With Thoughts We Make the World:

We imagine that we are seeing things as they are, but we see the world primarily through our unexamined thoughts (concepts/views) about it.  This insight has been articulated in different ways but is shared by teachers across diverse meditative traditions from the Buddha to Ramana Maharshi.  Our thoughts and underlying beliefs, often extremely subtle, shape the world we see, our sense of self and other, lie at the root of inner feelings of dis-ease, incompleteness, and fragmentation.  Our thoughts/concepts/views give rise to the anger, hostility, contempt, and violence that we perpetrate against others.  If we want to learn how to open hearts and extend our love and compassion to all beings in a robust way we must look directly at this process in our own minds.  This will also help us to understand what we are up against when we confront ethnocentrism, toxic nationalism, racism, sexism, and all forms of violence, in our larger community.  

In this class we will take an experiential approach to this subject and investigate, uncover, and work with the thoughts that shape our perception, causing us to crave that which cannot bring satisfaction, seek security in that which unstable and constantly changing, and take ourselves to be what we are not and can never be.  Through meditative inquiry and the continuing cultivation of mindfulness, and clear seeing we will loosen the grip these thoughts have on our minds.  As this happens, we will watch our experience of the world, ourselves and each other transform before our eyes and open our hearts to a greater sense of wholeness, freedom, and love.