Wise Effort

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Dedicatated Practitioner Class

5 Session Course Starting June 18, 2015
Thursdays, 7 – 8:30 p.m. at 12 South Dharma Center
Led by Lisa Ernst

This five week practice and study course is designed for committed practitioners and will allow for deeper exploration of the process and practices of meditation and awakening. Patterned on Sprit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner Program and led by Lisa Ernst, the class will offer specific teaching and practice approaches based on the Noble Eightfold Path. There will be plenty of time for group discussion and interaction. The basic requirements are that everyone attending has an established daily meditation practice, or will re-commit to one, and has attended at least one daylong or longer meditation retreat. Meetings will be held Thursday evenings at the 12 South Dharma Center, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
The class fee is offered on a sliding scale of $125 – $150. Anything you pay above $125 will help toward our scholarship fund. Two reduced fee spots are available in the case of financial need. A deposit of $35 reserves your spot with the balance due by June 11. To pay by paypal go here. Instructions on paying by check are available at this link. Please include your email address. Please note that we will not meet on Thursday, July 2 due to the 4th of July Holiday. For additional information contact ernst.lisa@gmail.com.

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New Years Half Day Intention Setting Retreat

Thursday, January 1, 9 a.m. – Noon
12 South Dharma Center
Led by Lisa Ernst

“One of the Buddha’s most penetrating discoveries is that our intentions are the main factors shaping our lives and that they can be mastered as a skill.” – Thanissaro Bhikkhu

New Year’s resolutions based on goals rather than true intention are often forgotten within a few weeks or months. But the Buddha taught another way – that the journey to liberation begins with Right Intention. By cultivating Right Intention, a part of the Eightfold Path, we can align our actions with our most deeply held values. In this retreat we will consult the wisdom of our own hearts and look with fresh eyes at what truly matters in our lives. We will refine our direction for the New Year and create intentions that support our truest values and aspirations.

Led by meditation teacher Lisa Ernst, the retreat will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, dharma talk and discussion. Cost is $35 and is due by Tuesday, 12/30. You can pay through Paypal here. Alternately, you can bring your payment to one of our meetings or send a check, made out to One Dharma Nashville to: 12 South Dharma Center, c/o One Dharma Nashville, 2301 12th Avenue south, suite 202, Nashville, TN 37204. For questions, email onedharmaretreat@gmail.com.

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The Essentials of Buddhism Course

The Essentials of Buddhism Course

Starting June 12, 2014 at 12 South Dharma Center

Led by Lisa Ernst

This intermediate, five session course is designed for those who wish to support their meditation practice with a deeper understanding and practical application of the Buddha’s teachings in daily life. The curriculum is based on the Eightfold Path and will emphasize mindful and abiding awareness, interconnection with all life, right effort, wise speech and compassion.

This course is ideal for students who have prior meditation or study experience such the Basics of Meditation Course and/or daylong and weekend residential retreats. Classes are taught as a mix of practice and study so that students gain experiential insights into the Buddha’s teachings while deepening their practice. You will receive study materials and suggestions for practice at home. The classes will include plenty of time for group support and interaction.

Course fee is $125. Two reduced fee spots are available in the case of financial need. Class will begin on Thursday, June 12, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Following Thursday meetings will be held on June 12, 19, July 3, 10 and 24. A makeup session with Lisa is available if you have to miss one of the dates. Paypal is here. If paying by check, make it out to One Dharma Nashville and send to: 12 South Dharma Center c/o One Dharma Nashville, 2301 12^th Avenue South, suite 202, Nashville, TN 37204. Be sure to include your email address.

Lisa Ernst is a Buddhist Meditation teacher in the Thai Forest lineage of Ajahn Chah. In her teaching, Lisa emphasizes both transformational insight and everyday awakening as an invitation to embrace all of the path’s possibilities. Lisa is the founder of One Dharma Nashville and she regularly leads daylong and residential retreats, private meditation training and classes.

For information, email onedharmaretreat@gmail.com

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Reading for September 29

Right Concentration

The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels concentration also in everyday situations.

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Reading for September 22

Right Mindfulness

Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualise sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena.

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Reading for September 15

Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.

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Reading for September 8

Right Livelihood

Right livelihood means that one should earn one’s living in an honorable way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided.

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Reading for August 18

This week’s focus is “Right Action.” The Five Precepts are part of Buddha’s instruction on right action.

4. Right Action

The second ethical principle, right action, involves the body as natural means of expression, as it refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Unwholesome actions lead to unsound states of mind, while wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind. Again, the principle is explained in terms of abstinence: right action means 1. to abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others. Further details regarding the concrete meaning of right action can be found in the five precepts:

I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from …

1. …harming living beings.

2. …taking things not freely given.

3. …sexual misconduct.

4. …false speech.

5. …intoxicating drinks and drugs causing heedlessness.

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Reading for August 11

This week’s Eightfold Path focus is on Right Speech.

3. Right Speech

Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. This aspect is not self-sufficient, however, essential, because mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.

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