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Tricycle Retreats |
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"Applying the Practice: Adaptation and Surrender": Week 4 of Rodney Smith's "Selfless Practice"
In “Applying the Practice: Adaptation and Surrender” (Week 4 of his Tricycle Retreat, “Selfless Practice”) Rodney Smith says: “The effect of an unconscious life is suffering.” How can we live a conscious life? The beginning of Smith’s retreat this month has been about identifying the primary obstacle for living a conscious life (the belief in a separate self), and now, building on last week’s teaching, he’s discussing ways to overcome that obstacle. One strategy in particular that Smith explores—one that we often use for dealing with problems that we have—is adaptation. While adaptation is a valuable human talent, it has some limitations.Smith says: More » -
A Week 3 Round-up of Rodney Smith's "Selfless Practice"
"The Practice of Selflessness"—Week 3 of Rodney Smith's retreat "Selfless Practice"—ends today. The discussion page on the retreat this week has been very lively, and at times maybe even a little testy.For example, one participant takes umbrage with Smith's discussion of no-self. More » -
Wise Effort: Week 3 of Rodney Smith's "Selfless Practice"
One of the topics that Rodney Smith explores in "The Practice of Selflessness," Week 3 of his Tricycle Retreat, is Wise Effort. Once we begin to understand selflessness (Wise View) we naturally want to make an effort to release the need to be separate. How can we do this? Smith advises us to use what he calls the four R's of Wise Effort: relax, release, relinquish, and rejoin. Smith covers each of these R's in "The Practice of Selflessness," and he also goes through them in his recent book Stepping Out of Self-Deception.From Stepping Out of Self-Deception: More » -
Selflessness vs. Impermanence: Week 2 of Rodney Smith's "Selfless Practice"
In Week 2 of his Tricycle Retreat, "Selfless Practice," Rodney Smith asks: "Who wants to deal with anatta [selflessness] when they could deal with impermanence?" More » -
Direct and Subtle: Week 2 of Rodney Smith's "Selfless Practice"
In "The Principle of Selflessness," (Week 2 of Rodney Smith's Tricycle Retreat, "Selfless Practice") one participant remarks on Smith's "directness and subtlety" in his talk. Indeed. Given the slippery subject matter, Smith's directness is especially appreciated. As soon as we begin to seriously consider the concepts we cherish, such as the self, they start to fall apart. Language becomes more difficult to use. Struggling to find the right words, Eric, another retreat participant, found that quotation marks would help him describe his dilemma. More » -
Something new, mysterious, and refreshing: Rodney Smith's "Selfless Practice"
In week one of his Tricycle Retreat, "Selfless Practice," Rodney Smith asks us to consider the mysteries of the worlds on both sides of our human dimension. If we explore the vastness of the universe we find billions of galaxies holding billions of stars. On the other end of the spectrum, at the quantum level, we find particles that can be in two places at once. And yet, despite these wonders that we find to our right and to our left, Smith observes that we tend to take the world in front of us at face value. We believe that we inhabit a solid dimension, and the cornerstone of this construction is this idea of "self" that we cling to. Smith asks us to take a hard look at this assumption. More »
