February 1, 2023
Two Sides of Practice: Effort and Effortless Acceptance
Dos Lados de la Práctica: Esfuerzo y Aceptación Sin Esfuerzo
This session explores the complementary poles of meditation practice: actively approaching suffering through focused attention, and resting in effortless acceptance of what already is. Dialogues examine how sleepiness can signal resistance, how total responsibility leads to the end of suffering, and how progressively sitting with deeper layers of discomfort ultimately confronts the wound of separation itself. Dante's Purgatorio is offered as a map for this process of purging what we cannot feel.
meditation
Two Sides of Practice
This meditation invites you to move between two sides of practice—approaching discomfort with honest attention and resting in effortless, open acceptance.
dialogue
The Threshold Between Sleep and Avoidance
A question about falling asleep during meditation, and whether sleepiness can be a subtle resistance mechanism rather than simple fatigue.
dialogue
Silence and the Presence of Suffering
A student describes finding unexpected silence during meditation despite recent suffering, and the teacher clarifies the difference between invoking stories of suffering and noticing contraction in present experience.
dialogue
The Source of Suffering and the Choice of Responsibility
A student reflects on how unpleasant experience led to associations with war, prompting a discussion about the deep roots of suffering, total responsibility, and the difference between struggling with reality and dancing with it.
dialogue
The Fire That Does Not Burn
A question about whether the teacher still experiences waves of conditioning disrupting peace, leading to a wide-ranging exploration of sitting with difficult sensations, Dante's Purgatorio as a map for the spiritual process, and the wound of separation that only surrender can heal.
dialogue
Coming Back to the Present
A student shares how a regular meditation practice has begun to dissolve a long-held self-image of resistance, and the teacher offers a gentle caution about the mind's tendency to postpone readiness.