Introduction to Chapter 8 – Reflections, Essay Assignment + Course Readings

Welcome to Chapter 8 in the Heart of Wisdom – Integrating Wisdom on the Path of Practice + Teaching!

In this chapter, we conclude with reflections on how to integrate and develop wisdom practices in an ongoing way in both your practice and teaching. 

One of the themes I try to address in this chapter’s lessons is the theme of awakening as an “ongoing process.” Enlightenment or awakening is often framed as a one-time event that happens and suddenly changes everything. While, I don’t doubt the experience and value of “big” insights and transformative experiences, I find it helpful to approach awakening as an ongoing developmental process. Through the consistency of practice, we slowly refine our awareness to bring greater discernment to the causes and conditions for the kinds of suffering that need not occur. In seeing these conditions more closely, we align ourselves – and our hearts – towards greater compassion and wisdom. 

Here are the main Practice Themes in Chapter 8- Integrating Wisdom in Practice + Teaching:

    • The Three Dynamics of Awakening. In the first lesson, I try to map out three interrelated developments in the process of awakening. These include 1) the Waking Up process, ie. waking up to the conditions of how things are, 2) the Waking Out process, whereby awareness wakes out of identification with the conditions and content of experience and 3) the Waking In process, whereby awake awareness wakes into deeper levels of integrating understanding and compassion.
    • The Integral Approach to Meditation. With Yin Meditation, I suggest how the entire Eightfold Practice-Path is organically cultivated when we allow all conditions to enter into our meditation. We let our lives into our practice so that the dynamics of receptivity, curiosity and creativity can work upon how we navigate those conditions. 
    • Developing Practice. Like artists, I consider practice to support the Art of Being. And when approaching practice like an artist, I encourage you to creatively develop the themes and practices that align with your deepest intentions and values. In other words, I think it’s very important to make the practice your own. I have shared the core practices – in Heart of Compassion and Heart of Wisdom – that I feel most directly support the process of awakening, but I encourage you to play with these practices until they become integrated within yourself, effectively finding your unique expression of the Dharma in your life. As the jazz trumpeter, Clark Terry said: “Imitate, Assimilate and Innovate.” We imitate the received wisdom from our spiritual ancestors; we assimilate their insights into our practice; and we innovate upon those insights, integrating them into the unique conditions of our lives.
    • Practice. Continue to work with any of the tools of meditation we’ve explored so far, but really emphasize a creative and functional approach. Start with what you resonate with most and branch out from there. My hope is that you will revisit the content of this training at least once, and hopefully more. As your practice deepens, you will likely hear and understand elements of the training that may not have resonated the first time. This is the dialectic of the practice process. We open to experience, we review, we practice, we return again and again, refining our awareness with every moment of practice. 
    • Journal. Please continue to reflect on your meditation sittings and spend some time journaling about what you remember from them. Pay special attention to aspects of the Eightfold Path that may be arising in your practice. Reflect on the kinds of views, intentions, actions, speech and work (livelihood) that appear in your practice and be interested in how receptivity and reflection develops understanding and compassion.
    • Final Assignment – A Reflective Essay. After you’ve completed the material in Chapter 8, your final assignment for credit is to write a reflective essay. Please aim to keep the essay between 500-1000 words. In your essay, I’d like you to reflect on any form of dukkha (conflict, stress, suffering) that exists in your life/practice – this dukkha  could be something minor like “irritation at thoughts” or something more significant like a painful “self-view.” Please share what tools from the training have helped you understand this dukkha more directly; share what skillful qualities of Heart have developed in the course of your practice; and share how you navigate these conditions in your practice and life. Do not worry about your writing. I will not evaluate your essay like an English teacher. I’m interested in how this course has helped (or not helped) the development of your practice. And I hope writing this assignment will help consolidate important themes for you for your ongoing practice and path. Please email me your essay as either a pdf or as a google doc (no Word Docs, please) to josh@joshsummers.net
    • Final Q+A Zoom Link. Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81011185197?pwd=MEVyNVJnWVNmK0g4cjVlRVZMTXhIZz09
      Time: Dec 4, 2022 9:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Meeting ID: 810 1118 5197 | Passcode: 788920

It has been an honor to share the practice with you, and I hope this training serves your own practice and teaching for years to come. 

With metta,

Josh

Course Readings.

Please read Chapters 4 + 5 of Ajahn Amaro’s book, Small Boat, Great Mountain. I recommend the whole book at some point, but the two chapters I’ve selected will hopefully illuminate and align with many of the themes of this course. Small Boat, Great Mountain