Additional Logistics of the Home Retreat_7

This particular part of the practice starts by our becoming aware of our preferences as they present themselves. The sooner we become aware of our preferences and the more familiar we are with how our minds behave in the face of our likes and dislikes, the sooner we will become skilled in being able to pause before speaking or acting which offers us a greater potential of allowing wisdom to become the greater part of our process.

The more we investigate preferences, the more we will see how they arise and how they affect our lives. Hint: As soon as you notice a pattern occurring, whether in thought, speech or action, immediately bring your investigative focus to whether or not there is a feeling tone (pleasant, unpleasant or neutral) concomitant with the pattern in either or both the body and the mind. Ask yourself, ‘Does this pattern comfort me? How? Why?’ Then ask yourself, ‘Does this object/experience create further sequences of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feelings in the body or the mind?’ The less we

allow preferences to move from pleasantness to liking, to wanting/not wanting, the greater the potential for Wisdom to arise.

Take another careful look at your list of activities of daily living and the schedule you made, especially look at those activities that define you as a human being. As an example, all humans must eat. We must sleep. We must attend to our bodies with cleaning, toileting, addressing sexual impulses, maintaining health/strength. And we must attend to our surroundings in regards to safety and interaction with other humans and other species, to name just a few examples. These are the types of hard-wired necessities that our entire lives are built upon. A householder’s activities are a construction of these basic human needs. Genetically we are hardwired to do certain things. How these activities manifest will be different depending on the society, history, context and the character of the individual.

This particular part of the practice starts by our becoming aware of our preferences as they present themselves. The sooner we become aware of our preferences and the more familiar we are with how our minds behave in the face of our likes and dislikes, the sooner we will become skilled in being able to pause before speaking or acting which offers us a greater potential of allowing wisdom to become the greater part of our process.

The more we investigate preferences, the more we will see how they arise and how they affect our lives. Hint: As soon as you notice a pattern occurring, whether in thought, speech or action, immediately bring your investigative focus to whether or not there is a feeling tone (pleasant, unpleasant or neutral) concomitant with the pattern in either or both the body and the mind. Ask yourself, ‘Does this pattern comfort me? How? Why?’ Then ask yourself, ‘Does this object/experience create further sequences of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feelings in the body or the mind?’ The less we allow preferences to move from pleasantness to liking, to wanting/not wanting, the greater the potential for Wisdom to arise.

Take another careful look at your list of activities of daily living and the schedule you made, especially look at those activities that define you as a human being. As an example, all humans must eat. We must sleep. We must attend to our bodies with cleaning, toileting, addressing sexual impulses, maintaining health/strength. And we must attend to our surroundings in regards to safety and interaction with other humans and other species, to name just a few examples. These are the types of hard-wired necessities that our entire lives are built upon. A householder’s activities are a construction of these basic human needs. Genetically we are hardwired to do certain things. How these activities manifest will be different depending on the society, history, context and the character of the individual.

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Glossary

Right Intention (sammā-sankappa): The Noble Eightfold Path. Bhikkhu Bodhi. Chapter Three.

Munindraji: 1. Was an Indian lay teacher most often associated in the West as being Joseph Goldstein’s and Dipama’s teacher. His impact on how Theravada Buddhism is understood in the West cannot be overstated. In the book Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra, 2010, by Mirka Knaster the reader is given a most extraordinary example of how to live a Home Retreat as a layperson. allan cooper.

Vikāla-bhojanā veramanī sikkhāpadam samādhiyāmi’, I undertake the Precept to refrain from eating at the forbidden time (i.e., afternoon till the sun rises the next day). I will eat with an attention towards sustenance with applied mindfulness and clear comprehension during all drinking and eating.

See template in index.

Sati-sampajañña: 1. Sati and sampajañña are two terms combined to mean one thing. Sati is the function of the mind that can bring meditative focus on any conscious object and get to know it without self-referencing or preference. Sampajañña is the wholesome attempt to understand what an object is. Without sampajañña sati is simply a function of the mind without understanding. Sampajañña without sati is speculation. Combined these mental functions can de-condition and reorient the mind towards freedom from unwholesome patterns of mind, speech and action. allan cooper 2. Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. MN:10.

Sampajañña: Clear Comprehension: 1. Attending to four categories of attention: Purpose, Suitability, Domain, and Reality. allan cooper. 2. The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, Nyanaponika Thera. 3. Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. MN:10.

Spiritual friend (kalyānamitta): 1. SN 45:2 Upaddha Sutta. 2. Access to Insight, Admirable Friendship: kalyanamitta. 3. In common usage ‘a spiritual friend.’ In a traditional sense it means a teacher or a knower of the way. allan cooper

Right View (sammā-ditthi): 1. The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering, Chapter Two. Bhikkhu Bodhi.

Abbreviations in footnotes: AN: Aṅguttara Nikāya, DN: Dingha Nikāya, MN: Majjhima Nikāya, SN: Saṃyutta Nikāya