Practicing with the Four Foundations of Mindfulness 

within a framework of the Four Noble Truths

allows us to awaken from suffering and find peace,

even in the midst of difficult experiences. 

The Buddha began teaching the practices of Mindfulness over 2600 years ago, with the sole purpose of finding relief from the suffering we experience in our lives. He understood that the usual distractions and pleasant experiences did not offer a reliable refuge from difficulty - even contributed to it -  and discovered a radically different way for alleviating suffering through the cultivation of Mindfulness. 

 

Our retreats systematically explore each of the four foundations, and the supporting practice of Loving-Kindness:

 

The first foundation: Awareness of the experience of the body, breath, and the changing nature of sensations. Awareness of the body cultivates embodied present moment attention which supports our capacity to stay present and centered, and serves as a profound vehicle for awakening.

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The second foundation: Exploring our response to pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral  experience ("feeling-tone" or in the Pali, "vedana") with phenomena as they arise. Cultivating attention to the realm of feeling-tone and the building-blocks of our experience supports non-reactive presence to the ups and downs of life, and insight into our conditioned instincts and reactivity which allow us to break free of the patterns that cause our suffering.

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The third foundation: Recognizing emotions and states of mind that cause stress and reactivity. Focusing on developing a wise relationship to thoughts, emotions and mind-states by recognizing their impersonal and changing nature; so that we may cultivate our capacity to respond rather than react.

 

The fourth foundation: Cultivating qualities that support, and working wisely with those qualities that hinder, our capacity for awakening from the trance of suffering. A culmination of the practices helps us to see the ways we become caught, as well as the ways we can free ourselves, through the common obstacles we encounter in our practice and the wholesome states that can be cultivated to support it.

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Loving-Kindness (Metta) Practice: Metta practice is traditionally practiced to support a balanced heart and mind, and in order to cultivate the open-hearted and non-judgmental qualities that are necessary for a holistic mindful awareness. The cultivation of metta is a different practice from the cultivation of mindfulness, however once cultivated these qualities are mutually supporting and at their most developed, inseparable from one another. 

 

 

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Our Retreats Support You in Cultivating Mindfulness & Loving-Kindness Practice in the Framework of the Four Noble Truths:

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The Four Noble Truths are the set of realizations that the buddha had about the nature of experience and the roots of suffering. These realizations serve as a framework for understanding the ways we get caught, as well as the roadmap for freeing ourselves. 

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The First Noble Truth: The Buddha realized the truth of 'suffering'. This is the word that is most often used to translate the Pali word 'dukkha'. Dukkha can be understood as the suffering that is caused by seeking relief in the inherently unreliability of continuously changing nature of  experience. 

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The Second Noble Truth: Because change is a constant, we suffer when we try to cling to any currently arising experience, and we leave ourselves off-balance when we base our happiness on something not immediately present. Whether we try to hold onto experience we want, or seek to push away experience we don't like, we are inevitably unsatisfied. The Buddha pointed to our confusion about the nature of suffering; that we keep searching for what will make us happy instead of realizing that it is already here. 

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The Third Noble Truth: The Buddha shared his discovery, directly experienced, that there is a way to be free of this confusion, and released from this kind of dis-ease. 

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The Fourth Noble Truth: The Fourth Noble Truth provides the path that the Buddha traveled to the end of suffering. Laying out the attitudes, understandings and practices that lead to freedom. This path is the Eight-Fold Path: 

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1. Wise View

2. Wise Intention

3. Wise Speech

4. Wise Action

5. Wise Livelihood

6. Wise Effort

7. Wise Mindfulness

8. Wise Concentration

 

When participating on retreat in the Insight Meditation Tradition, mindfulness is taught and practiced as part of the whole set of teachings, where its nuance and depth are more readily comprehended, resulting in the arising of insight; insight into our own nature, and the nature of our experience. Mindfulness held in the context of the full teachings is far more powerful than just learning a few techniques. Taking a retreat in the Insight Meditation tradition also offers the container for practice necessary to explore the many dimensions of practice that one couldn't experience in the context of daily life distractions, and without the support of a community of practitioners and experienced teachers. 

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Retreats support an establishment of, and deepening into, the practice of mindfulness for a greater capacity to meet whatever challenges our inner and outer world experience may bring, and to connect more intimately with that which nourishes us. One World Mindfulness provides a sacred retreat setting for online participation, and provides the supports that enable you to create the conditions at home that imitate the rarefied environment most closely resembling what one might experience visiting a retreat center. Attention to these conditions, both online and off, enables a profound reconnection with your own inner balance and the capacity to hold all of the joys and sorrows of life. One World Mindfulness Retreats are appropriate for anyone wishing to learn and practice mindfulness: serving as a solid introduction for those new to practice, providing the essential teachings, and an opportunity to refresh and strengthen practice for experienced practitioners.