Orienting to This Jhana Retreat - Rob Burbea's Digital Garden

#Talk [[Counting Within the Breath (Guided Meditation)|Counting Within the Breath (Guided Meditation) 🡄]] | [[2019 Practising the Jhanas|🡅]] | [[An Introduction to the Jhanas|🡆 An Introduction to the Jhanas]] Series: [[2019 Practising the Jhanas]] Transcript: [[1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat]] Transcript PDF: [[2019_1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat.pdf]] <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> ## Index _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (75) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (42) · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (25) · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> (21) · <a data-href="Emotions" class="internal-link">Emotions</a> (19) · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a> (17) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (15) · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (14) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (14) · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> (12) · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> (10) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (10) · <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> (10) · <a data-href="Grief" class="internal-link">Grief</a> (10) · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> (9) · <a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (9) · <a data-href="Appreciation" class="internal-link">Appreciation</a> (8) · <a data-href="Breath" class="internal-link">Breath</a> (8) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (8) · <a data-href="Devotion" class="internal-link">Devotion</a> (8) · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> (8) · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> (7) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> (7) · <a data-href="Inertia" class="internal-link">Inertia</a> (6) · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> (5) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (4) · <a data-href="Awareness" class="internal-link">Awareness</a> (4) · <a data-href="Energy" class="internal-link">Energy</a> (4) · <a data-href="Equanimity" class="internal-link">Equanimity</a> (4) · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> (4) · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> (4) · <a data-href="Mudita" class="internal-link">Mudita</a> (4) · <a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> (4) · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> (3) · <a data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">Constriction</a> (3) · <a data-href="Gratitude" class="internal-link">Gratitude</a> (3) · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> (3) · <a data-href="Spaciousness" class="internal-link">Spaciousness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Stories" class="internal-link">Stories</a> (3) · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (3) · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a> (3) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> (2) · <a data-href="Consciousness" class="internal-link">Consciousness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Death" class="internal-link">Death</a> (2) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (2) · <a data-href="Healing" class="internal-link">Healing</a> (2) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (2) · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> (2) · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a> (2) · <a data-href="Vessel" class="internal-link">Vessel</a> (2) · <a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> · <a data-href="Anger" class="internal-link">Anger</a> · <a data-href="Blessing" class="internal-link">Blessing</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> · <a data-href="Dominant culture" class="internal-link">Dominant culture</a> · <a data-href="Energy body" class="internal-link">Energy body</a> · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> · <a data-href="Hell" class="internal-link">Hell</a> · <a data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">Imaginal</a> · <a data-href="Juiciness" class="internal-link">Juiciness</a> · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> · <a data-href="Precepts" class="internal-link">Precepts</a> · <a data-href="Relationships" class="internal-link">Relationships</a> · <a data-href="Rupa" class="internal-link">Rupa</a> · <a data-href="Seeing That Frees" class="internal-link">Seeing That Frees</a> · <a data-href="Sutta" class="internal-link">Sutta</a> · <a data-href="Thanissaro Bhikkhu" class="internal-link">Thanissaro Bhikkhu</a>_ ## Paragraphs [[Orienting to This Jhana Retreat -|plain list]] ##### Welcome and intro Sari and Kirsten (not Robert) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^1-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^1-1" class="internal-link">1-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> (2) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=00:00" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Welcome, everybody. Really, really warm welcome to each and every one of you. I know that I know some of you, and there are some of you that I don't know and I haven't met yet, and I'm really looking forward to that. And especially, welcome to you, and a welcome to you if you're new to <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a>. So welcome to the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. Welcome to <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a>, to everyone. I'm really happy to be here, happy to be able to do this - more than happy. I've been quite excited actually for a little while. I'm really glad. Let me please introduce Sari. Some of you will know her, but many of you might not. Sari is with us, and at the end, if you can see, is Kirsten, who some of you will already know - and not Robert. [laughter] I will explain what's happening there. So we have Sari and Kirsten, but I'll come to that in a minute. --- ##### It's a really precious thing for me to be able to teach this retreat **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^1-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^1-2" class="internal-link">1-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:11" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I've done a lot of teaching of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ individually, one to one, but I've wanted to teach a group _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> for, I think, about sixteen years. So finally, with some very strange sort of conditions that had to come together to actually allow this to manifest. I feel, in a way - actually, for many reasons -it's a kind of a small miracle that this is happening. Originally ... well, I'll come back to that in a sec. Yeah, many reasons that make it a small miracle that we have this time together, and this opportunity, and this chance for something that I think is such a beautiful realm of possibility for human beings and for <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">meditation practice</a> - such a treasure trove. So it's a really, really precious thing for me to be able to teach it, and I hope by the end of it you'll realize also how precious it really is. --- ##### It's partly a miracle because of my health <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^1-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^1-3" class="internal-link">1-3</a> <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=02:26" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> It's partly a miracle because it's quite complicated for me health-wise at the moment. There are a lot of things I need to do just to be able to be here, etc. I have a lot of medical appointments over the time we have together. There's a lot of practical stuff, just getting my medicines in gear. Don't need to go into it, but a lot of stuff there. --- ##### Robert is going to join, Kirsten steps in **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^1-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^1-4" class="internal-link">1-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2) · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=02:51" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Originally, I asked Robert to come and assist us, and he said, "I'd <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a> to. I need to check with my employers." They came back and said, "Well, we won't be able to tell you until ..." - I can't remember when it was. So we said, "Let's just gamble; it'll be fine." [laughter] And it turned out that they said, "No, you can't have that time off." So Robert's going to join. Kirsten, it was her idea - the whole <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> was her idea in the first place, so we've got her to thank for that. There was a strange set of circumstances, and it was her idea. And Kirsten, very kindly, she had been planning to sit the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> and have this time to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourish</a> her own practice, so she very kindly stepped in to take Robert's place until Robert arrives, I think in five or six days or something. So at that point, Kirsten will be relieved of her teaching duties, and be able to just give herself to her practice, and Robert will step in. We'll obviously let you know. You may not notice because you might be so deep in ... [laughter] We'll let you know. --- ##### Another small miracle: Sari with her toddler Eliel **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^1-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^1-5" class="internal-link">1-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=04:09" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Another part of the small miracle is that Sari has a family, and a lovely little baby boy, a toddler, Eliel, and because of his young age, could only be here if _he_ could be here, and that meant her partner Hongda needed to be here. So they are here as a family, and you will see them wandering in and out. You will probably see and hear Eliel playing in the <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> grounds, and it's his playground, right? So those are part of the conditions that allowed this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, and I think it's actually a lovely thing, you know. It's a really delightful thing. --- ##### inaudible question in background <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^2-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^2-1" class="internal-link">2-1</a> <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=05:02" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Actually, ask the teacher. Ask the teachers. Seriously, yeah, because - I'll get into it - a lot about this practice is very individual, okay? It can sound formulaic or technical or whatever, but there may be reasons why exactly that sort of thing, at some point, might be really helpful, and actually not so helpful for others, or the same person at different times. But generally, he's going to be around. You'll see him, you'll hear him, and it's a delight. --- ##### Have an attitude and openness, also towards noise (Gaia House renovation) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^2-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^2-2" class="internal-link">2-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (4) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> (2) · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2) · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> · <a data-href="Thanissaro Bhikkhu" class="internal-link">Thanissaro Bhikkhu</a>_ So tonight, quite a lot I want to get through, so I hope you all had a good rest, and are feeling bright and refreshed. I want to say mostly stuff about orienting to this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, and what that involves, and things to bear in <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> during the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. So originally, part of what allowed this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> to come up - I can't remember exactly - was that <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> was going to shut down for a period for some major building renovation works. Kirsten had this idea, and I can't remember exactly, and then they asked me, "Well, would you do _this_ while that's going on?" And of course, "Oh, so <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> is going to be a building site with _da-da-da_, and you want me to teach a _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>?" [laughter] And I said, "Sure." Because - and I really want to emphasize this - it's okay to have noise. Right from the beginning we've got a different attitude. We're not coming in here, putting the blinkers on, putting the earplugs in: "Anything, everything - it's all bothering me. I just want to shut everything out." No, there's an attitude of openness and inclusivity. We do not want our _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_, our _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">samādhi</a>_, to be brittle. You know what 'brittle' means? It means something shatters very easily. We want it to be soft, pliant, open, open-hearted, etc. One of my teachers, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Thanissaro Bhikkhu" data-href="Thanissaro Bhikkhu" class="internal-link">Ajaan Geoff</a> - some of you will know him - when he moved to Thailand to become a monk, he had hardly meditated before. He was in the monastery, and this monastery had just moved. In fact, they were building a new site for it. So where he learnt to meditate initially was a building site. And no one was like, "Oh, that's a terrible problem." It's just, "It's fine. What's the problem?" So a different attitude to all this that's much more about openness - not brittle. And so Eliel, Sari's son, that's all part of it. --- ##### Buddha: "Jhana depends on happiness", not on external silence **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^2-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^2-3" class="internal-link">2-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (3) · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=07:43" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> When someone asked the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>, or in the context of his teaching (I can't remember exactly; he said it a few times): "What does _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ depend on? What does _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">samādhi</a>_ depend on?" And he said, "It depends on <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>. _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhāna</a>_ depends on <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>."^[SN 12:23] Now, he could have answered all kinds of things, and a lot of us would expect him to answer, "It depends on nailing your <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> to something, and then you'll get to _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_." Right? That's the way most people think about it. Or it depends on getting away from people who make noise, and being in, maybe, a sensory deprivation tank, whatever the Pali for that is. But he didn't say that. He said "dependent on <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>." So that's interesting, you know. That's really interesting to reflect on. --- ##### The view is the platform **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^2-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^2-4" class="internal-link">2-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Breath" class="internal-link">Breath</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=08:36" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I have a sense that many of the things I will say tonight, it's possible that you may not realize just how significant they are. I know I haven't met some of you yet, and I'm already insulting you [laughter], but somehow we have to get the view right. ==We have to get the view right (the view is the platform), and the whole relationship right. So if I say something like that - "Oh, the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> said, '_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhānas</a>_ depend on <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>'" - that should set you thinking. Well, I see some of you writing it down. It's important.== Then I have to take that with me through the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, because that has implications on a moment-to-moment level, on a micro-moment [level], about your choices, about your attitude, about how you're relating to whatever it is you're paying <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to at the moment - the <a data-href="breath" class="internal-link">breath</a> or whatever it is. --- ##### Can you listen on your toes? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^3-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^3-1" class="internal-link">3-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a>_ So what I'm saying tonight, what does it have to do with the relationship with practice, and how important that is, and the relationship with _this_ practice, and the relationship with the goal, and the whole <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a>? This is absolutely key. How are we going to listen? How are you going to listen to <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> talks? Can you listen on your toes? Do you know what I mean by that? I mean just what I said - like if something comes out like "_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhānas</a>_ depend on <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>," I can kind of let that wash over me and "hmm." Or, maybe it barely registers. Or, actually, "Hmm, that sets me ... maybe I should reflect on that, and recalibrate, and do something about it." So that's what I mean by listening on your toes. Obviously sometimes I'm going to unpack things and elaborate and explain, but sometimes a bit more work from the listener, a bit more active from the listener is really helpful. --- ##### The daily schedule is pretty open **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^3-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^3-2" class="internal-link">3-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=10:46" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Okay. Let's start with just a couple of practical things. The daily schedule, as some of you might have noticed, is pretty open. There's not a lot on there. I don't know if you've seen it, but it sort of says "Breakfast, lunch, dinner," I think. [laughter] So what that means is this hall is open twenty-four hours a day for the duration of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, and you can sit in here, at any time, for as long as you want. Okay? Generally speaking, once you get into the rhythm, you might, for instance, be doing a walking period and then it's twenty minutes before lunch, and you know you have to have lunch at a certain time, because you're on lunch wash-up, let's say. You can still come in here for twenty minutes, you know - just whenever it is. If you have the time, though (and I'll explain this more as we go on), you probably want to give a sitting a bit more to see what happens, a bit more than twenty minutes - you know, forty, forty-five minutes, an hour or something, to see what happens. But basically, it's an open schedule. People will be coming and going whenever, except 6:45 to breakfast is everyone in here. You can arrive early for that, so you can arrive at 4:45 or 5:45, but once we hit 6:45, you can't come in or leave. Basically, it's a group sit. We want everyone here at that time just to cohere together. And what was the other one? 9 p.m., the same thing. Again, you can arrive early, you can stay much later, you can stay well into the night, whatever, but during that period - let's say 9 to 9:30 - you wouldn't arrive or leave. --- ##### (practical issues) <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^3-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^3-3" class="internal-link">3-3</a> Okay, we're going to start with the teachings, aim to have a block of teachings from 4 to 5:30, every day, in the afternoon. That's the aim, but we may change that. And we may change it either just a little bit - "Oh, we need to start at 3:45 today, or whatever it is, or 4:30, or whatever" - or we might change it quite drastically - in other words, "No, we're shifting everything to the morning." Okay? So you need to keep your eye on the noticeboard, and just see. If it doesn't change, it's just 4, like it says, and it will probably go till 5:30, but partly, again, dependent on - I'm taking some new drugs that I'm not used to yet. I'm not sure how it's going to be. So it will depend on a lot of different things, but we'll aim for 4 to 5:30 every day. Okay? But check it. It means check until 2:30. It probably won't be changed for that day until 2:30. You understand? So up to 2:30, just check once in a while, so you know. --- ##### "Open schedule" means that it's on you to find a working temporal structure **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^3-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^3-4" class="internal-link">3-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> (2) · <a data-href="Spaciousness" class="internal-link">Spaciousness</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (3) · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=13:50" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So 'open schedule' - what does that mean? It means that the onus of responsibility is on you guys. Right? It's on you to find a temporal structure and a practice structure that works for you. ==The onus is on you to be responsive and sensitive to your practice, and the needs, and the ebbs and flows, and the ups and downs, and "What is needed right now? Do I need to go out and do some walking? Do I need to sit longer with whatever is happening? Do I need to actually go for a walk, and open my <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, and touch the <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>, and be touched by <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>? Do I need a cup of tea?"== What it also means, having an open schedule, is that obviously try and be relatively quiet when you come in, but basically, people will be coming and leaving at any point, and so the job of the comer or the leaver is to try and be relatively quiet as you set up yourself and leave. And the job of the person who's already here when there's a comer and leaver is to be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Spaciousness" data-href="Spaciousness" class="internal-link">spacious</a>. And it's part of that, =="We're not into brittle _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>._ We're not into brittle _samādhi_."== You understand? It's cool. Someone's coming to practice - how wonderful, right? This is really, really important. Don't underestimate how much - particularly a _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice - can get derailed into a kind of burrow tunnel of irritation, for example. When you set up goals, that can happen. So two jobs: for the person who's here - openness, warmth, welcoming, non-brittle _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>._ The job for the comer and goer is, "Yeah, I'm relatively sensitive - people are practising." --- ##### You are at different levels and have different backgrounds **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^4-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^4-1" class="internal-link">4-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (4) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (2) · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a> (3)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=15:50" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Okay. So one of the interesting challenges of teaching a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Retreat" data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">group retreat</a> of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_, rather than teaching individually, is that you all are at completely different levels, have different backgrounds in <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> in terms of what you've been taught, and different amounts of <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> with the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_. It's a roomful of very ... everyone's different. How to teach a group that has different levels like that, and different backgrounds, and different experiences? As I said, I've taught a lot individually, and usually when I teach individually, I don't even use the word _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ for a while. And I might not even use the word _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_. We'll talk about these words. _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Pīti</a>_ means <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">rapture</a> or ecstasy or something like that. I don't even use that. I'm more just listening to what the person is reporting, and if they use a certain word - "Oh, it feels bubbly" - then I'll go with that. And then I want to really work with their vocabulary and their sense of things and their <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> as it unfolds, and at a certain point, we introduce the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ language and framework and map. --- ##### Take advantage of interviews and Q&A <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^4-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^4-2" class="internal-link">4-2</a> <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=17:03" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> That's not really going to work for a group, so still there's this challenge, how to do that. There will be interviews, and we'll explain later tonight, I think, about the interviews, how that will work. Plenty of interviews, in fact, lots and lots of interviews - so lots of chance to really ask, and get a lot of feedback, get a lot of guidance about all kinds of things. But there will also hopefully be quite a few Q & As, so a lot of chance for you to ask in both the interviews and the Q & As whatever is pertinent and whatever is relevant to your practice now at that point. So in terms of this "you're all at different levels," take advantage of the meetings and the Q & As, because the teaching will be moving along at whatever rate, and it's only going to kind of coincide at a certain point with where you're at in your trajectory. --- ##### Find your playground at your edge **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^4-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^4-3" class="internal-link">4-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=18:05" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> We're open to teaching, we _will_ be teaching, all eight _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_, and we want to emphasize keeping them really alive. So it's not like you do one, and then you forget about it, because "I'm just into the eighth _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_" or whatever. We want to emphasize keeping them alive. What I want to kind of encourage is each of us to find the playground at your edge - your playground at your edge. I'm going to explain more what I mean by that as we go on, and tomorrow, etc., and other days, but it means, =="Where is the edge that I'm kind of learning new stuff? I've mastered _this_," and I'll explain what I mean by 'mastery' - "I've mastered _this_ before, and now this is my edge. I can kind of get it sometimes. It's not what I really have, you know, what's just no hope of doing. It's at my edge." And that becomes your playground. That's where you hang out most, and that's where you work, and that's where you play, and that's where you learn.== So each of us needs to find where that playground is, right now, and most of your time, you will spend in that playground. --- ##### Two months of retreat time is not too much to learn one jhana **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^5-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^5-1" class="internal-link">5-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (5) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=19:26" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Now, in terms of the teachings, let's say that playground is, "I'm just learning how to get into the first _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_." Okay, great! That's absolutely fantastic. That's your playground. You need to probably be there for a while. And a few days later, you know, I might talk about the first _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_: "It's great. It's right on target," and then you are still in that playground, and you need to be. And now the teachings have progressed, and I'm talking about the second _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_. Fine, no problem. You stay in your playground. This is a different way than some of you might be familiar with, but I really want to emphasize that. You know, people are so different with _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>,_ but really one month or two months of <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> time (that means you're doing nothing else but meditate) is not too much to learn one _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_. Okay? So we have three weeks, which is a fantastic amount of time to really get a sense of territory and material and open new things, but in terms of the way I want to teach (and I'll explain why as the days go by), I want to emphasize this kind of playground idea. ==Pacing is really important. It's part of the art.== --- ##### You'll get a lot of material, some of which is not relevant for you now **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^5-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^5-2" class="internal-link">5-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (4)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=20:45" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> What's this going to mean in terms of listening to teachings? Does it mean you take notes about what might come, what might be relevant for you in four days' time, or two weeks' time? It's a little tricky, you know. But basically, you're going to get a lot of material, some of which is not relevant for you now. Then we could say, "Well, I'll listen to the recordings," or you could make notes. I mean, you can always ask, of course. But I don't know any other way of doing it, or any other way of doing it in a way that _I_ would feel is fruitful. So everyone's going to have that issue at some point. If you've done _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice before, as I know some of you have, and you think, or you have a sense, "Well, my playground is ..." Let's say you think, "Oh, my playground is the second _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>,"_ or "My playground is the sixth _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>"_ - doesn't matter, whatever it is. Please, in the next few days, if you have a sense, "Oh, I know all the rest. This is where I'm at," please check with one of us, and get it sort of confirmed, if you like, because people mean very different things by _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_, and people mean different things by 'mastery' and where we're at. --- ##### Relationship of the playground with mastery **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^5-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^5-3" class="internal-link">5-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (3) · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=22:01" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I will explain why I feel this is important, but just come and check. We may say, "Great. Okay, yeah, second _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_, about there. This is what you need to do now. This is your playground." Or you might feel like, "Oh" - it might work both ways - "No, I only know the second _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>,"_ or "My playground is the sixth _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>._" And actually, we feel, "In terms of the kind of level _we're_ talking about, or mastery we want, we reckon that around the second is your playground." So just come and have that kind of dialogue with us. Or it might be the other way around: you think _da-da-da_, and we say, "Well, no, that's cool. You've got that mastered. You can go on to beyond where you think you are" or whatever. But just check, because ==this idea of 'playground' is really important to how things are going to kind of ferment in a way that's going to be really fruitful - how the seeds are going to get planted so that they really bear lovely, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourishing</a>, lifelong, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourishing</a> fruit.== So that's why I'm emphasizing this playground business, and I'll come back to it. --- ##### You can jump right into the playground **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^5-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^5-4" class="internal-link">5-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Breath" class="internal-link">Breath</a> (2) · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=23:06" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So you're mostly in your playground until you kind of get mastery of that level (and we'll explain what we mean by 'mastery'). You might do, let's say, it was the third one. You're still going to be a little time in the first and the second, if the third is your playground. And occasionally, the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> or you will just - something beyond it will open, and great, have a little fun, _occasionally_. But mostly, this is my playground; this is where it's delineated. I'll explain all this again, but we're not going to teach like, okay, let's say, it's the fifth _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_, then every time I sit down I have to go, "<a data-href="Breath" class="internal-link">Breath</a>, one, two, three, four, and then the fifth" or whatever. You can just dive right in. Most of your time is in your playground. And even if you think, "Oh, yes, that," whatever, still there should be really quite helpful teachings pertaining to what seem to pertain to levels that are below where you're at. So everything we have to say about really basic practice, working with the <a data-href="breath" class="internal-link">breath</a>, or _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_, whatever it is, that should still be useful to you, even if you've gone beyond that. --- ##### Jhanas are lifelong explorations **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^6-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^6-1" class="internal-link">6-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> · <a data-href="Sutta" class="internal-link">Sutta</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=24:19" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So the way _I_ would see _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ is they're potentially lifelong explorations. There's so much gift available there, so much profundity of resource and <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>, so much subtlety to explore, so much to explore that you don't find written. It's not in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sutta" data-href="Sutta" class="internal-link">suttas</a>; it's not in a lot of other stuff that you find written. There are all kinds of possibilities here. So I want to invite you to have that really long view, and part of that long view is this playground business. --- ##### If you can get piti, then the whole territory is open to you **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^6-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^6-2" class="internal-link">6-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2) · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a> (8) · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> (2) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Hell" class="internal-link">Hell</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=25:04" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> If you've been <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Retreat" data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">on retreat</a> at <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> before, or lived here or something, you might know that you can get to Newton Abbot _that_ way, up towards Denbury on the lanes - it's south. You might also know that you can get to Newton Abbot _that_ way, north. You can also get to Newton Abbot _that_ way, east. And you can also get to Newton Abbot _that_ way, west. It's just the way the lanes work around here. [laughs] Why am I saying that? Partly because I would say that first, I thought, "Well, if you can get to the first _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_, then they're all open to you." But actually, I'd like to even modify that statement and say: "If you can get _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_, if _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ can arise, if this lovely <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">well-being</a> can arise, then the whole territory is open to you." So the whole territory of the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ is open to you. What that means, practically speaking, is what's really significant is, =="How do we _get_ that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ to arise?" Or "How do we _allow_ that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ to arise?" is a better way of putting it. The lovely news is _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ is just like Newton Abbot.== [laughter] Only in some respects! If you've been there, you might be relieved to hear that. ==Meaning that it doesn't really matter how that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ arises, and I would say _anything_ goes.== So any kind of (quote) '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">concentration</a>' practice that you might have heard of already, or that you _haven't_ heard of, or whatever. It might be an <a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a> practice. It might be something else. It might be something that you describe to someone, and they're like, "What the <a data-href="hell" class="internal-link">hell</a> has that got to do with <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">concentration</a>?" or whatever. If it gives rise to that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_, if it allows that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ to open, it's great. It's good. We'll give more details to what I'm saying now. --- ##### "Base" practice, or "springboard" practice **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^6-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^6-3" class="internal-link">6-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2) · <a data-href="Breath" class="internal-link">Breath</a> (2) · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Energy body" class="internal-link">Energy body</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=27:12" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So there are all these different possibilities, and in the first few days of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, a couple of things: I'm going to put out quite a few different possibilities of what I want to call a 'base' practice or a 'springboard' practice. So like <a data-href="breath" class="internal-link">breath</a>, or _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>,_ or <a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a> practices, or whatever, or different ways of working with the <a data-href="breath" class="internal-link">breath</a>, <a data-href="energy body" class="internal-link">energy body</a>, etc. - these are what I might call a base practice to work towards getting into the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>,_ or a springboard into _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_, whatever. What that means is for the first - I don't know - five, six, seven days of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, there's quite a lot of teaching. There'll still be one session a day, hopefully, but there's quite a lot of material, because I want to make sure that for someone that it doesn't work to go _that_ way to Newton Abbot, they have _that_ way. And if you're not sure, "Well, I don't know, I've tried these different ones. I'm not sure," then you can try a few things. This is really important. There will also be, amongst all that, all kinds of other information, teaching that should be helpful, but it will be more dense in terms of teaching in the first week or so. --- ##### Insight ways of looking can also give rise to piti **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^6-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^6-4" class="internal-link">6-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (2) · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a> (2) · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a> · <a data-href="Seeing That Frees" class="internal-link">Seeing That Frees</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=28:29" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> <a data-href="ways of looking" class="internal-link">ways of looking</a> can also give rise to _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_. And by '<a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a> <a data-href="ways of looking" class="internal-link">ways of looking</a>,' I actually mean very specifically - some of you will know - the practices that I've written about in my book, _<a data-href="Seeing That Frees" class="internal-link">Seeing That Frees</a>._^[Rob Burbea, _Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising_ (Devon: Hermes Amāra, 2014)] So if you don't know what that means, or you're not familiar with it, just forget it. We won't be giving a lot of teachings about that, but I'm just saying that right now. --- ##### Insight can unblock energy **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^7-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^7-1" class="internal-link">7-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (3) · <a data-href="Energy" class="internal-link">Energy</a> · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a> (2) · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> (2) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=28:58" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> can be used - we'll explain this again - as an occasional unblocker that unblocks the <a data-href="energy" class="internal-link">energy</a>, that unblocks <a data-href="contraction" class="internal-link">contraction</a> and <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and allows <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">well-being</a> and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">samādhi</a>._ So that's one way of using <a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a> practice. Some people use it as their main thing. It's the main thing that opens up _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">samādhi</a>_ and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">well-being</a> and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_. It unfabricates. <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> practices unfabricate. They lessen <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a>, and that's very key. We'll come to explain that more. --- ##### Stick with a practice that already works for you **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^7-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^7-2" class="internal-link">7-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=29:59" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So if you're not familiar with what that means, '<a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a> <a data-href="ways of looking" class="internal-link">ways of looking</a>,' and all that, just leave it, forget it. Here's something: if you already know that practice X, whatever practice X is, reliably and easily for you, takes you into _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>,_ or gives rise to _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ that's kind of stable and you can work with it, if you already know that, stick with it. There's no reason to change that. You've got something that takes you to Newton Abbot, and then you're good. ==If you're not sure, then try some of what we'll be gradually offering in the next few days. But really, then we want to settle to one base practice, one springboard practice==, okay? --- ##### I'm going to talk about the art of samadhi and how we're seeing that **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^7-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^7-3" class="internal-link">7-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2) · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=30:49" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> The talks on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, I'm mostly going to talk really about technique, in the broadest sense of the word - art, let's say; the art of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice, the art of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">samādhi</a> -_ and also about, as I said, view, the view and relationship and framework, how we're seeing that. It's so crucial. So I'm almost entirely just talking about that. There will be no big, new, philosophical <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual frameworks</a> that blow your sense of existence, etc. [laughter], unless some of you don't already know how I would put the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ into a framework, and how I would see <a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a>, in which case, then, it might be like, "Whoa, what's that?", because it's quite different. But generally speaking, I'm not going to be doing that. I'm not going to be trying to do it. I won't bring up really radical questions that kind of get you all agitated and turn everything upside down, etc. --- ##### You are responsible for you inspiration on this retreat **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^7-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^7-4" class="internal-link">7-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Stories" class="internal-link">Stories</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=31:48" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So it's mostly really just about the art of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice. What does that mean? I don't know. It partly means, in relation to the stuff I said earlier, that you're responsible for your inspiration on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. You're responsible for your sense of inspiration, because I'm not going to be telling any <a data-href="stories" class="internal-link">stories</a>. There are no poems. There's none of all that stuff. --- ##### Jhanas are really something remarkable that opens for a human being **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^7-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^7-5" class="internal-link">7-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2) · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (4) · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=32:14" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> The <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> said, "_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhānas</a> are_ dependent on <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>."^[SN 12:23] Of course, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ give _rise_ to <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> - I mean, tremendous <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>. And really, if you've not experienced the _jhānic_ realm, it's <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>, I think we can safely say, that you will not have tasted something like that before. It's really, really extraordinary - something really, really remarkable, and that opens for a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Personhood" data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">human being</a>. --- ##### Jhanas bring happiness, but they also depend on it - where does the base happiness come from? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^7-6" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^7-6" class="internal-link">7-6</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2) · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (4) · <a data-href="Stories" class="internal-link">Stories</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=32:45" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ bring <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>, but they also depend on <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>. So you're responsible for your own inspiration. You're responsible for your <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> as the basis of your _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice - without <a data-href="stories" class="internal-link">stories</a>, without poems, without interesting philosophy, etc. So how are we going to do that? Where does that kind of base <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> come from? I'll say a little bit now, say a little bit later. --- ##### (1) Appreciation **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^7-7" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^7-7" class="internal-link">7-7</a>**: _<a data-href="Appreciation" class="internal-link">Appreciation</a> (4) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> · <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=33:12" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Where **(1)** **<a data-href="Appreciation" class="internal-link">Appreciation</a>**. So much about this practice is really about taking care of your heart. At every level and 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 practised this way before, if you're used to very different ways of thinking of <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, 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 in 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 <a data-href="appreciation" class="internal-link">appreciation</a>, and to reverberate with <a data-href="appreciation" class="internal-link">appreciation</a> for your fellow meditators, for the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, for the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>, for the beautiful <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a>, for the coordinators at <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> 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 <a data-href="appreciation" class="internal-link">appreciation</a>, to be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Retreat" data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">on retreat</a>, orienting and supporting the heart to be in an appreciative mode? This is way more significant than most people would realize. --- ##### (2) Gratitude **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-1" class="internal-link">8-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Gratitude" class="internal-link">Gratitude</a> (3) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=34:37" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(2)** **<a data-href="Gratitude" class="internal-link">Gratitude</a>**. This is all part of the same thing. ==Taking care of inclining the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> and the heart to <a data-href="gratitude" class="internal-link">gratitude</a>, to seeing what there is to be grateful for and to feeling that <a data-href="gratitude" class="internal-link">gratitude</a> 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. --- ##### (3) Beauty **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-2" class="internal-link">8-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> (3)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=34:59" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(3)** **<a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a>**, <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a> is so important: the heart, the eyes, the senses are open to <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>. --- ##### (4) Connection **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-3" class="internal-link">8-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=35:08" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(4)** **Connection** - with each other, with <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a>. --- ##### (5) Openness **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-4" class="internal-link">8-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=35:17" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(5)** **Openness**, generally. Openness of being, openness of heart, <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a> of the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> - these are the kind of things that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourish</a>, that will allow that base level of <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> on which the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ can then be built or opened, whatever metaphor you want to use. --- ##### (6) Mudita **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-5" class="internal-link">8-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Mudita" class="internal-link">Mudita</a> (4) · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=35:36" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(6)** In a word, **_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mudita" data-href="Mudita" class="internal-link">muditā</a>_** is the Pali word. Oftentimes it gets translated as <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mudita" data-href="Mudita" class="internal-link">sympathetic joy</a>. I would prefer the translation **'appreciative <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Happiness" data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">joy</a>' or '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mudita" data-href="Mudita" class="internal-link">spiritual joy</a>.'** ==It means it's not just the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Happiness" data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">joy</a> in someone else's <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>. It _is_ that, and it's all those things I just talked about as well. That's what _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mudita" data-href="Mudita" class="internal-link">muditā</a>_ means in its broader sense, and that's, I think, how the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> meant it.== --- ##### The heart is open, but most of your time is in formal practice **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-6" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-6" class="internal-link">8-6</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (3) · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=36:04" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> All that, while at the same time, your primary focus, and your primary intention, and you're spending most of your time doing _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice, working on that in formal practice. So yes, connection with <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a> is important. If then you feel moved by the great Devon God of Mud and Rain to create a great mud sculpture outside to express your connection, no! [laughter] Not on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. Another time, great, and it might be, "Oh, it's really <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a>." Another time, okay? Most of your time is in formal practice doing _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_, doing towards the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_, but the heart is open, and you're taking care of that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourishment</a>. --- ##### Open-heartedness easily outweighs e.g. focus or concentration for jhana practice **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-7" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-7" class="internal-link">8-7</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> (2) · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=37:06" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Or similarly, connection with each other. It's a silent <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. I guess we'll speak about that. So most the time it's formal practice. Can I feel, can I have that openness, can I have that connection with <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a>, with each other, without having to kind of act on it so kind of, let's say, disruptively? Open-heartedness, in a nutshell, the openness of heart, of <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>, of being, easily outweighs, easily out-trumps, let's say, focus or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">concentration</a>, in terms of its significance for _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice. Openness of heart, openness of being. That's not to say focus and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">concentration</a> is not important, but just relative importance. --- ##### You need a fantasy of the retreat **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^8-8" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^8-8" class="internal-link">8-8</a>**: _<a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> (3) · <a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (7) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (3) · <a data-href="Juiciness" class="internal-link">Juiciness</a> · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> · <a data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">Imaginal</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=38:03" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> If you're familiar with <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Soulmaking" data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking Dharma practice</a>, one way of adding to what we've just said is part of what makes you happy here, while you're here, is that you have a <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. If you're not familiar with <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a>, just forget about this; it doesn't matter. I'm not going to explain it. I'm just throwing it out very briefly. Just don't worry about it. But you need a <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> (in the good sense) of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. ==You need a <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> of yourself as a practitioner - you know, a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Juiciness" data-href="Juiciness" class="internal-link">juicy</a>, <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a>, beautiful <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a> <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> of yourself, something that's operating in the background, a <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> of the tradition.== These _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ teachings have been going for thousands of years, passed on from teacher to student, etc. Thousands of years. There's a tradition of these arts, these <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Beauty" data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">beauties</a>, these treasures being passed on - <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> of all that. ==<a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> of the whole tradition; it's all part of it. That's part of your <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> and nourishment.== But on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, it doesn't become so dominant that you then go into a whole big <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Imaginal" data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">imaginal practice</a> about all that. Maybe occasionally, if you need to kind of recalibrate your whole, "I've gotten into a real rut here or whatever it is, or I've gotten really tight" or whatever, but generally not. --- ##### There fantasies operate in the background **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^9-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^9-1" class="internal-link">9-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (2) · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=39:20" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> These <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasies</a> operate in the background. They're almost subliminal. That's what I mean when I use the word =='<a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>' as opposed to '<a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a>.' They're almost subliminal. They're just kind of really <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourishing</a> and supporting, lubricating our whole sense of what we're doing, giving moisture there, giving <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a> and depth.== So if you don't know what that means because you're not familiar with it, just forget about it; it doesn't matter. --- ##### You have to generate and sustain the energy **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^9-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^9-2" class="internal-link">9-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Energy" class="internal-link">Energy</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=39:49" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> But you're going to have to, because of the schedule, because of the teachings, because we're not going to be at the front a lot - we're not going to be doing, you know, every twenty minutes, piping up and say, "Can you feel your bum?" or whatever - you have to generate and sustain the <a data-href="energy" class="internal-link">energy</a> without the teachers leading a lot of meditations, and with the open schedule. You have to generate the <a data-href="energy" class="internal-link">energy</a> and sustain it. --- ##### Open your intention **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^9-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^9-3" class="internal-link">9-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> · <a data-href="Dominant culture" class="internal-link">Dominant culture</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=40:21" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> What's really helpful also is to open your intention. Why are you here? What's it serving? Who are you serving? Your sitting, your walking, your standing, your showing up consistently in the hall, or people see you out there doing the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">walking meditation</a> in the walking room, etc. - that's a tremendous gift to each other. ==It's so supportive when someone sees you showing up, again and again and again. It's an inspiration.== It communicates commitment. You're helping each other by doing that. What's my intention? Open the intention beyond just me and my practice and how I feel. Why am I here? What am I serving? Who am I serving? Don't assume you are irrelevant. How common it is - one of the pathologies in <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dominant culture" data-href="Dominant culture" class="internal-link">Western culture</a> (mixed with its opposites, often) is to just not realize how relevant we are, how we make a difference. ==Yes, _you,_ as an individual, your presence, your character, your <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>, your vibe. Don't assume you're irrelevant. Don't assume you don't make a difference. Don't assume that in silence you don't make a difference.== --- ##### Part of what gives us equanimity is I'm not just doing this for myself **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^9-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^9-4" class="internal-link">9-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> · <a data-href="Equanimity" class="internal-link">Equanimity</a> (3) · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=41:52" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So open up the intention. This is really important. And again, it could be just a natural part. It could be something very brief. It could be something you do formally, again and again. And, then, of course, the intention for all beings: why are you here? Who are you doing this for? Who are you serving? What are you serving? Again, your <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> and your <a data-href="equanimity" class="internal-link">equanimity</a> - you set a goal: "Oh, I heard about these _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>._ I want to get them," and then it doesn't go so well, and then we need <a data-href="equanimity" class="internal-link">equanimity</a> with that. That's the whole thing. We're going to talk about it. Part of what gives us <a data-href="equanimity" class="internal-link">equanimity</a> is I'm not just doing this for myself. I'm showing up when it is going really not well, and it sucks, and it's raining again in Devon, and whatever it is. And I'm doing this for other people. That's part of what keeps _you_ steady through the ups and downs. Open up the intention. --- ##### Watch out for inertia **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^9-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^9-5" class="internal-link">9-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Inertia" class="internal-link">Inertia</a> (5) · <a data-href="Breath" class="internal-link">Breath</a> (2) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=42:55" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Does everyone know what the word '<a data-href="inertia" class="internal-link">inertia</a>' means? Anyone not know what that means? Okay. Well, <a data-href="inertia" class="internal-link">inertia</a>, briefly, it's a thing from physics. So something that's stationary, you need to work to make it move, and something that's already moving, you need to work to make it change its movement - either stop or go in a different direction. So what I want to say is: watch out for <a data-href="inertia" class="internal-link">inertia</a>. _Watch out for <a data-href="inertia" class="internal-link">inertia</a>_. How often, especially - a lot of you have been practising for years, if not decades - and how easily we can kind of just do what we usually do. And we kind of avoid the effort or the discomfort or the disturbance of trying something new in practice sometimes. So there's even a default, certainly a default way of working with the <a data-href="breath" class="internal-link">breath</a>: "I just always do it this way," or a default way of breathing. It's unconscious. "I just always breathe. I don't really pay <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to how I breathe," and it's a bit uncomfortable to try and play with the <a data-href="breath" class="internal-link">breath</a> and make it breathe differently. Or which practice we do: "I tend to stay away from _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_" or whatever it is. Or, as I mentioned earlier, there can be <a data-href="inertia" class="internal-link">inertia</a> about how we listen to <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> talks. So I maybe always go into this kind of like ... [laughter] and it's just like ... [laughter] You know, let it just wash right through. So maybe if you're used to that, what would it be to listen on your toes, and really listen with a discerning <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>? "What does that imply?", and "Oh, what are the exact differences between ...? How is that different, what I just heard, to what I'm used to hearing, or what I think I know?" --- ##### One of the fruits of jhanas is malleability of mind **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^10-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^10-1" class="internal-link">10-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (8) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (2) · <a data-href="Consciousness" class="internal-link">Consciousness</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> · <a data-href="Inertia" class="internal-link">Inertia</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=45:16" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> One of the fruits of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ is malleability of <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. Everyone knows what 'malleable' means? It means shapeability. Actually, one of the most significant - we'll talk about this - one of the most significant fruits of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice is malleability: malleability of <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a>, <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a>, <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. ==Like so many things, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ lead to malleability. Guess what? Malleability leads to _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>._ In other words, it's a condition for _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_. So malleability now is the opposite of inertia.== You've got to get in there and try different things in your playground: "Oh, I've never played on that whirly swing before." Well, get on it and give it a go. And that might mean something very subtle about what you're doing, or it might mean a different practice, or whatever it is. _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhānas</a>_ lead to malleability, malleability leads to _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_. ==You won't access _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ unless you're willing to be malleable, and you play and you play, and get into trying different things. You've got to be, in a way, practising on your toes, ready, responsive.== We'll talk a lot about this. --- ##### We want firm, clear, simple intention for "jhana practice" **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^10-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^10-2" class="internal-link">10-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (6) · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (2) · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=46:24" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So malleability, on one hand. At the same time, with it, we want firm, clear, simple intention or resolve. It's a kind of a complement to malleability. In other words, we are here to do _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice. I'm very clear: that's my priority. That's what I'm here for, and that's clear. It's very simple. It's complex what it _involves_, but the _intention_ is simple, and it's a resolve, and it's firm. It's clear, simple, and firm. Again, this is _immensely_ significant. It doesn't sound like a big deal. It will make or break your practice, dependent on some intention, if you're not taking care of that. So when I say '_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice' (and again, I'll elaborate on a lot of what I'm talking about here), I mean including the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a>, including working with the difficulties. ==When I say '_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice,' I mean also working with the difficulties, the yucky stuff, the sludge, and slogging away through it, etc. I mean also, when I say '_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice,' the whole relationship with practice, the whole view of <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a> doing the practice, and trying to do the practice.== I mean the whole relationship with goals and effort, the whole <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> of all that, <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a> as meditator. All that is included in what I call '_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice,' not just the lovely bits about how to move from the second to the third _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ or whatever. --- ##### Don't try to use this retreat to fix tings, but rather go with whatever practice is the easiest for the well-being to arise **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^10-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^10-3" class="internal-link">10-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> · <a data-href="Breath" class="internal-link">Breath</a> · <a data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">Constriction</a> (3) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">Piti</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=48:02" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So malleability and clear, simple, firm resolve in doing _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice. What that means, practically speaking, is it's too much to then add, "Oh, great, three weeks at <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a>. _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Mettā</a>'s_ always been easy and familiar to me, and when I've tried <a data-href="breath" class="internal-link">breath</a> practice, I always get this kind of <a data-href="constriction" class="internal-link">constriction</a> in my throat. Maybe I'll use this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> to see if I can clear up that <a data-href="constriction" class="internal-link">constriction</a>." No. Okay? I mean, it may happen, it may not happen, but don't make it an intention. As I said before, or to say what I said before in a different way, go with whatever practice is easiest for the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">well-being</a>, the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Piti" data-href="Piti" class="internal-link">pīti</a>_ to arise. ==Listen to what I'm saying. I'm not saying, "Go with whatever practice you feel you can stick with the object the longest for." Go with whatever practice is the _easiest for the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">well-being</a> to arise_.== Okay? So I'm not trying to fix this <a data-href="constriction" class="internal-link">constriction</a> in my neck. I'm also not going to, "Oh, three weeks, I can also develop my yoga practice, and get into that, or perfect my lotus pose or whatever, or kick my caffeine <a data-href="habit" class="internal-link">habit</a> or whatever." All of these may be really good things, but ==once we start expanding the intention that way, it actually, in a subtle way, starts to fray something.== --- ##### Hindrances as the dark, rich underbelly of jhana practice **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^11-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^11-1" class="internal-link">11-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (4) · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (4) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=49:41" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Okey-doke. So I mentioned the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a>, and I really want to stress this point (I'll say it over and over): I'm including that in _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice. By '_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice,' I mean a very big picture, including the times when it's really not going well, and those particular difficulties, and how we relate to them, and how we work with them. They are - sometimes I call them - they are the dark, rich underbelly of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ practice: the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a>, the stuff we really don't like. They have their own gold, they deliver their own gold, if I work with them the right way. And I would dare to say, if you spent a whole three weeks, and you never made it to any _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ at all, but you got wise in relation to the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a> (and I'll explain what I mean by that), this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> would still be worth its weight in gold. ==<a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> are life afflictions. They don't just come in meditation.== They affect our life, and to really know how to work with them, and to be wise in relation to them, it's a tremendous, tremendous bonus, a gift, a benefit. --- ##### Don't believe the hindrances, and don't take them personally **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^11-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^11-2" class="internal-link">11-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (5) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (2) · <a data-href="Stories" class="internal-link">Stories</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=50:54" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So that whole yucky side, the difficult side of practice, the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a>, is just as valuable as the loveliness, okay? I'm not bullshitting when I say this. I really, really mean it. If we can find, open up some <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">wisdom</a> there, relate in a wise way - I'll say more about this, but two principal things, what I mean by '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">wisdom</a>.' I'll repeat it later. It means that we don't believe the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a> any more. We don't believe the <a data-href="stories" class="internal-link">stories</a> they spin. So if you can move towards not believing the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a>, that's massive in your life. That's such a huge gift. If you can also move towards being okay with <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a> arising without it having any sense of implication about your self, or your worth, or your value as a meditator - in other words, you're not taking them personally, not believing them and not taking them personally - if you can move towards those two kind of places or stances in relation to the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a>, that is absolutely magnificently huge. It doesn't sound so sexy, it doesn't sound so glamorous and glitzy and whatever, but in terms of what it delivers for your life, it's huge. --- ##### All this implies something about your practice, intention, view **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^11-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^11-3" class="internal-link">11-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Relationships" class="internal-link">Relationships</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (3)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=52:18" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So I'm including all that. It's part of the framework. And again, all this, what I'm saying now, implies something in your practice. It implies something about your intention. It implies something about your view. It implies something about your attitude. So it will make differences in terms of moment-to-moment stances, views, perspectives, <a data-href="relationships" class="internal-link">relationships</a>, attitudes, heart qualities, etc. Don't let it be just me, "_Blah blah blah."_ This is part of you being on your toes. You're translating this. [snapping fingers] What does it mean in this moment now? "Oh, yeah, that's ..." What does it mean to just turn around the whole view, open up the whole view of what we're doing? Because who has not heard a talk on the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a> before? Who has not heard ten talks on the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a> before? Who amongst has not heard a hundred? [laughter] What we want is to _change_ something_,_ and the way we - well, we'll get into the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a> more later on. --- ##### The path needs psychological awareness **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^11-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^11-4" class="internal-link">11-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Emotions" class="internal-link">Emotions</a> (2) · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (3) · <a data-href="Awareness" class="internal-link">Awareness</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=53:26" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Let's broaden this. From the <a data-href="hindrances" class="internal-link">hindrances</a>, let's open out right now to talk about <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, and particularly difficult <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, in the context of a _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. Context, context, context. ==I really want to emphasize or offer a context for the whole of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>, and then place this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> within that larger context==, okay? To me, I feel, of fundamental importance - I feel really strongly about it - our whole path, the movement we make, the opening, the learning, the development we make on the whole path, it needs to include a development, a deepening of our psychological <a data-href="awareness" class="internal-link">awareness</a>, certainly in relation to ourselves, but also in relation to others. And that's a whole big subject. To me, that's part of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>. It's part of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a> nowadays much more so, and we can talk about this another time, perhaps. It's different than when the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> was alive. We have different psychologies. The whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">sense of self</a> is different. The implication is actually what <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a> _is_ is something different nowadays. I'm not going to get on a sidetrack by that, but we can pick it up. --- ##### Emotional discernment and emotional capacity in awakening and healing **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^12-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^12-1" class="internal-link">12-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> · <a data-href="Awareness" class="internal-link">Awareness</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (3) · <a data-href="Emotions" class="internal-link">Emotions</a> (6) · <a data-href="Healing" class="internal-link">Healing</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=54:49" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> ==What it means is, these days, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a> needs to include a certain depth and breadth, and capacity, and sophistication, and sensitivity with regard to what we might call psychological <a data-href="awareness" class="internal-link">awareness</a> of self and other.== The whole path, for me, and the way I would teach and portray the whole path, is it must include within that emotional <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">discernment</a> and emotional capacity. The heart is big and can hold _a lot_. It has a range, a whole range, emotional range - all kinds of <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, not just _these_ kinds. That there's, in the emotional <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">discernment</a> that's part, to me, of what an awakened being has or does or is, that there's a tremendous amount of subtlety there with regard to the <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a> and the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">discernment</a> and the working with <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>. Also with regard to the <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a> and the whole path: <a data-href="healing" class="internal-link">healing</a> - that we are <a data-href="healing" class="internal-link">healing</a>; we have healed; we understand that; we're capable of working with that. I'm just making a list now. ==We're perfectly happy regarding the <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a> as 'real,' and having real causes, and relating to them and caring for them as real entities with real causes. _And_ we're perfectly happy regarding them as thoroughly empty, and not real, and not being really caused by real things. There's a range of view, and we're skilled in many different approaches and perspectives regarding the emotions.== --- ##### On this retreat, our first choice for difficult emotions is to simplify them and let them quieten **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^12-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^12-2" class="internal-link">12-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Emotions" class="internal-link">Emotions</a> (4) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2) · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=56:33" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So this, to me, is the bigger context in regard to <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a> on the whole of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>. Now we're on a three-week, or whatever it is, 23-day _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. We're setting this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> in context, in that much bigger context where we want all of that list of what I just said with regard to the <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>. _Now,_ for this three weeks, our first choice with regard to difficult <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a> - with regard to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Happiness" data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">joy</a> and things and peace, we'll talk more about this as we go on - but with regard to _difficult_ <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, our first choice is simplifying: psychologically simplifying, and letting them quieten, or encouraging them to quieten. --- ##### It's a temporary preferences, and there is still care there **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^12-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^12-3" class="internal-link">12-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Emotions" class="internal-link">Emotions</a> (3) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=57:24" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Now, if someone does that, if that's their _only_ relationship with the <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a> for the whole of their path, I'm not okay with that. I'm really not okay with that. But if someone doesn't know how to do that, and cannot move into that gear, I'm also not so okay with that. When we allow the <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, difficult <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, to quiet, when we simplify all their complexity - and their complexity can be beautiful and very important at times, but on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, this is what we're doing on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. This is our primary, our first choice way of working, of relating. When we simplify and quieten them that way, there's still care there. We're not being hard or dismissive or brutal in any way. There's still care there. So it's the first choice. It's not _always -_ we're not always; there are some other options and second choices there. It's a temporary preference, set in a much bigger context. --- ##### Passion and grief around activism is important **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^12-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^12-4" class="internal-link">12-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Death" class="internal-link">Death</a> (2) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (2) · <a data-href="Grief" class="internal-link">Grief</a> (3)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=58:24" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Some of you, I know, have been working very hard recently as activists in different areas. Some of you, I know, in regard to climate change, in all kinds of things, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Death" data-href="Death" class="internal-link">Extinction</a> Rebellion, and things like that - climate change, species <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Death" data-href="Death" class="internal-link">extinction</a>, whatever it is. And I don't know where you're at now. It's all very recent. It's all very much alive and in our faces. You may still be feeling that <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> and that burning, and there may be <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a>. I don't know. There may be some <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a> around all that. It's around. It's up for a lot of people. I certainly feel it. It's really important. That <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> and that <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a> are really important. --- ##### Others might feel grief at the recent election, or at my health - but to pick it up is not the priority on this retreat **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^12-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^12-5" class="internal-link">12-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Grief" class="internal-link">Grief</a> (3) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Emotions" class="internal-link">Emotions</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=59:28" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Some of you - certainly in this country, and maybe even in other countries - might be feeling <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a>, maybe even upset, at the recent election here. You may. You may not. Some of you - and again, I don't know - some of you may be feeling <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a> in relation to me and my situation, my health, and probably dying, etc. And of course, there may be other things that you're feeling are impacting the heart right now - difficult to bear; there's a sense of loss, of things falling apart or whatever. Related to what I said before, I want for you that you have a really very wide and deep range of approaches for your <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>. I want that for your souls, so that you're able to open to <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a>, and really open, but you're able to hold it and hold it well, hold it in a way that heals. I want that for you, and I also want that you can decide sometimes _not_ to pick it up, and instead go for the positive, the joyful, the _jhānic_ direction, the quietening of <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, which happens in _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ via <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Happiness" data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">joy</a> anyway. You go through the bubbliness and the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Happiness" data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">joy</a>, and then things start to quieten. So here on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> - although I want _all_ this for you - here on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, as I said, the latter approach is primary, this quieting. --- ##### here's no danger of not being able to find the grief later **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^13-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^13-1" class="internal-link">13-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Grief" class="internal-link">Grief</a> (2) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Emotions" class="internal-link">Emotions</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:01:10" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> This is a big deal. There's no danger, I think, if you are not sure. There's no danger of not being able to find the <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a> later, okay? It's important to say this. If you have three weeks where you tend to make a certain direction of choice - not pushing it away, not shutting it down, just "I'm not so much going there" - there's no danger that you won't be able to find it later on, _if_ it's authentic, say, <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a> or whatever, after the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. There's no danger that you're going to get locked in some kind of mode of relationship with your <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a> or your heart that you're kind of locked into this mode of not feeling certain <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>. No danger at all. Okay? Three weeks, you can practise this malleability. There's no danger of those things. Again, we want the gift of flexibility, of range. --- ##### If you have some sense of grief, let's take a moment **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^13-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^13-2" class="internal-link">13-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> · <a data-href="Grief" class="internal-link">Grief</a> · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:02:13" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So I don't know, right now. Let's take a few minutes, okay? I just want to follow this up for a few minutes. If there is something that has affected your heart, _is_ affecting your heart, something to do with loss - anything: it could be in relation to <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a>. It could be in relation to social situations. It could be a personal relationship or whatever, a loss or impending loss. If you have some sense of something is falling apart or potentially falling apart, some <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a>, some overwhelm, if there's something like that, let's take a moment. Maybe come into a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">meditation posture</a>, just for a few moments together. I want to do something. --- ##### Guided meditation begins **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^13-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^13-3" class="internal-link">13-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:03:25" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> [1:03:25, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">guided meditation</a> begins] --- ##### Different ways how your heart might be impacted **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^13-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^13-4" class="internal-link">13-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Grief" class="internal-link">Grief</a> · <a data-href="Anger" class="internal-link">Anger</a>_ So it doesn't matter what it is. It also doesn't matter if there's nothing in particular. But it may be, as I said, that your heart is impacted, is finding it hard to bear what human beings are doing to the earth, to our own, the ecosystem, the planet that keeps us alive and sustains our civilization, what we're doing to the other species. It may be there's a personal loss, or the possibility of a personal loss, some relationship, someone you care about or <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, or there has been that loss. It may be that you're feeling <a data-href="grief" class="internal-link">grief</a> or dismay or <a data-href="anger" class="internal-link">anger</a> at some of what's going on or what goes under the heading of political - but it's not really political, it's ethical: the rise of nationalism, racism; seeming corporate stranglehold on democracy; simply the prevalence of stupidity. Anything like that. --- ##### Let the uprightness of your posture help you **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^13-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^13-5" class="internal-link">13-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (2) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:04:54" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Just in your <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">meditation posture</a>, let the uprightness and the firmness of your posture help you. These are big deals, big movements, big changes, asking a lot of us. Let your posture help you - open, grounded, upright. So bring whatever it is, or whichever ones of those, bring them to <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. Just bring them lightly to <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. No need to get into a whole story. Just get a sense of what is happening, what might be happening, and how it affects your heart, how it affects your <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>. --- ##### Let your attention and awareness include your whole body **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^14-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^14-1" class="internal-link">14-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Awareness" class="internal-link">Awareness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> (5)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:05:56" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Let your <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> and <a data-href="awareness" class="internal-link">awareness</a> include your whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, the whole space of your whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>. That's your base, that whole space. Open up the <a data-href="awareness" class="internal-link">awareness</a>. You're letting that whole space be in touch with these challenges, these difficulties, these happenings, these developments. Upright, open. Just notice how your heart is right now. Whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> - keep that whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> space open. Keep opening the whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>. Don't let it shrink. It _will_ shrink; keep opening it. --- ##### Let there be a little spaciousness around your heart's response **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^14-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^14-2" class="internal-link">14-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Spaciousness" class="internal-link">Spaciousness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:06:52" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And feel your heart in response, or how it responds to these situations, whatever it is. Let there be a little <a data-href="spaciousness" class="internal-link">spaciousness</a>, a little softness around your heart's response. Whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>. But then, not _so_ much emphasizing the <a data-href="spaciousness" class="internal-link">spaciousness</a> or the softness. Let that be there, but rather, how do I want to work? How do I want to live in response to this loss, this falling apart, whatever it is? How do I want to manifest in relationship to it? --- ##### What am I devoted to **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^14-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^14-3" class="internal-link">14-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> (2) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Rupa" class="internal-link">Rupa</a> · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Devotion" class="internal-link">Devotion</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:07:48" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I'm not talking about the practical details: "I'm going to do this. I'm going to sign up for that. I'm going to get a job doing this." I mean just the quality of being, the stance of being, the relationship, the resolve - heart, <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>, being, whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>. What am I devoted to? With all this that I'm potentially facing, that we are potentially facing, what am I devoted to? It doesn't matter about the details. Can I get a sense of it in a way that makes a difference to my sense right now? It might be the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>. It might be the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>. Maybe you use the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Rupa" data-href="Rupa" class="internal-link">rūpa</a>_ at the front of the hall, of the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> there. It might be a certain <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a> that you've worked with, and that's what you're devoted to. It might be something a bit more abstract like goodness or <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a> or <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>. ==Get a sense of what you're devoted to, so you're holding your <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, your heart, the difficulty, and this sense of devotion.== --- ##### Energetic sense of resolve, of devotion **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^14-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^14-4" class="internal-link">14-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Devotion" class="internal-link">Devotion</a> (6) · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> (11) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:09:13" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Can you sense that <a data-href="devotion" class="internal-link">devotion</a> in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> and in the way it shapes the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, in the way it energizes the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, in the way the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> forms itself around it, in the way the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> aligns with that <a data-href="devotion" class="internal-link">devotion</a>? Connecting <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, <a data-href="devotion" class="internal-link">devotion</a>. Heart, <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>. Can you get a sense of how the sense of <a data-href="devotion" class="internal-link">devotion</a> actually energizes the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> right now? Inner stillness. There's a sense of resolve there. Can you feel it in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> space? We're not going into practical details: "I resolve to do this every day. I resolve ..." More the _energetic_ sense of resolve, of <a data-href="devotion" class="internal-link">devotion</a>. ==Can you feel in the sense of <a data-href="devotion" class="internal-link">devotion</a> in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, in the sense of resolve, can you feel that there's strength there, and you feel it in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>? There's uprightness there.== --- ##### A minimum base of happiness **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^14-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^14-5" class="internal-link">14-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> · <a data-href="Devotion" class="internal-link">Devotion</a> · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Equanimity" class="internal-link">Equanimity</a> · <a data-href="Energy" class="internal-link">Energy</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:10:53" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Not suppressing anything here, but in this alignment of the heart and the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, the <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>, the being, the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, with what we're devoted to, in relation to what is difficult, the resolve and the <a data-href="devotion" class="internal-link">devotion</a>, the energization, the uprightness - this becomes a kind of minimum base of <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>. There's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">well-being</a> in this state. <a data-href="Equanimity" class="internal-link">Equanimity</a> is here, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">well-being</a>, uprightness, <a data-href="energy" class="internal-link">energy</a>, etc. In relation to what we've said with this, certainly with regard to _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhāna</a>_ work, this kind of basis of strength, of stability, of a very base level of <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> there. And it transfers to our life, for our work or whatever we're doing. It builds, expands our capacity to serve. Of course, the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_ do as well. --- ##### guided meditation ends **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^14-6" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^14-6" class="internal-link">14-6</a>**: _<a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:12:21" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> [1:12:21, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">guided meditation</a> ends] --- Okay. So you can just gently come out of that now. Do you get a sense of what I'm talking about here? Does it make energetic sense? Yes? So that was very quick. That's one possibility with difficult <a data-href="emotions" class="internal-link">emotions</a>, and as I said, there are so many other skills, etc. But this kind of thing, it's important, given - and I know some of you have come from a lot of busyness in <a data-href="activism" class="internal-link">activism</a>, etc., or whatever it is right now, and other things that are going on. Okay. Kirsten or Sari. Which one of you ...? --- ##### Kirsten <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^15-2" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^15-2" class="internal-link">15-2</a> <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:13:42" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **Kirsten**: Thank you, Rob. So I also just wanted to say a very, very, very warm welcome. It's really lovely to sit with you here. I really, really enjoy it, and I'm so delighted, Rob, that after nearly two years, actually this can happen. So I'm really very touched and grateful and appreciative that Rob, after sixteen years wanting to teach this, finally has three weeks to do so. I'm really, really delighted - delighted to be here with you. --- So here we are landing together. So Rob gave each of us five minutes, so now I'll try my very, very best. **Rob**: It doesn't matter! [laughs] --- ##### How we create this container together **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^15-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^15-5" class="internal-link">15-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Vessel" class="internal-link">Vessel</a> · <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> · <a data-href="Blessing" class="internal-link">Blessing</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:14:35" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **Kirsten**: So what I would really like to speak a little bit about is how we create this container together. It's really so lovely for me to sit in this hall, and already having a sense of being welcomed in this <a data-href="vessel" class="internal-link">vessel</a> of <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a>. These important <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Blessing" data-href="Blessing" class="internal-link">gifts</a> - at least in me, something feels really welcomed, you know? I can relax already a little bit. Can you sense this, just arriving here? --- ##### We all are participating in this **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^15-6" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^15-6" class="internal-link">15-6</a>**: _<a data-href="Vessel" class="internal-link">Vessel</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:15:08" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And also really appreciating what Rob alluded to here, that we all are participating in this. We are all contributing. We're all participating to enhance, to make this <a data-href="vessel" class="internal-link">vessel</a> even more beautiful. And we're all needed, we are all needed in this. We are all active ingredients, important ingredients, needed ingredients - welcomed and appreciated ingredients. I really want to welcome you all into this. --- ##### Shared intention of non-harming <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^15-7" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^15-7" class="internal-link">15-7</a> <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:15:50" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I think one very beautiful, beautiful ingredient is all those shared intentions of non-harming; this shared celebration of our moral sensibility, one could say - our ethical consideration. I think this is something uniquely human, you know. This is something that makes us human. ==So really inviting the explorations, the examination. This territory of moral sensibility, one could say, is a way to celebrate our humanness. It's a way to celebrate that - what is precious in the human heart.== --- ##### Making the Five Preceps part of our mandala here **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^15-8" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^15-8" class="internal-link">15-8</a>**: _<a data-href="Precepts" class="internal-link">Precepts</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:16:46" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And traditionally, of course, as you all know, these moral sensibilities, this intention of non-harming, is expressed in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Precepts" data-href="Precepts" class="internal-link">five precepts</a>, and I just will name them in a moment. I really just want to name them. I really want to just bring them into the room. I want to make them part of our _maṇḍala_ here. And of course, you all are aware that they are somehow just headlines or gateways to actually very powerful, actually quite unfathomable explorations of what it may mean to be alive. --- ##### Applying the precepts to the retreat situation **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^15-9" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^15-9" class="internal-link">15-9</a>**: _<a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a> (2) · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Consciousness" class="internal-link">Consciousness</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:17:35" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And as Rob said before, when we were speaking shortly up in the teacher wing, they're a great foundation for _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">samādhi</a> -_ a way we can appreciate our heart, we can appreciate each other, and this precious gift of safety, safety to each other. Listen, step into it. Really see if you can step into this beautiful intention - or this beautiful pathway of intentions they actually evoke. That takes a training, to not intentionally harm or kill another <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Personhood" data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">human being</a>. When you resonate with the <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a> of this intention, this point of reverence, we together, here, undertake a training to not take what has not been freely given, and to respect each other's property, and respect all that is given to us. We undertake the training to not harm another with expressions of our <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a>. This doesn't make one's <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a> wrong, or is a moral statement, but we give each other the <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a> not to look at each other in this way, so that we can be at ease in this way with each other. We undertake the training to not intentionally hurt ourselves and others with our words. And of course, this might be mostly internal speaking, but we pay <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a>: how do we speak in our practice, to ourselves and to each other? And we take a resolve to not take any substances that cloud our <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, because we really want to explore the depths of what is possible for this human <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a>. We want to explore, we want to inhabit, we want to really know it deeply, what is possible here. And of course, this doesn't mean that you stop taking any medication, you know. Of course, look after yourself. So how does this ring with you? --- ##### Appreciate each other in our intention **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^16-1" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^16-1" class="internal-link">16-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Appreciation" class="internal-link">Appreciation</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:20:58" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And when Rob was speaking, and I was just sitting here a little bit, first of all, to see already this <a data-href="appreciation" class="internal-link">appreciation</a> in your faces. I don't think it's a projection. When Rob came in - you know, just a lot of <a data-href="appreciation" class="internal-link">appreciation</a> to be here with us and with him. And then also maybe having this sense for a moment to appreciate each other in our intention, in our precious gift, that people can actually feel safe around us - this precious gift of the intention of non-harming. ==And delighting, you know, to be welcomed in the community where this is a shared intention, but also I think, really, really important to delight in the goodness of your own intention. To delight, that your heart actually feels really moved to incline itself in this way.== --- Thank you. I'm really looking forward to practice with you, and may you all have a wonderful <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> with delights and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Happiness" data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">joy</a>. --- ##### Sari **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^16-3" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^16-3" class="internal-link">16-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Appreciation" class="internal-link">Appreciation</a> (2) · <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:22:50" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **Sari**: Hi, everyone. It's really lovely to sit here together, and I felt so much <a data-href="appreciation" class="internal-link">appreciation</a> listening to Rob, and being here together, starting and embarking on this journey together. A really, really warm welcome from my side as well. And at the same time with <a data-href="appreciation" class="internal-link">appreciation</a>, I can feel a sense of a little bit of wobbliness, sitting for the first time on this side in the hall of <a data-href="Gaia House" class="internal-link">Gaia House</a>, instead of that side with you. But seeing all your friendly faces brings so much encouragement, and I feel a sense of support and friendliness and heartfulness in the hall. So I'm very much looking forward to our time together, journeying through the territory of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>,_ and all the exploration and sharing and learning together. --- ##### A gift of silence **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^16-4" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^16-4" class="internal-link">16-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (3) · <a data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">Samadhi</a> · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:24:07" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I was just wishing to say a few words about silence. Silence, that is such an essential part of this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> container, and also so much supporting what we are doing here together as we're exploring the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. And as we're creating conditions for the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samadhi" data-href="Samadhi" class="internal-link">samādhi</a>_, for the silence of the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> also to deepen, and hopefully, the silence can be, at the same time, a resource for us, really deeply <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourishing</a> our heart and <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> - can be almost like a companion on the journey for us, hopefully. And this is also something that we are cultivating and creating and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourishing</a> together, the kind of part of the container that we can be offering ourselves the silence, and offering each other the silence - a gift of silence which can really help ourselves and each other in becoming more sensitive. It's really so supportive. And hopefully, we can still enjoy each other, and feel each other's support, as it was talked about; that we can support each other in the silence, and feel a sense of community. It would be so much more difficult to do this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> by ourselves at home. --- ##### Basket for the cell phones **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat > ^16-5" data-href="1217 Orienting to This Jhana Retreat#^16-5" class="internal-link">16-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (2) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60865/20191217-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-orienting_to_this_jhana_retreat-60865.mp3#t=01:26:20" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So we were thinking that there would be a practical way to support our exploration, a practice of supporting silence, and we are very much offering this possibility, and also encouraging you to hopefully make use of that. And we will be bringing here a basket where you're very much invited and encouraged to bring and leave your mobile phones for the duration of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. So you could bring the phone and mark it with your name, and we will take care of the mobile phone, and you will surely get it back in the end of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. This could be actually also part of this ritual of simplifying and renunciation, and <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a>, and also for the sense of creating the condition that can support ourselves and each other to make the most of this journey. --- So this basket will arrive here, I think, right after, but it will be at least available until tomorrow morning. **Nathan**: It's there. **Sari**: It's there. Thank you, Nathan. And you're very welcome to bring your little friends there and leave them with us. I'm really, really, really happy and grateful to be sharing this journey together, and meet you in the interviews, and wish you all a very, very fruitful <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. **Rob**: Thank you. So we've already been sitting for a little while. I'd like to do a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">guided meditation</a>, but I think we probably need to move a little bit, so why don't we take two minutes, and just move your <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> however you feel like you need, whatever's going to be good, because we're probably going to be a little bit longer. We're going to sit. So just shake it, wiggle, stretch, whatever it needs.