On the Uposatha night, a sick Tahn Pamutto gives a reflection on how we can come to understand the ups and downs of life in a buddhist context. We do this by considering the four noble truths, and specifically cultivating the ‘duty’ to each of these truths. Suffering is to be understood, Craving is to […]
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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
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In this Uposatha talk, Tahn Pamutto provides encouragement in developing mindfulness, an essential component of the eightfold path, and describes the Buddha’s framework of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness which helps guide that effort and make it fruitful.
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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
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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
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On the Uposatha, Tahn Pamutto offers a reflection on four streams of Puñña, or Merit: Dānā, Service, Instruction, and Bhāvana. Elaborating on each one, he describes how they get progressively more powerful and sublime until the final stream of merit, which culminates in nibbāna itself.
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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
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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
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Our latest weeklong retreat has concluded in Shelburne, MA. The retreat and visit of NYC resident Tahn Santi brought quite a surge of interest in the small gathering space, with 16 different friends visiting over the course of a few days. But for the most part it was a quiet, in-house venture. The evening sit
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In this Uposatha reflection, Tahn Pamutto discusses the vital quality of Equanimity or Upekkha. This quality shows up in a number of lists of wholesome qualities to be cultivated, notably always at the end or as the culmination. By explaining the various ways the term is used, it’s possible to move towards a definition of
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