Topics Include: 1) Moving from conceptual reality to a lived reality in the Dharma. 2) The structure of development of awakening in the Theravadin tradition: the four levels of awakening, stream enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and arahant. 3) The definition of suffering in the Dharmic context: Seeking happiness in the wrong places due to ignorance and delusion. 4) How to bring an understanding of impermanence into our lives: the visions of sickness, aging, and death. 5) Understanding the distinction between thoughts and emotions in our lives within a Dharmic context: the teaching of the two darts. 6) The question of what is consciousness in the Dharmic context. The difference between conditioned awareness and pure awareness. 7) What is it that happens when consciousness disappears? Interpreting cessation or Nibbana. 8) Understanding the tragic history of humankind through the lens of delusion in the face of the miraculous power of the mind to transform our understanding of reality and our relationship to each other and the planet.
October 31, 2021
47 min.