April 23, 2025
The Pull Away From This Moment
El impulso de alejarse de este momento
This session explores the attachment to thought as an escape from present-moment discomfort, and guides participants to feel into the sensations they habitually avoid. Extended dialogues address a therapist's struggle with the compulsion to fix her clients, a student's experience of letting go of control while caring for his elderly father, and a student navigating the tension between reconnecting with estranged family and maintaining boundaries after deep healing work.
meditation
The Pull Away From This Moment
This meditation invites you to notice what pulls your attention away from the present moment and gently feel into the discomfort underneath.
dialogue
The Humility of Not Knowing What to Do
A therapist asks about the painful contraction that arises when sitting with distressed clients, and the pull into a sense of being a doer who must fix or help.
dialogue
When the Need to Fix Everything Falls Away
A student shares the experience of caring for an elderly father after a serious fall, and how letting go of the compulsion to control the situation has opened unexpected moments of love and authenticity.
dialogue
Looking Toward the Pain
A student expresses deep gratitude for the teacher's willingness to guide them toward difficult emotions rather than away from them.
dialogue
Family, Boundaries, and the Work That Remains
A student asks about reconnecting with estranged family members and how to navigate the tension between maintaining boundaries and using difficult relationships as opportunities for deeper healing.
dialogue
The Ocean and the Waves
A student describes their practice of holding attention in awareness and asks whether a more open, allowing approach pointed to during meditation is a different or better practice.
dialogue
Form, Emptiness, and What Is Substantial
A student asks about the relationship between form and emptiness, and whether recognizing that "form is emptiness" also means that "emptiness is form." The conversation explores ponderability versus substantiality, and what it means to experience the world as oneself.