Embodiment and Awakening

Living in a body is a source of great happiness, as well as a potential source of great suffering. How do we deeply engage with our sensory experience, our ability to delight in memory and perception, without becoming ensnared by our preferences and attachments?

How do we live in a body, day after day, connecting with our physical experience, and making full use of sense perception to liberate the mind?

Mindfulness is the practice of training the heart and mind to be present with the fleeting moments of our lives. And in that knowing, in that direct contact with the world, we have myriad opportunities to wake up to the truth of change.

In one famous teaching of the Buddha, we are invited to view the body as the site of our liberation.

The end of the world can never
Be reached by walking. However,
Without having reached the world's end
There is no release from suffering.

I declare that it is in this fathom-long
carcass, with its perceptions and thoughts
that there is the world, the origin of the world,
the cessation of the world, and the path leading
to the cessation of the world.

(Anguttara Nikaya 4:45. Translation by Andrew Olendski)

This day of practice will be in silence, and will include walking periods, a group interview and a dharma talk.