INSIGHT NEWSLETTER FALL WINTER Your Life is Your Practice: 2008/2009 Liberation in Every Moment An Interview with Narayan & Michael Liebenson Grady IMS Schedules: The Retreat Center 2009 Narayan and Michael Liebenson Grady have been involved with IMS for more than The Forest Refuge 2009 thirty years. Michael sat the first Three-Month Retreat held at the center, and in 1978 Interviews with Teachers spent time as the organization’s bookkeeper. He and Narayan met at IMS. Over the decades they have practiced and studied with a broad range of Asian and Western IMS News & Developments teachers. Narayan first began teaching in 1985, and currently serves on the IMS BCBS Schedule: Board as a guiding teacher. Michael has been offering the Buddha’s teachings since Listing for 2009 1991. Both are guiding teachers at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, a thriving urban meditation community serving the greater Boston area. Narayan and Michael, both of you Michael: Many of us believe that teach a course each summer at IMS’s awakening can only happen under Retreat Center titled “Your Life is Your certain conditions. We often think of Practice.” What is the significance of meditation and spiritual growth as this statement? taking place only in contemplative environments and on the cushion. Narayan: First, we have found that But this attitude limits our understanding certain attitudes of mind can greatly of spiritual practice, and separates it enhance our spiritual practice. “Your from the rest of our lives. So many life is your practice” is one such aspects of life then remain unexplored, approach. From this perspective, we and this leads to doubt in ourselves and understand that whatever conditions in the practice. we find ourselves in, if we are attentive to our reactions and responses, learning Narayan: Actually, opportunities for can occur. If we can train our minds to practice and insight frequently arise in do this with regularity, the meditative ordinary, everyday situations. If we can path of awakening unfolds of its see that life – as it unfolds in the present own accord. moment – provides all the necessary (continued on page 2) THE NEWSLETTER OF THE INSIGHT MEDITATION SOCIETY more open and the eyes are soft, the mind tends to connect to the present moment with increasing ease. We’ve found that this particular practice supports the letting go of powerful and unconscious habits of mind. We can disentangle ourselves more rapidly from those thoughts, feelings and sensations that consistently propel us into the next moment. We can settle Michael and Narayan Liebenson Grady into the here and now without always (continued from page 1) attaching to some agenda of what material to awaken, we can then Narayan: Attitude alone, though, is not should or shouldn’t be happening. appreciate the importance of being enough. We also need to train ourselves We are then in a better position to mindful in any situation in which we to be attentive in a sustained and make wise and compassionate decisions. may find ourselves. Even the smallest openhearted way, with patience and event offers the potential for liberation perseverance. Setting aside time for Narayan: Another useful technique and can reveal the deepest and most formal meditation, whether at home involves working with awareness of body profound truths. or at a retreat center, is invaluable in touch-points. These are parts of the body encouraging a continuity of awareness. that come into contact with other objects Michael: If we can genuinely view life This is what gives our practice momentum. in the course of each day, such as the as containing the perfect conditions for bottoms of our feet as we move about, or practice – whatever those conditions Michael: Spending time quietly with the felt sense of sitting in a chair, or of may be – we won’t always be looking oneself, with the sole intention to our hands touching something. outside ourselves for peace and happiness . discover and learn about the nature Instead, we can develop a degree of of the mind, is a very powerful action. We simply bring our attention to a touch- confidence, knowing that each moment Time spent formally meditating helps point as often as we can remember. This is rich with possibility. If we are able to train the mind to wake up when it gets is useful in breaking our habitual mental bring a warm and loving attentiveness lost in habitual conditioning. and emotional patterns. Accessible practices to the here and now, our practice will like these serve us well in the midst of really flourish. Are there specific practice tools that everyday busyness and complexity. you recommend, as we go about our daily lives? Michael: Listening meditation can also be helpful. For those of us living in a INSIGHT Michael: There are many simple practices fast-paced urban environment, sounds NEWSLETTER that support the transformation of the of traffic or construction, or any of A twice-yearly publication of mind. These are easy to do at any time the myriad noises produced by people the Insight Meditation Society throughout the day and prevent us living in close proximity to one another 1230 Pleasant Street • Barre MA 01005 • USA from getting caught in patterns of can often be jarring and irritating. But www.dharma.org (978) 355-4378 • [email protected] preoccupation. Instead, they help us live if we can hold both the sound itself and with greater freedom and wakefulness. our reaction to it as objects of meditation Editors: Gyano Gibson & Daphne Slocombe Production: Daphne Slocombe & Marc Hamel – rather than as problems to be rid of Photos: Libby Vigeon (unless otherwise indicated) One practice is to relax the body, in favor of external silence – then we Design: Lux Productions particularly the eyes and face, whenever can begin to taste the freedom of the Printed in Canada on paper containing 50% recycled content using soy-based inks. we can remember. When the face is unconditioned. www.dharma.org Fall • Winter 2008/2009 INSIGHT Narayan: When we inwardly resist we are experiencing. If we can become “No.” Now it is up to each of us to inquire sounds that we don’t like, the result can more adept at being aware of our anger, and discover for ourselves whether it’s be agitation and aversion to what is fear or other challenging emotion, we can possible to end suffering in the middle of taking place. We become disconnected free ourselves from further suffering. changing and challenging conditions. from our environment. By learning to The innate intelligence of awareness relax the body and to simply receive opens us up to the possibility of wise Narayan : I am inspired by the aspiration sounds into our field of awareness, and appropriate action. to be a blessing instead of a problem. without attachment or contraction, As we face issues of survival on this we can more easily live in the present. Michael: As dharma practice matures, beautiful planet, and as we endeavor This is a pathway to greater spaciousness we begin to take greater responsibility to better care for it, self-knowing and and tranquility. for life’s difficulties. “Your life is your a deep intimacy with our conditioned practice” means learning to investigate minds play a crucial role. When we find Often in everyday life, we experience more deeply. It means learning to relate ourselves in any situation, we can always destructive emotions. How can we to the unfolding conditions of life check how we are relating to it. This is open to awareness when this happens? with compassionate understanding. how we realize the potential for lasting Any efforts we may make to effect transformation and inner liberation. Narayan: The first step is to take a real change become rooted in wisdom, moment to acknowledge that strong rather than in reactivity. feelings and reactivity are happening. To find out when Narayan and Michael will Instead of resisting painful emotions or What continues to inspire your own be teaching at IMS, please see pages 18-19 engaging in a struggle to avoid or get practice? or visit www.dharma.org. rid of them, we can pause and soften into the discomfort we are feeling. Michael: Driving in the city seems to teach me a lot! Sometimes when I’m Another step, this time of a more sitting in traffic and find myself caught investigative nature, is to ask ourselves, in a contracted state of mind, such as “Who is reacting?” This form of practice impatience, I take the time to look is not meant to encourage analysis around at other drivers. What I often or conceptual thinking but rather to observe is suffering. It is reflected in sustain inner observation and inquiry. body postures and facial expressions The Gift of Meditation It is a way of exploring how reactivity that convey sadness, confusion, rage, OFFER A RETREAT TO expresses itself and of understanding resignation, regret and loneliness. SOMEONE YOU LOVE the nature of the reactive mind. Very quickly, my impatience evaporates Questions like this can bring about and my sense of separation dissolves. IMS GIFT CERTIFICATES greater equanimity and deepen insight A feeling of connection with all of Support friends or family members to into the Buddha’s key teaching of the humanity arises in its place. At times participate in any IMS retreat for which essential emptiness of self. like this, I can recognize the situation they qualify. We will send a certificate that all beings share – that we are all for the value of the gift; it is valid for Reactivity and tension are often results subject to conditions that are beyond seven years from the date of issue and of clinging to some idea about how things our control.