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Dharma Talks given at Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
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2015-09-07 The three satipatthanas 1:18:37
Patrick Kearney
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We survey the first three of the four satipaṭṭhānas, here translated as “foundations of mindfulness” or “domains of mindfulness” – the places where we station our mindfulness. These are body (kāya), feeling (vedanā) and heart/mind (citta). We see these domains represent a linear progression from less to greater ethical sensitivity; and we also see how feeling holds the practice together.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-06 Restraining the senses 69:59
Patrick Kearney
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We continue our exploration of how we can structure attention by practising indriya saṃvāra, or sense restraint. This practice represents a radical relaxation in which we rest our awareness and simply receive sense data without doing anything, without getting entangled in the data. This practice makes us sensitive to how difficult it is to stop “doing.”
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-06 The insight chorus - Part 2 - Independence 57:09
Patrick Kearney
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This evening we unpack the sentence in which the Buddha presents the maturity of the practice: “And she lives independently, not clinging to anything in the world.” What does it mean to “live independently?” And where does clinging (upādāna) fit into this?
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-05 The insight chorus - Part 1 - Impermanence & emptiness 67:17
Patrick Kearney
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We look at the first three sentences of the chorus of Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, where the Buddha explains the arising of insight (vipassanā). We examine “tracking body as body internally and externally,” where the assumed boundary between self and other begins to dissolve. Then we look at how the practitioner opens into the perception of impermanence – “tracking the nature of arising and ceasing as body.” Finally, we examine the entry into emptiness, where the practitioner is mindful that “body is,” for understanding (ñāṇa) and continuous mindfulness (paṭisati).
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-05 Awareing 1:15:12
Patrick Kearney
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Here we learn to structure our attention more loosely, to enable us to see the object of awareness within the broader context of our attentional field. When we hold an object too closely we may miss the context within which it is held, including the one who is attending to it. When we learn to hold the object more loosely, we can appreciate the context within which it is held, and understanding (sampajañña, paññā) emerges within this context.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-04 Mindfulness, memory & wisdom 62:33
Patrick Kearney
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Tonight we return to the fundamental meaning of sati as indicating memory, and look at the relationship of memory to wisdom. Our connection with the past allows us to learn from the patterns of experience as they flow over time. Mindfulness allows access to an experienced present that includes everything we have learned through the course of our lives.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-04 Tracking choice 52:47
Patrick Kearney
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The Buddha has a number of terms that express intention, choice, decision, determination, resolution. Here we look at cetanā, usually translated as “intention,” but perhaps better translated as “choice.” We examine the role of our choices, both habitual and conscious, in our practice and how we might learn to become sensitive to their workings.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-02 Tracking experience 1:11:54
Patrick Kearney
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We examine the central activity of satipaṭṭhāna, that of anupassanā, or “tracking” experience over time. We do this by unpacking the sentence, “Here a bhikkhu, surrendering longing and sorrow for the world, lives tracking body as body … feeling as feeling … heart/mind as heart/mind … phenomena as phenomena, ardent, clearly understanding and mindful.”
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-02 Tracking the thought-stream 65:19
Patrick Kearney
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A fundamental principle of satipaṭṭhāna practice is to take what distracts us, what prevents us from practising, and make it our meditation object. Here we look at using the thought-stream as meditation object. We learn how to attend to the process of thinking rather than get caught up in the contents of our thoughts.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

2015-09-01 On vedana 68:34
Patrick Kearney
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Here we explore the Buddha’s concept of vedanā, or feeling, more thoroughly. We see the intimate link between contact (phassa), the immediacy of experience, and feeling. All experience is already accompanied by feeling; or, we can say that we are already moved by this experience. We are moved toward holding by pleasant feeling (sukha vedanā), toward rejection by painful feeling (dukkha vedanā), or toward delusion by neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling (a-dukkha-(m)a-sukha vedanā). Feeling presents us with a world that we have already assessed as requiring response, and have already responded to.
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre :  Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney

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