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St Michael's Retreat Fourth Talk
This title has been reviewed for accuracy.
Thay continues on The Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, c. 20 BCE)–Mindfulness of body, Mindfulness of feelings, Mindfulness of mind (mental formations), and Mindfulness of dharmas (or objects of mind)–drawing also upon the “16 Exercises on the Full Awareness of Breathing” in The Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Ānāpānasati Sutta). Thay recommences with how to work with the three categories of feelings–pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant—and how they in turn often are preconditioned by our body and by our mental formations.—All are interconnected. We tend to overemphasize what we do not like—the unpleasant, our suffering—often failing to appreciate all that is neutral or going well. Thay then turns to the Four Nutriments, in particular what we eat as food; what we consume via sense impressions, such as through media; and what we tell ourselves (or are told by culture) that motivates us, our volitions. His teaching is that we often mindlessly consume and fail to recognize how what we consume determines our ill-being or our well-being. He prescribes recognizing what we consume that brings us ill-being, practicing mindfulness of our mental formations, and choosing the volitions of loving kindness and compassion. Thay counsels us to go to our true home, sit with our avoidance of self-knowing, and take care of our wounded and unattended child, which is our sorrow, our sense of failure, our depression, etc. Thay closes the talk with practical meditation guidelines for how to work with mindfulness to take care of recurring mental formations and embrace those that feed us with well-being and joy.
This is the third talk in a series given during The Path of Emancipation, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 1998. Thay offered this talk at St. Michael’s College, Burlington, Vermont, in the United States.
These teachings later appear in the book The Path of Emancipation.