Meditative Inquiry

Socrates said that "the unexamined life is not worth living". About the same time, the Buddha started teaching a way towards Socrates examined life, attained through the practice of meditative inquiry.

Meditative inquiry is the practice of dropping a question in the mind in such a way that it causes the mind to distance itself from conditioned thinking, making space for our own innate wisdom to arise.

As the Buddha said, "there are wise questions that help free the mind from suffering — and unwise questions that keep us mired in confusion."

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Vipassana The Practice Of Insight

Vipassana is usually interpreted as the practice of the development of "Insight" by applying awareness and understanding of what precisely is happening as it happens. "Concentration" or "calm abiding" can be translated as Samatha. It is a state in which the mind is brought to rest, centred on one thing only so as not the wandered away and remain focused to achieve single-pointedness. A profound relaxation pervades the body and mind when single-pointedness is finally achieved, described as a state of calm that must be witnessed to be appreciated. The meditator uses this focus as an instrument in Vipassana meditation . He directly applies this concentration to his consciousness, through which he chips away at the delusion wall that cuts him off from the living light of reality. Vipassana involves a progressive development of knowledge into the mind's inner workings over several years. The student's interest is carefully drawn to an intensive an

Compassion Sees Through All Suffering

Constance Kassor, a scholar and teacher of Buddhist philosophy, comments, "If you are genuinely able to have compassion toward all sentient beings without exception, then this means that you are also able to recognize the suffering of all sentient beings all the time." This statement directly highlights the profound connection between compassion and the recognition of suffering in her statement. According to Kassor, if an individual possesses the remarkable capacity to genuinely extend compassion to all sentient beings without any exceptions, it implies an inherent ability to perceive the suffering experienced by all sentient beings incessantly. This perspective emphasizes the deep interdependence and interconnectedness of all beings, suggesting that a compassionate heart is not selective in its concern but extends boundless empathy to all. By acknowledging and embracing the suffering of every sentient being, one can cultivate a compassionate mindset that transcends boundar

Sound and Stillness In Our Practice

We could say that we are immersed in a world of sounds. If you pay attention, almost every minute of your waking life is filled with some form of sound: most prominently the ambient sounds in our natural environment, including music and radio, conversations and messages, and the cacophony of thoughts in your own head. Considering all of this, we have to ask ourselves: How frequently do you get genuine moments of silence in our everyday life? If we reflect, it seems that we have the inclination for filling moments of silence or stillness with noise and distraction and all other activities in between. What is the reason for this? Why do we have this inclination towards filling up moments of silence with some type of activity? Because it seems that silence makes us feel uneasy, and since silence makes us feel uncomfortable, we will automatically try to fill it up. Why? In moments of silence or stillness, we return to ourselves, which is not always an easy thing to do to stay with ours

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