May your practice be for the benefit of all beings. May you aspire to be of benefit to all beings. May you realize what you are truly looking for, pursue it relentlessly despite all obstacles, and find it. PART I THE FUNDAMENTALS

Become fluent in all the sensations and patterns that make up your reality. Increasing our direct sensate clarity through repeated attention to doing so is the point of mindfulness in this context. We are wiring the machine of our brain to be able to be more present to exactly what is going on in our experience.

Remember that these practices and teachings are not about becoming a nonexistent entity devoid of emotions, but about clearly understanding the truth of our humanity and life. Becoming fluent in the true nature of all categories of sensations, including the sensations that make up all categories of emotions, is a particularly good idea and highly r

In short, when doing insight practices, constantly work to perceive sensations arise and pass as quickly and accurately as you possibly can.

I have concluded that, with very rare and fleeting exceptions, ninety-five percent of the sensations that make up our experience are really no problem at all, even in the difficult stages, but seeing this clearly is not always easy.

Five Ways to Know Yourself.

This stage, called Path (magga in Pali) also lasts just a moment, and after the first completed progress of insight it marks the first moment of the newly awakened being's awakened life. It marks a permanent shift in baseline perception and brain function. It is as if you have flipped a huge switch that you can't unflip, and new circuitry hums to l

There is something truly profound about this jhana, it is just that this profundity should not be taken to be more than it is. Seeing the intrinsic luminosity of anything is profound, and Boundless Consciousness gives us a broad and profound taste of this, writing it on the mind, and that is a good thing to have written on the mind. So, while heedi

The seven factors of awakening are: 1) mindfulness 2) investigation 3) energy 4) rapture 5) tranquility 6) concentration 7) equanimity