April 1, 2026
The Vase and the Faces: Shifting Perspectives on Thought
El jarrón y los rostros: cambios de perspectiva sobre el pensamiento
A meditation session exploring the subtle shift between knowing thoughts as part of the open field of experience versus filtering reality through them, using the analogy of the vase-faces optical illusion. The subsequent dialogues explore trust as the foundation for allowing pain without suffering, the illusion of control and the sense of a separate self, and the slow dissolution of resistance to difficult experience. Themes of desire, freedom, and the sacredness of all experience are woven throughout.
meditation
The Vase and the Faces
This meditation invites you to notice how thoughts can shift from being part of experience to filtering all of it, and to gently explore both perspectives.
dialogue
The Trust Beneath the Pain
A student reports on a meditation experience in which sticky sensations led to avoidance, contraction, and the desire to escape into spaciousness. The dialogue unfolds into a deep exploration of trust, the illusion of control, and the possibility of peace within pain.
dialogue
Blinking Back to the Present
A question about using physical sensations, such as blinking or breathing, to return from thought to present-moment awareness.
dialogue
The Sweet Nectar of Shame
A question about the slow dissolving of resistance to painful experience, particularly anxiety and shame, and how the creator knows itself through every texture of human feeling.
dialogue
The Choice to Believe the Mind
A student asks whether there is any point in trying to appreciate experience, or whether one should simply be with whatever arises.
teaching
Finding Beauty in the Breach
The teacher explores how finding even one point of beauty in a difficult moment can pierce through the mind's narrative that everything is not okay, and how even painful sensations can be savored with the same appreciation we bring to a fine espresso.