Cathy Small if a Professor of Anthropology and author, who has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1999. She has participated in more than a dozen extended meditation retreats in Nepal and the U.S., focusing on awareness and concentration. Cathy co-teaches a six-week course in mindfulness every semester for faculty and staff at Northern Arizona University, and offers a mindfulness course for prisoners at the Coconino County jail.
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.
