Dharma Treasure Community

Hi Prashant,

I also recommend reading the Mindful Review in Appendix E of The Mind Illuminated.

You might also take a look at this thread.

Awareness in everyday life

Best Wishes,
Blake

Hi Tony-James,

Thanks for the follow-up, and I am glad that I could be of service.

Blake

Hi Alec,

I have had similar experiences in meditation where my teeth chatter and I have difficulty sleeping, particularly on retreat. I (and the teacher I was working with at the time) attributed it to a side effect related to piti (meditative joy). You might want to look up Meditative Joy (piti) in the index of TMI. While piti is meditative joy…[Read more]

Hi Francis,

We will definitely consider your application, but so far we have 142 applicants for 60 spaces. We evaluate students based on past dedication to meditation, TMI, and spiritual practice. We will let everyone know in about 2 weeks.

Thanks,
Blake

As a reminder, the deadline to apply for the Dedicated Practitioners Course is September 15th at 11:00 PM PST. We are pleased to announce a very limited number of partial scholarships for the course over and above paying at the scholarship level. If you are interested, please apply for the course and mention that you need a scholarship on your…[Read more]

Hi Tony-James,

I don’t try to pinpoint the breath within specific parts of the nose, nostrils, or upper lip. I just have the intention to feel any sensations in the nose region. Your attention will probably naturally be drawn to the sensations that are the most vivid.

I would refer you to this post by Culadasa about attention and awareness f…[Read more]

Hi Alex,

You might take a look at these threads where this topic is discussed.

Piti arising earlier in practice?

Agitating piti and confusion of the object

time to switch to other practices?

Best…[Read more]

Hi Chris,

You are certainly not being annoying. We have about 45 applicants so far, and we are still accepting applications for another month. People have applied based on the days and times that we have published. If we have a large enough demand we might consider adding a third section on a weekday evening, but we would have to line up new…[Read more]

Hi Jhapeti James,

I have read some of Ajaan Lee’s writings a few years ago, and I believe he influenced Thanissaro Bhikkhu. I have not really combined this with TMI, and I never really liked controlling the breath. It was just one more thing to do, but it sounds like you found an effortless way to do it. TMI does teach using the whole body breath…[Read more]

Hello All,

I think we have some good ideas here, and I have been pondering the pros and cons of each. I also have an IT background, although it has been a few years since I worked in the field. I wanted to cover the proposed ideas at a higher level without necessarily worrying about implementation details.

1. Alex M.’s idea of dividing each r…[Read more]

Hi Prashant,

When selecting applicants we look at several factors in addition to retreat experience. If you have a strong daily practice, it could offset your lack of retreat experience, and we would encourage you to apply.

Thanks,
Blake

Hi Alex M., William and All,

I think that there are some good ideas here, and I feel that Dharma Treasure and Culadasa would probably be interested.

I am serving as the Executive Director of Dharma Treasure, and from my perspective, I would prefer to see an indexed, searchable recording list reside on the main Dharma Treasure web site or DT…[Read more]

Culadasa and Dharma Treasure are supportive of this project if someone, or a group, wants to take the lead.

Thanks,
Blake – DT teacher

Hi Chris, JavaJeff, and InD,

Thanks for the feedback regarding weekends. It is difficult to schedule this event, because, in the current course, we have students from throughout the world, some in vastly different time zones. For example, we have students in North America, Europe, India, Japan and Australia.

We considered a week night, but it…[Read more]

Thanks for the information Chris. I have removed the old post to avoid any confusion in the future.

Blake

Hi Chris,

The link is for the upcoming classes and the times are correct. We only offered one class last time. Do we have an incorrect date in there somewhere that made you think it was for the last course?

Thanks,
Blake

Hi Prashant,

I would generally say that your option A is the correct version. Please remember that these are moments of consciousness, so by definition you are “automatically” aware of them. There are specific practices throughout stages 3 and 4 (labeling and checking-in, intention) for increasing the number of moments of introspective awa…[Read more]