Seeing Beauty Everywhere (Free)
Access here: https://www.meditatewithranga.com/seeing-beauty-everywhere-1
Password: Bhavana2023
Inclining the mind towards beauty and opening the heart such that we become deeply touched by things are two related practices that are extremely effective in bringing Jhana. Jhana refers beautiful realms of experience that human beings can shift into and enjoy; they are perceptual skills that transform life, bringing immense joy, pleasure, and peace.
A few years ago, Ranga was listening to a recording from a Jhana retreat taught by Rob Burbea, who Ranga regards as a primary teacher of his. The following words left quite an imprint on Ranga, inspiring him to teach this class.
“So much about this practice is really about taking care of your heart. At every level and in every direction, what does it mean to take care of your heart? And again, you may not realize just how significant some of this is. And if you haven't practiced this way before, if you're used to very different ways of thinking of retreat, thinking of what it means to be a practice, you may not realize just how significant this is. What does it mean to be here these days, together, in community, in a beautiful place in the countryside, and to make sure every day that the heart is encouraged to feel appreciation, and to reverberate with an appreciation for your fellow meditators, for the Dharma, for the Buddha, for the beautiful nature, for the coordinators at Gaia House (retreat center in the UK) who set this up, for other helpers (and I'll introduce them later) - all the conditions that came [together]? What does it mean to take care of appreciation, to be on retreat, orienting and supporting the heart to be in an appreciative mode? This is way more significant than most people would realize.
Gratitude. This is all part of the same thing. Taking care of inclining the mind and the heart to gratitude, seeing what there is to be grateful for, and to feeling that gratitude every day, a number of times. You can do it formally. You can do it informally. It could just be woven into your natural way of being - hopefully, it becomes that.
Beauty is so important: the heart, the eyes, and the senses are open to beauty.
Connection - with each other, with nature.
Openness, generally. The openness of being, openness of heart, love of the Dharma - these are the kind of things that nourish, that will allow that base level of happiness on which the jhānas can then be built or opened, whatever metaphor you want to use.
…Muditā is the Pali word. Oftentimes it gets translated as sympathetic joy. I would prefer the translation 'appreciative joy' or 'spiritual joy.' It means it's not just the joy in someone else's happiness. It is that, and it's all those things I just talked about as well. That's what muditā means in its broader sense, and that's, I think, how the Buddha meant it.”
– Rob Burbea, 2019 Jhana Retreat
Access here: https://www.meditatewithranga.com/seeing-beauty-everywhere-1
Password: Bhavana2023
Inclining the mind towards beauty and opening the heart such that we become deeply touched by things are two related practices that are extremely effective in bringing Jhana. Jhana refers beautiful realms of experience that human beings can shift into and enjoy; they are perceptual skills that transform life, bringing immense joy, pleasure, and peace.
A few years ago, Ranga was listening to a recording from a Jhana retreat taught by Rob Burbea, who Ranga regards as a primary teacher of his. The following words left quite an imprint on Ranga, inspiring him to teach this class.
“So much about this practice is really about taking care of your heart. At every level and in every direction, what does it mean to take care of your heart? And again, you may not realize just how significant some of this is. And if you haven't practiced this way before, if you're used to very different ways of thinking of retreat, thinking of what it means to be a practice, you may not realize just how significant this is. What does it mean to be here these days, together, in community, in a beautiful place in the countryside, and to make sure every day that the heart is encouraged to feel appreciation, and to reverberate with an appreciation for your fellow meditators, for the Dharma, for the Buddha, for the beautiful nature, for the coordinators at Gaia House (retreat center in the UK) who set this up, for other helpers (and I'll introduce them later) - all the conditions that came [together]? What does it mean to take care of appreciation, to be on retreat, orienting and supporting the heart to be in an appreciative mode? This is way more significant than most people would realize.
Gratitude. This is all part of the same thing. Taking care of inclining the mind and the heart to gratitude, seeing what there is to be grateful for, and to feeling that gratitude every day, a number of times. You can do it formally. You can do it informally. It could just be woven into your natural way of being - hopefully, it becomes that.
Beauty is so important: the heart, the eyes, and the senses are open to beauty.
Connection - with each other, with nature.
Openness, generally. The openness of being, openness of heart, love of the Dharma - these are the kind of things that nourish, that will allow that base level of happiness on which the jhānas can then be built or opened, whatever metaphor you want to use.
…Muditā is the Pali word. Oftentimes it gets translated as sympathetic joy. I would prefer the translation 'appreciative joy' or 'spiritual joy.' It means it's not just the joy in someone else's happiness. It is that, and it's all those things I just talked about as well. That's what muditā means in its broader sense, and that's, I think, how the Buddha meant it.”
– Rob Burbea, 2019 Jhana Retreat
Access here: https://www.meditatewithranga.com/seeing-beauty-everywhere-1
Password: Bhavana2023
Inclining the mind towards beauty and opening the heart such that we become deeply touched by things are two related practices that are extremely effective in bringing Jhana. Jhana refers beautiful realms of experience that human beings can shift into and enjoy; they are perceptual skills that transform life, bringing immense joy, pleasure, and peace.
A few years ago, Ranga was listening to a recording from a Jhana retreat taught by Rob Burbea, who Ranga regards as a primary teacher of his. The following words left quite an imprint on Ranga, inspiring him to teach this class.
“So much about this practice is really about taking care of your heart. At every level and in every direction, what does it mean to take care of your heart? And again, you may not realize just how significant some of this is. And if you haven't practiced this way before, if you're used to very different ways of thinking of retreat, thinking of what it means to be a practice, you may not realize just how significant this is. What does it mean to be here these days, together, in community, in a beautiful place in the countryside, and to make sure every day that the heart is encouraged to feel appreciation, and to reverberate with an appreciation for your fellow meditators, for the Dharma, for the Buddha, for the beautiful nature, for the coordinators at Gaia House (retreat center in the UK) who set this up, for other helpers (and I'll introduce them later) - all the conditions that came [together]? What does it mean to take care of appreciation, to be on retreat, orienting and supporting the heart to be in an appreciative mode? This is way more significant than most people would realize.
Gratitude. This is all part of the same thing. Taking care of inclining the mind and the heart to gratitude, seeing what there is to be grateful for, and to feeling that gratitude every day, a number of times. You can do it formally. You can do it informally. It could just be woven into your natural way of being - hopefully, it becomes that.
Beauty is so important: the heart, the eyes, and the senses are open to beauty.
Connection - with each other, with nature.
Openness, generally. The openness of being, openness of heart, love of the Dharma - these are the kind of things that nourish, that will allow that base level of happiness on which the jhānas can then be built or opened, whatever metaphor you want to use.
…Muditā is the Pali word. Oftentimes it gets translated as sympathetic joy. I would prefer the translation 'appreciative joy' or 'spiritual joy.' It means it's not just the joy in someone else's happiness. It is that, and it's all those things I just talked about as well. That's what muditā means in its broader sense, and that's, I think, how the Buddha meant it.”
– Rob Burbea, 2019 Jhana Retreat