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.
Traditionally, this is an asubha practice meant to lessen the clinging we have toward our own and others’ bodies by seeing clearly the constituent parts of the body.
If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom.
Matthew leads the practitioner through mindfulness of awakening factors as part of Bhikkhu Analayo’s method of Satipatthana practice.
Matthew leads the practitioner through mindfulness of hindrances as part of Bhikkhu Analayo’s method of Satipatthana practice.
Venerable Pannavati wanted us, all of us, to taste the joy of an unburdened heart and experience the selflessness that arises through good works.
Matthew draws on experiences firefighting and in incarcerated Buddhist communities to explore what it means to feel safe in a sangha, despite external circumstances.