Defensiveness often arises when identity is challenged. When information about ourselves and the world runs counter to the way we view them, hold them, and maybe even cling to them.
How, then, might defensive strategies be seen as a form of active ignorance? And how might we use the arising of defensiveness around selfhood as a mindfulness bell?
I explore these questions and more in this talk offered for the Insight Meditation Center on May 6, 2025.
Defensiveness often arises when identity is challenged – when information about ourselves and the world runs counter to the way we view them, hold them, and maybe even cling to them.
Matthew draws on experiences firefighting and in incarcerated Buddhist communities to explore what it means to feel safe in a sangha, despite external circumstances.
There was a time in my life when I actively felt aversion for entire people, for everything about them, and I felt justified in doing so.
There are individual skills related to mindfulness that can be strengthened by performing different drills. Bite-sized, skill-focused mindfulness drills.
This guided meditation establishes embodied mindfulness by first using external bodily sensations, then internal bodily sensations, and finally a combination of both.
How can the Buddhadharma be used as the framework for addiction recovery? And how does such a Dharmic approach differ from 12-step models?