Feb 20-22, 2009
True spiritual practice is an engagement with life that is contradictory to the habits of our confused society. As such, it becomes an act of rebellion. Suffering originates in the mind and our tendency is to grasp at pleasure and push away pain. All addictions stem from these roots. The path to awakening, as described by the Buddha, is “against the stream.”
The experience of freedom from suffering is right here, within our grasp. To uncover the awakened truth pay close attention to the present moment, the time when we are most alive, and transform our attitudes, actions, and intentions. We can overcome hatred with love, fear with verified faith, ignorance with understanding, and greed with generosity,
The revolutionary spiritual practices of the Buddha enable us to care for ourselves and for our world more effectively. By cultivating the heart’s innate qualities of Wisdom and Compassion, we can follow a path free of suffering. This timeless path of awakening is grounded in ethical behavior.
This workshop is for people looking for both inner and outer spiritual rebellion. The inner is about conquering the demand that life must be pleasant all the time to avoid unhappiness. The external is related to our experience of the oppression, hatred, and greed in the world. As we gain more compassion for our own confusion, we gain compassion for the confusion of the world. Meditation can act as a guide in the upstream journey to liberation. All are welcome to attend regardless of experience, from newcomers to long-term practitioners.
Having practiced sitting meditation for close to 20 years and being trained to teach by Jack Kornfield, Noah Levine is seeking to inaugurate a more contemporary and secular Buddhist tradition. He wants to avoid absorbing or co-opting Asian cultures, as well as avoiding a watered-down Buddhism that feeds people delusions about happiness and feel-good philosophy. Illusion is part of the human condition. Strip the complicated and often abstract ideas of Buddhism down to its most basic concepts: escape suffering, live simply, and treat yourself and others with ethical respect and love.Noah wrote Dharma Punx as, “not just my story, but the story of my generation,” and Against the Stream to show the essence of what the Buddha taught: “radical engaged transformation.” It’s a story about finding freedom and then spending the rest of our lives giving it away.