Cathy Small is an author and retired professor of anthropology. who has been practicing vipassana meditation for more than twenty-five years. She has completed numerous extended meditation retreats focusing on awareness, loving kindness and concentration. Since 2010, she has co-taught this six-week course in Insight Meditation every semester for community members and faculty and staff at Northern Arizona University, and has also offered a mindfulness course for inmates at the Coconino County jail. She is a regular teacher at the Flagstaff Insight Meditation Community.
How was your day? We conventionally answer this question based on the "worldly feelings" that arose. This talk contrasts our worldly feelings with unworldly feelings, a distinction which Buddha invited his followers to notice, and explores how we can work with unworldly feelings in our practice to find a deeper level of happiness.
What can Buddhism offer us in these difficult and divided political times about how to relate to others? The talk explores the intricacies of the “Acrobat” sutta which advises how mindfulness can protect others and how loving kindness can protect ourselves, applying the teaching to issues including COVID and 2020 election politics.
As we awaken, our complete enchantment with the “stuff of life” (both external events and internal narratives) becomes less prominent and compelling. and the knowing becomes more predominant. This talk explores this topic of dis-disenchantment--breaking the spell of what we think is our lives.
When we align our lives to seek pleasantness and avoid unpleasantness, we often miss the path to real happiness. In this talk, we explore why this is so, and the spiritual adjustments we can make in our lives to find a higher joy than getting our preferences.
