Lama Surya Das explores the secrets of mindfulness practice, teasing out the nuances of our practice so that we may guide ourselves better.
Show Notes
What is Mindfulness Anyway? (Opening) – Lama Surya Das takes an in-depth look at secrets and nuances of mindfulness practice which can be useful to both experienced practitioners and those new to the practice. He reminds us that there is more to mindfulness than just being present or watching the breath.
“For us who feel compelled to take the spiritual journey and practice Dharma, mindfulness is the active ingredient. Awareness is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, but what is mindfulness?”
Remindfulness (9:25) – In the original Pali language the word for mindfulness, sati, refers to remembering. Surya Das examines the wisdom available to us when we become absolutely aware of what we are doing as we do it.
“Sati refers to remembering, the recollecting of what you are doing while you are doing it, that is the essence of mindfulness. There is a feeling of recollecting the scattered energy and then using it to see deeper, to be more present and yo understand universal laws.”
Methods of Mindfulness (15:10) – Surya Das explores the two kinds of mindfulness taught by the Buddha, as well as several of derivations that have arisen over the centuries.
“You see here how we have subject-object interaction? This is original Buddhist thinking. All of these have a subject, the meditator, a meditation object and interaction. These are the three wheels of karma, the bumper cars of samsara where we experience all the accidents of dukkha.”
The Six Dran Pa (27:05) – We look at the six kinds of recollections of the path known in Tibetian Buddhism as dran pa.
Surya Das further explores these six forms of mindfulness in Ep. 41 of the Awakening Now Podcast.
Questions About the Path (37:00) – Surya Das takes questions from the live audience about choiceless awareness, techniques for practice and the secularization of Buddhist practices.
