Observing: A Midsummer Retreat – A talk by Madelon Bolling, (July 9, 2017)
To be clear and tranquil about the end of “me” I need to be clear and tranquil about what “me” is, and in general there is a lot of confusion on this point. We often hear teachers say, “you are not what you think you are.” But then what? The mind says, “Oh yeah, yeah—all beings without exception have Buddha nature, I’ve heard. Whatever that means—it’s sort of beyond what I can get.” And it pulls attention back into cloud-identified dreaming. Read full talk.
Going to Abandoned Grassy Places – Introduction to long walking meditation (July 8, 2017)
The purpose of going to abandoned grassy places
and doing zazen is to search for our self-nature.
Now, at such a moment, where is your self-nature?
Read the full introduction to long walking meditation.
Purify – Already Pure, A Talk by Leland Shields (July 8, 2017)
From the relative perspective, nothing is pure. Looking closely enough, one can always find impurity. There is no point in holding back from an open and full recognition of the fact. From the absolute perspective, nothing is or can be anything but pure – as it is – no matter how closely one looks. All of us lose this perspective some of the time – it is easy to let our ideas of self, other, and the world slip between us and color what is. To expect to maintain clarity all the time is another way to ask purity of ourselves. Read full talk.
For a description of the In-City Retreat and its format, click here.