sitting with it

the insight pv blog
Insight Meditation Community of Western Mass
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Sangha Leadership
    • New to Meditation
    • Zoom Info
    • Logistics
    • Directions
    • Contact
  • Offerings
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Donate Now
    • Sangha Stewards/Volunteers
  • Teachers
    • Teacher Biographies
    • Teacher-Student Meetings
  • Home-copy

The Seven Factors that Lead to Awakening: The Sure Heart’s Release

11/2/2019

0 Comments

 
By Tara Mulay, IPV Teacher
​

​Due to cultural conditioning, many of us find it difficult to imagine the potential of our minds to experience the sure heart’s release from suffering.  However, the message of the Buddha was clear – each of us has this innate capacity for freedom.  The path of awakening the Buddha identified is a natural process leading to non-clinging, intuitive wisdom, and deep compassion for ourselves and others.  In order to make space for the liberative process to emerge more fully, we need to understand the mind’s potential and recondition ourselves to be free of false, self-limiting views and mind-states.
 
In this four-week class, we will explore the process of liberation that unfolds in our practice as we naturally, sequentially cultivate the wholesome qualities of mind known as the seven factors of awakening: mindfulness, investigation (of physical and mental experiences), energy, tranquility, rapture (rapt attention), concentration, and equanimity.  We will begin and end this four-week class by exploring awakening itself and what awakening means for each of us.

Join Tara for The Seven Factors of Awakening beginning on Monday, November 18, 7:15pm.
REGISTER NOW!
0 Comments

Finding Ease and Freedom "In-Between"

8/24/2019

0 Comments

 
By Manny Mansbach

We humans tend to seek certain kinds of pseudo-refuge in the familiar, focusing on landing in a place that is known, seems safe and secure. We can become off-balance, disoriented, anxious, even afraid while waiting for what we think will be easier, until the employer calls with the job offer or the weather turns more to our liking, or we reach a new understanding with someone we’ve been in conflict with. There is value, we tell ourselves, in sailing in open, unprotected waters, but often we find ourselves longing for the refuge of the harbor.

There’s nothing at all wrong with returning to the safe harbor of the known, but when we have difficulty finding ease in the gaps between our comfort zones there can be wide swaths of life that become uncomfortable. Depending on how we relate to these “in-between” places, we may be mildly, moderately or severely vexed. If the distress is habitual, socially embarrassing, strongly identified with or reinforces a negative self-esteem loop, then it can become quite limiting or even debilitating.

Finding ease and freedom in these “in-between” places can be some of  the most difficult and most important work of our practice. This talk will offer some direction for how we can “mind the gap” and struggle less when we are asked by life to swim in deeper water than we like or are accustomed to.

Join Manny and other sangha members for a sitting at 7:00pm and talk at 7:35pm.​

Picture
Manny Mansbach has been practicing and studying Insight Meditation since 1980. He is a graduate both of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioner Program and its Community Dharma Leader Program, and is the former Director of the Center for Somatic Psychotherapy in San Francisco. In recent years, Manny has spent many months in silent meditation retreats, and has practiced and been on pilgrimage in India, Tibet, Nepal, Burma and Thailand. In addition to studying with revered western Insight Meditation teachers, he has also been influenced by Dzogchen and the teachings of Adyashanti. Manny is committed to helping people remember and express their basic goodness, and to gain confidence in the beauty and power of the Buddha’s teachings of profound understanding and boundless kindness. One of his greatest interests is applying the Buddha’s Middle Way to the area of communication, integrating the core skill of nonviolent assertion and learning to speak from wisdom and with kindness. For Manny's website visit mannymansbach.com.  
0 Comments

    Authors

    Blog posts are written by various IPV and guest teachers. Biographies can be found on the Teachers page.
    ​​

    Archives

    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019

    Categories

    All
    Adi
    Afflictive Emotions
    Ajahn Chah
    Anatta
    Beginners Mind
    Brahmaviharas
    Buddha Nature
    Cheryl Wilfong
    Dawn Scott
    Dukkha
    Factors Of Awakening
    Four Noble Truths
    Freedom
    Health
    Imperfection
    Impermanence
    Insight Dialogue
    Jean Esther
    Kim Weeber
    Manny
    Rebecca
    Tara Mulay
    Unhappiness

    RSS Feed

Support  IWM!

IWM continues to offer the Buddha's teachings to all, regardless of ability to pay. Your gift makes that possible.
Donate to IWM: 
Ensure that IWM will be here when you need us.
​Give once or set up recurring gift.

Give Teacher Dana: ​
​Our teachers give freely of their time, wisdom, and experience and depend upon contributions from students for their livelihood.​
Donate to IWM
Give Teacher Dana

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Stay up to date about all Insight Western Mass has to offer!  Click to choose which types of newsletters to receive. Your email address will be kept private.​

Eastworks, 2nd Floor ~ 116 Pleasant Street ~ Suite 242 ~ Easthampton, MA 01027-2755
413-527-0388   ~   See map and directions
Contact IWM
© 2022 Insight Meditation Community of Western Massachusetts
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Sangha Leadership
    • New to Meditation
    • Zoom Info
    • Logistics
    • Directions
    • Contact
  • Offerings
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Donate Now
    • Sangha Stewards/Volunteers
  • Teachers
    • Teacher Biographies
    • Teacher-Student Meetings
  • Home-copy