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Meditation: Cultivating serenity

Meditation: Cultivating serenity

A series of talks based on Don’t Believe Everything You Think given at Sravasti Abbey’s monthly Sharing the Dharma Day starting in March 2013. The book is a commentary on The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas.

Understanding that disturbing emotions are destroyed
By special insight with calm abiding,
Cultivate concentration which surpasses
The four formless absorptions—
This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.

  • The purpose of developing meditative serenity
  • The disadvantage of becoming attached to the bliss of concentration
  • Why teachers don’t emphasize developing concentration in the beginning
  • Five hindrances to developing concentration and their antidotes
  • The two mental factors important in developing serenity

SDD 29: Meditation (download)

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.