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INSIGHT NEWSLETTER PAID Insight Meditation Society Permit No.2 1230 Pleasant St INSIGHT NEWSLETTER FALL WINTER 2006/2007 IMS Schedules: Practicing with Vedana: The Retreat Center 2007 The Forest Refuge 2007 The 2nd Foundation of Mindfulness An Interview with Christina Feldman Teacher Interview In 1971, Christina Feldman began Buddhist meditation practice in northern India. She was 17 at the time, and had left her native Canada to travel and explore new IMS News horizons. Since then she has played a key role in bringing the Buddha’s teachings and Developments to the West, offering retreats at IMS and co-founding Gaia House in Devon, England. Married with two adult children, she introduced the Family Retreat at IMS in 1982, and the Women’s Retreat in 1984 – both popular mainstays of BCBS 2006/2007 our annual course calendar. Course Schedule Outline Christina, what are the On his journey towards enlightenment, Buddha’s ‘Four Foundations we know that these ascetic practices of Mindfulness’? didn’t work; they did not bring about the freedom from suffering that he First, it’s helpful to describe the historical sought. One of the turning points of context of the Buddha’s teachings. his awakening was the understanding Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha - that the very aspects of life he was came from a society rooted in the belief trying to overcome actually held the that life was an obstacle to overcome. key to liberation. He then turned The body, the mind and human rela- towards his body, his mind, his tionships were all to be transcended. feelings and towards everything So, once he started his spiritual search, that arose in his consciousness, it was natural for him to become an seeing them as the ground for his ascetic – he left his family and spent awakening. He understood that years subduing, starving and abusing insight and freedom are not separate his body. from the life we live. (continued on page 2) THE NEWSLETTER OF THE INSIGHT MEDITATION SOCIETY LIBBY VIGEON (continued from page 1) This was the beginning of the tone we have is analogous to that fun- core teachings he termed the Four damental set, before the show starts. Foundations of Mindfulness: the contemplation of the body, the What happens, however, is that we are contemplation of vedana (or feeling), overtaken by underlying tendencies. the contemplation of the mind and the If we have a pleasant experience, we contemplation of what leads to freedom of course want to keep it going; we want and what obstructs freedom. These more of it. And suddenly we’re off - teachings form the basis of insight the curtain is raised and the play has meditation practice. begun! We lose sight of the vital truth that all things change. We undermine What is contemplation of our capacity to find balance, to be with vedana? the full spectrum of vedana in our life. Vedana is the Pali word for what is Similarly, with unpleasant vedana, usually translated as ‘feeling’ – it is the underlying tendencies of aversion, Christina Feldman essential feeling tone that comes with resistance, hatred or fear arise. When all experience. The Buddha further there’s an unpleasant body sensation, categorized this into pleasant, unpleasant an unpleasant thought or an unpleasant or neutral. For example, the laughter interaction with someone, we see how of a child may register as pleasant, quickly contraction and judgment come fingernails running down a chalkboard in. Once again, we lose balance. as unpleasant and the sound of the rain INSIGHT on our window as neutral. With the third feeling tone of neutrality, NEWSLETTER the underlying tendency is delusion. A twice-yearly publication of the Insight Vedana is something quite different We believe there’s something missing Meditation Society, a tax-exempt nonprofit from what we understand in the or incomplete. We tell ourselves that organization whose mission is to provide a spiritual refuge for all who seek freedom from West as ‘emotion’ or ‘our feelings’. something is boring or unworthy of our the suffering of mind and heart. IMS offers In Buddhist teachings, emotion is a attention. Often, because of this sense meditation retreats rooted in the Theravada far more complex construction that of incompleteness, the neutral vedana Buddhist teachings of ethics, concentration includes not only feeling tones, but becomes a springboard for craving – and wisdom. These practices help develop awareness and compassion, giving rise to also thoughts, the body and the whole we want something more exciting or greater peace and happiness in the world. world of associations. more interesting to happen. Editor: Gyano Gibson Production: Ahna Fender & Éowyn Ahlstrom How is awareness of vedana Vedana informs so many of our Cover Photo: Libby Vigeon helpful in our meditation moment-to-moment choices, decisions IMS Buddha Photos: Dawn Close & practice? and actions. It is such a powerful force Libby Vigeon Design: Lux Productions – we move toward the pleasant, avoid The basic feeling tone of pleasant, the unpleasant and simply disconnect Please address correspondence to: unpleasant or neutral regarding any or phase out the neutral. To experience IMS, 1230 Pleasant St. experience is not a problem in itself – true freedom, we need to understand Barre, MA 01005, USA Phone: (978) 355-4378 it is simply how it is. It is rather like our habits of craving, aversion and Email: [email protected] a stage set for a theater production – disconnection. And to do this, we have Website: www.dharma.org there could be props to convey a terribly to become a little more attuned to the Printed in Canada on 100% recycled sad scene, or something very dramatic, essential climate of feeling that is paper using soy-based inks or something exhilarating. The feeling present in all experience. Page 2 www.dharma.org Fall • Winter 2006/2007 How can we pay more we simply paid attention. We discover to the concept of ‘nothing is happening’. attention to the neutral state? that our attention awakens the world, If we dig a little deeper, we find that of in a very real way. It illuminates that course life is happening. We need to be We generally pay attention to the neu- which is there. We discover that this willing to be present in those moments tral state with great reluctance! We are quality of attentiveness doesn’t have an that are eventless. We can cultivate much more inclined towards experience agenda to maintain something pleasant tremendous sensitivity in investigating that is pleasant or unpleasant because it or get rid of something unpleasant. It is what is really occurring in boredom. offers excitement, drama, fascination rooted instead in interest and curiosity. and a sense of identity. If we meet some- It is sensitive and alive, and can give Most of what we encounter is discon- body we haven’t seen in a while, and us exactly what we spend so much nection. The places of separation in our they ask, “How are you?” mostly we time seeking in vain through intensity. life are the places we learn to connect. tell them all the dramatic occurrences That sense of aliveness abides within On the cushion or off the cushion, we in our life. We rarely say, “Oh, nothing our own hearts and is borne of the can be profoundly curious about all happened”, because it would make us attentiveness we nurture. those little moments when we say to appear uninteresting and worthless ourselves, “It’s not enough. Nothing is – nobody would want to know us. The nature of attention itself is actually happening. I’m not getting anywhere. pleasant. Understanding this can bring It’s boring.” We need to acknowledge The pleasant and unpleasant appear about a profound shift in our practice. this is simply a state of mind overlaying as events in our life; we tend to define As intensity addicts, we tend to believe an experience that is not characterized ourselves, inwardly and outwardly, that our aliveness is dependent on by intensity or events. If we can take in relationship to them: “I’m happy”, drama, on events, on experience. When away the aversion that overlays the “I’m sad”, “I’m angry”, or “I’m in love”. we’re bereft of those, we feel somehow neutral we discover that the neutral is These are all places where the sense of deflated. If we can learn to step back actually very close to peace and ease. ‘I’ can find form and meaning. from this, we will see that the vitality It’s a real doorway to resting in the we long for is not delivered by events eventless. The neutral, on the other hand, is a but rather by our capacity for connect- fascinating area for practice. It is very hard edness and presence in the world. This After decades of teaching, to make a project out of being neutral - the insight allows us to form a relationship what continues to inspire you? extremes of excitement or aversion aren’t to life that is rooted in compassion and encountered. It is much more difficult to generosity. We no longer expect life and As I teach, I am continually inspired construct a sense of self within the neutral the external world to deliver to us our by seeing so many new meditators - there is no benefit for ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘mine’. sense of meaning, of identity, of excite- throughout the world coming into this ment. We are loosened from the bonds ancient practice and finding themselves If we really pay attention to our lives, of dependency and grasping, and can and their lives transformed by it. I have we find so much that initially seems find ease and rest in our own aware- the good fortune to visit cultures where quite neutral.
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