• Winter Retreat Highlights
• TWDD Canada Challenge
• March TWDD meditation schedules
• Shared Dharma Teaching
• Suggested Readings

Winter Retreat 2009 Highlights

This past weekend we had 3 wonderful days of silence, with guided practice of various forms of meditation. My personal weekend meditation highlights can be found here along with a few testimonials from some of the participants.

TWDD Canada Challenge
Three years have passed since our first teaching here in Canada. Each class participant is at different levels in their practice, so we are encouraging you to join in and participate in a personal challenge for yourself - to either reach a 1-hour/day practice, or if you are already above the 1-hour, try to go at least 30% more time then what you are currently doing. If you are already at the 2-hour mark, then try to add 1-hour sitting meditation to your daily routine. We will hold this challenge for 3-months, starting today! Please sign up and state your intentions. All you need to do is register as a new participant of the discussion forum add username and password, follow instructions to post your challenge. By doing this, you are holding yourself accountable.

It's an opportunity to look deep within our mind, enhance our awareness and build on our practice strength. The value one receives through this experience can be life changing but only if you commit yourself to the experience.

Shared Dharma TeachingIn the Four Noble truths, Buddha Shakyamuni taught that attachment to self is the root cause of suffering:

• From craving (attachment) springs grief,
• from craving springs fear;
• For him who is wholly free from craving, there is no grief, much less fear.

(Dhammapada Sutra. In Narada Maha Thera, The Buddha and His Teachings.) If you don't have attachments, naturally you're liberated ... In ancient times, there was an old cultivator who asked for instructions from a monk,

"Great Monk, let me ask you, how can I attain liberation?" The Great monk said, "Who tied you up?" This old cultivator answered, "Nobody tied me up." The monk said, "Then why do you seek liberation?" (Hsuan Hua, tr., Flower Adornment Sutra, "Pure Conduct," chap. 11.)

For the seasoned practitioner, even the Dharma must not become an attachment. As an analogy, to clean one's shirt, it is necessary to use soap. However, if the soap is not then rinsed out, the garment will not be truly clean. Similarly, the practitioner's mind will not be fully liberated until he severs attachment to everything, including the Dharma itself.

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
by Chogyam Trungpa (Author)

In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism.