Dharma Flower Sangha

The practice of meditation can provide this access, partly through helping us to face and work with our emotions more directly. While meditating, the meditaror does not try to discover the meaning of his feelings, bur simply acknowledges their presence and returns to the breath. When surges of emotional turbulence arise, he practices “keeping his seat” and riding them out. In so doing, he may start to glimpse how, underneath the whitecaps of emotional frenzy and the broader swells of feeling, all is quite calm in the depths of the ocean, where our personal life problems empty into larger, universal life currents.

Mindfulness practice helps us become more aware of the gaps and discontinuities chat are always opening up spontaneously in the logic of our story lines. For instance, even in the midst of the most intense anger, we might begin to notice flashes of “Why am I so angry? Do I need to make such a big deal out of this? Is this really as important as I am making it?” Meditation allows us to notice how big mind is always available and flashing into awareness, even when we are most caught up in our stories. Although we often feel most alive when involved in emotional dramas, meditation helps us realize our basic ongoing aliveness that is always present in both dramatic and undramatic moments. -excerpt from “Awakening The Heart” by John Welwood

MEDITATION, TONIGHT AT 7:30 PM. AUGUST 22, 2024. We are located at PHAP HOA TEMPLE, 85 Prospect Street, Vernon-Rockville, CT 06066 ~ALL ARE WELCOME~