Point 6 - Banyan
The Disciplines of Mind Training
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Slogans and Discussion Continued
John continues through the final slogans of the 7 Points (Don't malign others; wait in ambush; bring things to a painful point; transfer the ox's load; try to be fastest; act with a twist; make gods into demons), using each as a jumping-off point for contemporary meaning-making. Discussion: meeting lower-meme consciousness with containment, creative non-violent resistance, motivation as the hinge, and the tantric inversion. Don't let demons stay demons.
John continues through the final slogans of the 7 Points (Don't malign others; wait in ambush; bring things to a painful point; transfer the ox's load; try to be fastest; act with a twist; make gods into demons), using each as a jumping-off point for contemporary meaning-making. Discussion: meeting lower-meme consciousness with containment, creative non-violent resistance, motivation as the hinge, and the tantric inversion. Don't let demons stay demons.
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Teaching on Vow, Bodhisattva & Otherwise
Frames the vow ahead of the in-person Boulder retreat: not a contract but a practice of aligning the ego–self axis, the acorn's vow to become oak. Walks Hinayana, Mahayana, full Mahayana (planet as pure land). Naming ceremony optional, virtual participation enabled. Student reflections: Ari on precious human birth at cosmic scale, Anthony on vow as resource, Steve tearful on returning to it, Luca on the weight required for real transformation.
Frames the vow ahead of the in-person Boulder retreat: not a contract but a practice of aligning the ego–self axis, the acorn's vow to become oak. Walks Hinayana, Mahayana, full Mahayana (planet as pure land). Naming ceremony optional, virtual participation enabled. Student reflections: Ari on precious human birth at cosmic scale, Anthony on vow as resource, Steve tearful on returning to it, Luca on the weight required for real transformation.
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Closing Meditation
Breath-of-fire and side-body opening, then seated practice aligning the full stack: root (trust), belly (attunement), solar plexus (sovereignty), heart (interconnection), throat (creative expression), head (lucid awakening), crown (open wholeness). John weaves the Bodhisattva Vow through each center, then guides the group in asking the field to reveal the "precepts of autopoiesis," the behavioral commitments that allow natural unfolding.
Breath-of-fire and side-body opening, then seated practice aligning the full stack: root (trust), belly (attunement), solar plexus (sovereignty), heart (interconnection), throat (creative expression), head (lucid awakening), crown (open wholeness). John weaves the Bodhisattva Vow through each center, then guides the group in asking the field to reveal the "precepts of autopoiesis," the behavioral commitments that allow natural unfolding.
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Thursday May 7 - Practice Circle
Guided practice. Settling into open space and the ground, releasing non-functional tension, and sensing the long lineage of mammalian love and ancestral attunement. Heart fire as the warmth that holds whatever arises, including resistance. Heart breath as a full 360-degree field of practice.
Guided practice. Settling into open space and the ground, releasing non-functional tension, and sensing the long lineage of mammalian love and ancestral attunement. Heart fire as the warmth that holds whatever arises, including resistance. Heart breath as a full 360-degree field of practice.
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