Hi there,
You're probably already aware of how powerful and transformative meditation can be, and equally aware of how many gurus and communities are rife with abuse and scandal.
How can we reconcile these two facts?
Perhaps meditation is not enough.
In this 3 minute clip Andrew Holecek recounts his personal perspective, based on several decades studying and teaching around the world:
I sent a link to part one of the full conversation last week. Part two is now online here.
We discuss the blind spots of higher stages of meditation, (jhanas / cessation, "the mental candy of meditation") and how they can be mistaken for enlightenment. For Andrew, true enlightenment is somewhat ordinary… yet open… and you can let the journey be the goal.
We also talk about how meditation can support us through pain, how to stay open and focused, and enlightened action.
We're lucky to have Andrew guiding a workshop next week on the meditations that lend direct insight into the liberating nature of empty awareness, reconciling the conflicting philosophical views that we've explored here so often.
He'll address the debate between Jay Garfield and Bernardo Kastrup, and how his Buddhist tradition reconciles the apparent contradictions between emptiness and awareness as the ground of being.
Workshops coming up with Richard Lang and Bohm dialogue below. Glad to have you with us exploring this fascinating part of reality together!
Until soon,
Amir
 |
 |