Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat

The most obvious form of suffering is blatant suffering, which is both physical and mental. Physical suffering involves lack of necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, health, while mental suffering is such that people can be in wonderfully endowed in all the necessities but suffer terribly mentally. The black plague of mental suffering is carried on the fleas of mental concepts - suffering encroaches via concepts. With mindfulness of breathing, one blows concepts and thoughts away with the out-breath and the stages of shamatha involve the progressive diminishing of this conceptual realm. Achieving bodhicitta is a second way of achieving liberation. By cherishing others more than yourself, this too leads to the cessation of mental suffering. Meditation starts at 14:10