“Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.”
-Eckhart Tolle

 
This Week’s Discussion Topic
What are some common frustrations you’ve experienced with sitting and how did you overcome them?

“The path of enlightenment is not the path to enlightenment, or a way to get to the so-called awakened state. The path of enlightenment is what is underneath our feet.”

-Douglas Penick

 
This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss the process—or lack thereof—you use to work through koans. If that process has evolved over time, talk about its progression.

“What gets in the way of this movement toward our authentic self, more than anything, is our insistence on identifying with the small self—preserving our narrow world of being special, of needing to look and feel a particular way.”

-Ezra Bayda

 
This Week’s Discussion Topic
How has a mistaken belief in self led to suffering in your life?

“Letting go of incessantly measuring and comparing ourselves to others leads to spontaneous acts of courage and compassion. It’s like learning a dance step well enough that we no longer need to keep looking down at our feet.”

-Gaylon Ferguson

This Week’s Discussion Topic
What initially attracted you to Buddhist practice, and how have your views on it changed since you first began practicing?

“Emptiness refers to the absence of something that, for some reason, one expects to find—as when we say a glass, normally used to hold liquids, is empty even though it is full of air. The point is not that there is nothing there at all, but rather that what is there differs from your expectations.”

-William S. Cobb

This Week’s Discussion Topic
What is the most useful lesson you’ve ever learned from a spiritual teacher?

“I think the reason that remarkable stories of forgiveness take our breath away is that we instantly feel the liberation in the lifting of boundaries, the end of separation, of ‘inside’ and ‘outside.’”

-Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker

This Week’s Discussion Topic
What’s the difference between awareness and thoughts?

“I think the reason that remarkable stories of forgiveness take our breath away is that we instantly feel the liberation in the lifting of boundaries, the end of separation, of ‘inside’ and ‘outside.’”
-Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker

This Week’s Discussion Topic
What’s the difference between awareness and thoughts?

“If an emotion, such as hatred or envy, is judged to be destructive, then it is simply recognized as such. It is neither expressed through violent thoughts, words, or deeds, nor is it suppressed or denied as incompatible with a ‘spiritual’ life.”

-Stephen Batchelor

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss how you’ve successfully “surrendered” or “let go” to some situation in your life.

“We do not need to be afraid of our mind. We can go on a journey of discovery and experiment. Then we are able to play with our mental processes and develop our mental ability in wisdom and compassion.”

-Martine Batchelor

This Week’s Discussion Topic
What does “ego” mean to you and how does it affect your life?

“If we’re not reflecting on the impermanent nature of life, a lot of unimportant things can seem really important. Our jobs seem important. Money seems important. But if we’re really reflecting on impermanence, then we see the important things are compassion and loving others—giving to others and taking care of others.”

-Allison Choying Zangmo

This Week’s Discussion Topic
How have you personally experienced the relationship between impermanence and suffering?