“Mindfulness & Intuition” with Benjamin Hohl this Sunday at Minneapolis Insight

December 28, 2024

“Mindfulness & Intuition” with Benjamin Hohl this Sunday at Minneapolis Insight

Dear Community,

Sunday 10am Community Practice & Discussion

This Sunday Benjamin will lead an exploration of “Mindfulness & Intuition,” based on Ajahn Sumedho’s teachings in Anthology Vol 5 - The Wheel of Truth (freely available here) Chapter 16, “Entering the Deathless.” Below are excerpts from this chapter:

Mindfulness is a key word in Buddhist teaching: it means that when we practise meditation we use the intuitive ability of the mind. We’re not rationalizing or analyzing anything, even though we can do these things when necessary, because meditation isn’t an analysis or a critique or a suppression or a denial of anything; it’s a willingness to embrace the moment. This intuition is the ability that we have when we’re receptive and fully awake and aware.

This kind of sustained awareness, this listening, is an expansive state of mind, isn’t it? It’s the conscious experience in the present which embraces the moment rather than discriminates – as we do when we concentrate on one thing and shut out all the rest.

The meaning of pamuñcantu saddhaṁ is to trust or relax into this present moment with faith. It’s a simple ability; it’s not a complicated, difficult thing to do. You don’t have to spend years trying to be mindful and trying to get it; it’s not like that, it’s a natural state that is relaxed and attentive, open, receptive, in the present. So then when we trust in that we begin to recognize the way it is – in the body, the feelings, the mental states, and with the dhammas. These comprise the Four Foundations for Mindfulness, and they are present here and now.

All are welcome to join this exploration on Sunday! Registration and Zoom information available here.

With mettā,
Minneapolis Insight