With summer vacations and COVID outbreaks cutting into our schedules, it’s been awhile since our last family group and it will be awhile still before the next one. But it was a joy to come together for a special session dealing with a very special topic- one of the most important qualities we can develop …
This week for the family group, we had the fun task of looking at the paramī of Sacca, or Truthfulness. This is a fun task because it’s pretty straightforward: it takes almost no effort to see the chaos and distrust caused by lying, and appreciate the trust and harmony created by a commitment to the …
This week for the family group, we stepped sideways from the list of the ten perfections to cover an important wholesome emotion that doesn’t always get so much press: Mudita. Mudita is described as the feeling of joy we get upon perceiving happiness in ourselves or others. This emotion is one of the four brahma-vihara’s, …
This week for the family group we covered the paramī of adhitthāna. This is a quality which like Khanti straddles the definitions of a few english words with its meaning and scope. One aspect is the ability to determine or resolve upon doing something, but the willpower and persistence to stay with our goal despite …
Our family group this week covered the paramī of Khanti. In the Pāli language, khanti is a word that covers a whole range of activities in English: Patience, Tolerance, Forebearance, Endurance. The common thread that all of these things have together is that they deal with our ability to be with a challenging or unpleasant …
This weekend with the family group, we took a pause from covering the paramī’s to open a conversation on the topic of Death. As we said when we were wrapping up, the conversation didn’t end – it was in fact the beginning of a larger, ongoing conversation that we could each have. Together we can …
UPEKKHA: EQUANIMITY (note: this lesson was done in group but some of the lesson unfortunately wasn’t planned or recorded!) ACTIVITY: Meditation Timers How to Create a Glitter Jar for Kids – Mindful Daily Practices Materials: Water Bottles, Water, Glitter/Beads/Legos/Etc Using the glitter jars, demonstrate how shaking the jar only keeps the glitter floating around. Only …
This week with the family group, we covered the paramī of Karunā, or Compassion. One of the benefits of using the paramī’s as a basis for our first meetings is that we get to cover such an important topic directly. We started with a guided meditation. We rang the bell and gave everyone a minute …
This weeks Santigāmā family group was a chance for everyone to take a look at the parami of Energy, or Viriya. It was interesting to note that as we tried to approach the topic we had to distinguish it from Vayama, or Effort/Striving, which is a part of the Noble Eightfold Path. Viriya is something …
This week our family group was studying the parami of Sīla. We started by asking the question, “What is Sīla?” The adults were able to chime in with a few ideas. What do you think? How would you describe Sīla to one who had never heard the word? When we did this, a lot of …
