it’s been a longer retreat.  As this retreat was drawing to a close, I started to felt even less … Continue reading December 2017 super moon – impermanence, vastness, and intimacy

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7 equanimity, anxiety, community, daily life, equanimity - upekkha, Equanimity - upekkha, fear, impermanence - anicca, motivation, racism, sangha, Uncategorized

November 2016 full moon – Turmoil

almost super-moon, Newcastle Beach NSW Australia 13 November 2016 Turning towards and turning away Whether it’s global political upheaval, worsening social injustice, natural disasters, personal stress, emotional pain, relational crises, or health challenges, we seem to be in a phase of intense turmoil right now. Many of the communities around the world that I care about are struggling in relation to recent political developments in … Continue reading November 2016 full moon – Turmoil

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death, death and dying, impermanence - anicca, Uncategorized

January 2016 full moon – Impermanence

This full moon post is a bit late again, partly because I’ve been on the move, travelling and teaching, and partly because a friend of mine is actively dying now.  Even though I’m not physically with her, the gravitational pull of death seems to dissolve any words that come into my mind, and I can find nothing to write that seems to be of any … Continue reading January 2016 full moon – Impermanence

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anatta or not-self, dukkha or unsatisfactoriness, impermanence - anicca, Three universal characteristics, Uncategorized

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 “universal characteristics” recognised by the Buddha as being inherent in all … Continue reading July 2015 full moon 2 (blue moon) – anatta or not-self

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anatta or not-self, community, daily life, dukkha or unsatisfactoriness, freedom, impermanence - anicca, racism, Three universal characteristics

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 the highest freedom, the freedom of heart and mind that is … Continue reading July 2015 full moon – dukkha

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death, impermanence - anicca

June 2015 full moon – impermanence

Deeply understanding the truth of impermanence – including death – is central to the Buddha’s teachings, but for those of us living in contemporary western society, this can seem a very alien and alienating concept.  It’s more the norm to avoid anything to do with death and dying for as long as possible, until at some point, it inevitably confronts us. Early on in my … Continue reading June 2015 full moon – impermanence

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