The morning of the fourth day of our rains retreat saw us diving into the ‘dangerous neighbourhood’ of our minds where the kleshas (poisons) hang out. With Vajradevi as a fearless guide, we explored both aversion and craving. With a skilful use of personal examples, she helped us venture into the territory with the companionship of mindfulness, helping us to distinguish the ‘knowing mind’ from the ‘known mind’.

Our afternoon session was devoted to exploring two very different approaches to samadhi - the more familiar ‘one-pointed’ samadhi and the momentary/‘broad’ samadhi (the khanika samadhi described in the Visuddhimagga). We later practised ‘back and forth’ walking meditation, like the monks and nuns of old, and concluded with just sitting.

In the evening Naravira reflected upon and then led us in a classic sevenfold puja. This included Avalokitesvara, Padmasambhava and concluding mantras and a reading from Dilgo Khyentse on the intrinsic nature of mind.

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Working Mindfully with Craving and Aversion

Spiritual Faculty of Sama Samadhi

Classic Sevenfold Puja Introduced and Led by Naravira

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