A Conscious Engagement with Life: Mindful of Inner and Outer Worlds

Instructor(s): Dhammadipa and Brad Hunter

Program Description:

Watch a Video Invitation from Dhammadīpā and Brad Hunter

Moment by moment our lives shimmer with vibrancy. Our bodily senses resonate with our immediate surroundings and our minds attend to an inner landscape that is shifting and flowing. In the midst of such fullness, it can be hard to know how to practice, how to engage. Yet the Dhamma calls us to that very task. It calls us to a meeting with the moment, every moment, and to awareness of the ways in which our bodies and minds are designed to engage with the world. This program will explore MN 28, the Larger Simile of the Elephant's Footprint and its teachings on how to study the five aggregates and the process nature of experience. We will also experience meditation on, and contemplation of, the four elements and six sense bases. We will also briefly touch on the Maha Mangala Sutta Snp 2.4 as a teaching about practice in everyday life.

About the Instructor(s):
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  Dhammadīpā

  Dhammadīpā, the founder of Dassanaya Buddhist Community, has been practicing Buddhism since 1987. She is a Dharma Transmitted Teacher in the Suzuki Roshi lineage of Soto Zen and was a nun ordained in the Theravada tradition for 5 years. In addition to English, Dhammadīpā teaches in Spanish, an expression of her Latin heritage. She is an author whose work has appeared in the Buddhist publications "Lion's Roar" and the "Buddhadharma" magazine. Dhammadīpā is the mother of a lovely adult daughter, and enjoys sewing and watercolor painting.

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  Brad Hunter

  Brad Hunter has practiced meditation since the early 70s in the Zen and Theravada traditions. His work and spiritual life have intertwined around death, dying, grief, and trauma. Brad spent 40 years managing cemeteries and crematoria. During the same time, he studied and taught applied embodied meditative practices and perspectives for grief and trauma in individual, group, workshop, and retreat settings. In semi-retirement, Brad has taught courses in grief and trauma for Kings University College in London (Ontario), graduated from Upaya’s Chaplaincy Program, offered ‘conscious living, conscious dying’ workshops/retreats, provided individual grief and meditation counseling, and taught an online sangha.