May 15th, 2025: Level 1 Planetary Dharma Class
Small group session outline
Group Check-In (1 minute per person)
Lecture on the Path (10 minutes)
Meditation on the Path (30-40 minutes)
Practice Reflections + Q&A (20-30 minutes)
Lecture on the Path - 10 MINUTES
Use the following questions, the Q&A top hits, and your own experience to create a 10 minute lecture on The Path of Enthusiastic Perseverance.
Reflection questions
At Stage 7, how does joy and delight enable us to stabilize while easing up more?
At Stage 8, what are we releasing, what is the new meditation object, and how does this support an even deeper level of staying?
If we understand Stage 7 as an “octave upshift” of the desire-fuel of Stage 3, what can we learn about Stage 7 by studying Stage 3?
If we understand Stage 8’s contentment as an “octave upshift” of Stage 2’s attunement, what can we learn about Stage 8 by studying Stage 2?
If we understand Stage 9’s equanimity as an “octave upshift” of Stage 1 stability, what can we learn about Stage 9 by studying Stage 1?
Q&A Top Hits
Why do we need to let go of the delight? It’s so delightful!
There is a subtle excitement in delight that actually prevents the deepest levels of staying. Contentedness allows for an even deeper level of staying and a deeper release of any meditation strategy.
Stable equanimity takes this further, enabling us to release meditation techniques completely. When resting into stable equanimity, we recognize that there’s nothing to maintain, not even delight or contentedness, and that we’re safe to simply release into the stable, lucid, equanimity.
Why is it difficult to stabilize joy? Contentment? Equanimity?
In each case, look for the prior stages goals. Were they to some degree activated?
In the case of joy, was there first some degree of mastering easing up at the prior Stage 6? Was there enough clarity needed for easing up to allow automaticity at the subtle level.
In the case of contentment, was there enough joy to purify aversion and lighten the heartmind such that a deeper release into contentment is feasible?
Review:
Please review the lecture and slides on The Path of Enthusiastic Perseverance in the Year 1 March Practice Day
Path of Enthusiasm “Story” as the Monk of Loving Awareness
“Now we are able to enter onto the Path of Enthusiasm and apply the Seventh Stage of meditation, where we continue the process of easing up by refining the meditation through adjusting how we perceive, which is through Joy and Beauty. By perceiving through the lens of Joy and Beauty, the meditation process refines as the energy of enthusiasm carries us forward. The meditator is learning how the mind ‘could’ perceive experience through a lens of sublime excitement which would give a more refined enthusiastic energy. With this quality of meditative joy fueling the meditation the meditator is able to release the artificial activity of trying to meditate. The monk of the heartmind can now put down the prod of metacognition and let go of the strategies of meditating. The monkey of distraction that was still active in adjusting the meditation techniques is nearly purified.
Continuing on the Path of Enthusiasm, we apply the practices of the Eighth Stage of meditation and we become aware of the sense of deep Contentment behind the joyful excitement. This contentment is a quality of Attunement that was experienced earlier in the meditation. By releasing the meditative joy and resting into the object of contentment the meditator continues to release tensions associated with the ordinary self and the meditation becomes even more automatic.
Finally the monkey of agitation disappears as we release all techniques and deep tensions of self.
The Path of Enthusiasm concludes at the Ninth Stage as the meditator releases the subtle feeling of contentment and rests into the new object of Stable Equanimity. By taking the mind-perspective on the stable ground the meditator’s heart/mind becomes the clear stable lucidity of the trained elephant mind. The momentum of the elephant mind quietens down as it finally rests on the stability of the ground allowing the heartmind of the mediator to radiate equanimity.”
MEDITATION on the Path: 30 - 40 MINUTES
Posture (0.5 min)
Balance letting go with reaching uprightedness. Finding the sweet spot of these two qualities at the heart
Sitting as your best self (0.5 min)
Sitting as your best self, your extraordinary self, bringing all your best qualities to this moment.
Connecting to the sangha circle (1 min)
Allowing ourselves to come into the circle of practice. Allowing our hearts to open and embrace our community.
Loving Awareness (1 min)
Allowing the attentional system to relax out of the head and into the heart
Letting the attentional system settle into the warmth of the heart center
The heart like a sun. Loving awareness.
Coming into relationship with the Ground (2 min)
Directing loving awareness to the stability of the ground beneath you. Allowing your heart to come into relationship with Earth.
Allowing yourself to feel the reciprocating resonance of the Earth. Allowing coherence with the stable Earth.
Continuously releasing into the ground
Trusting the ground’s stability (2 min)
As we are continuously aligning with gravity and releasing into the stability of the ground and encouraging our hearts to cohere with the earth now noticing the trustworthiness and safety of Earth, the trustworthiness of the stable ground of Being.
Resting into the stability beneath….. recognizing the quality of safety that arises from the stability…... .continuously releasing into the safe stability of Earth.
Allowing the quality of safety to saturate the body.
Attunement from the Mother (1 min)
Sitting on the floor of a subtle ocean. The warm ocean of the Mother. Sensing how this intelligence is unconditioning attuning itself to your bodymind……Receiving the soothing feeling of safety as the bodymind is cohered by unconditional intelligence. The nervous system cohering itself to the loving receptivity of the Mother.
Attuning to Self (1 min)
Now with loving awareness taking the responsibility yourself, feeling deeper and deeper, more and more intimate with the field of your experience..
Attuning to the Interconnected Field (1 min)
Feeling into the field of your experience. Cohering intimately with the subtle reactivity, recognize that the depth of your personal experience is interconnected with all of humanity. Attuning to the interconnected field of humanity through your own personal experience.
Brightening the Metacognition of Loving Awareness and Catching Thoughts with Metacognitive Monitoring (1 min)
Allowing the heart to receive all sounds, 360’, As wide open loving awareness waiting brightly for any thought to arise.
cutting the thoughts immediately. Interrupting the elaborating thought with the loving sword of metacognition.
Thoughts dissolving upon recognition, evaporating into the clear brightness of loving awareness.
Bright awake attuned trusting loving awareness
Stage 3 - (3 min)
Slowly increasing the intensity of your embodied desire to stay with this process.
Feeling the desire in your whole body.
If your attempt to increase desire lessens your attunement, you may need to ease up instead.
Tuning the fire just right so your loving attention stays close to the dynamic unfolding of attunement…….
Feeling deeper and deeper, more and more intimate with the attunement feeling field of your experience by increasing the fire of interest, the fire of your protective curiosity.
By intensifying your interest the attention will stay closer and more intimate with the feeling field ………leaving thought and distraction behind.
Stage 4 - (3 min)
To help the interest of your attention to stay closer and to deepen the calming, we are going to shift our loving attention to the movement of the breath around the heart.
With the fullness of your embodied desire, staying with every detail….
By tending more intimately with whole bodied desire to stay with the full movement of the breath,
from the very beginning to its ending,
through every moment the mind moves closer, shifting from continuous to complete staying.
Stage 5 - (3 min)
Completely admiring everything about the breath, a whole world of quality and movement in every giving and receiving. The full desire and intimacy of loving awareness staying completely with every instant of the breath.
Now, shifting the emphasis towards clearing any dullness by recognizing the brightness of your awareness
Awareness…lucid and bright knowing the movements of the breath.
Awareness…still and non-reactive knowing the movements of the breath.
Sharpening awareness so it's bright and lucid. Lucid awareness knowing every moment of the breath.
Simultaneously the recognition of the bright open awake field of loving awareness, and the intimate staying with the giving and receiving.
Now bringing the full brightness and clarity of loving awareness to fully illuminate every dimension of the whole heart breath, every dimension in every moment.
Staying so close and so awake that all the momentariness, all the energy that is the breath reveals itself.
Stage 6 - (3 min)
Maintaining bright lucid awareness allows yourself to relax the intensity……Easing up….. Letting go….stay awake to all the energy of the giving and receiving at the nostrils…..Easing up allowing the meditation to flow by itself.
(1 minute here)
If you are staying at the subtle level then experimenting with very gently easing up on the intensity to discover an automaticity of flow.
At the subtle level of mind your attention will stay closer by easing up on the effort.
Fine tuning your staying by easing up
Shifting your attention from the closed channels of the nostrils to the wider whole-body movement of the breath.
Maintaining bright lucid awareness allows yourself to relax the intensity……Easing up….. Letting go….stay awake to all the energy of the heart’s breath…..Easing up allowing the meditation to flow by itself.
Stage 7 - (8 min)
Mind of Delight
To fine tune at the subtle level of mind you are going to adjust how you are perceiving the subtle flow of experience.
Seeing the flow of experience through the mind of Delight…… Seeing every instance as beautifully delightful…… allowing the unfolding subtle level of experience to respond to being seen as delightfully beautiful.
As if you are breathing through every pore of your body.
Giving and receiving delight through the body, as if every pore was a mycelial tendril of joy.
Allowing experience to become more and more delightful….. experience becoming more and more vibrant, quivering with life.
Allowing experience to become more and more delightful….. experience becoming more and more vibrant, quivering with life.
Allow the mind of delight to notice where the quivering aliveness is most palpable in your experience ….. encouraging it to gently deepen and spread.
Stage 8 - (5 min)
Contented Attunement
In the background of your delightful experience noticing the deep feeling of contentment…….. A deep attuning contentment……..
Deep attuning contentment saturating all experience.
And you're just gently releasing, relaxing between the eyebrows, easing up on any strategy and just allowing yourself to stay contentedly happy.
Noticing where there's any unnecessary holding and allowing the attunement to soften the holding, saturating the field of your experience with contentment.
Releasing all strategies of meditation………Releasing the mind of joy by softening into contentment………
The heartmind innocent ……..deep contentment………allowing absorption into the soft …. receptive …… easeful …… healing …… contentment
Stage 9 - (4 min)
Stable Lucid Equanimity
To finally rest the elephant of the mind and rest in equanimity, intend loving awareness to return to the stability of the ground.
Letting the body rest on the ground, stable, slowly allowing the subtle contraction of effort to unwind itself.
Allowing contentedness to naturally release by paying greater interest in the stable equanimity.
Completely releasing into the stability of the ground.
Innocently releasing into the stability of the ground.
Completely resting as the stability of the ground
Letting the elephant momentum of your mind, just settle onto the ground.
Recognize within the stability….. Awareness …… Bright…..Clear……..Stable……Awareness
Awareness, a field of still non-reactive awareness co-occurring with the stability of the ground
With full trust resting into and as bright clear stable Awareness.
The HeartMind resting in equanimity…….completely stable, and at rest
Practice Reflections + Q&A: 20-30 minutes
Lead your group through a 20-30 minute Q & A + Practice Reflections discussion.