Nathan Glyde
We’re fortunate that Nathan Glyde has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK. To find out more about Nathan, and to view his other contributions to Sangha Live, click here. Recordings are posted 24 – 36 hours after the live session runs.
This week’s topic is Making Sense of Self.
Although the Buddha encourages us to not indulgently ponder whether the self is real or not, he did offer us a way to explore how the sense of self appears. This methodology, called the khandhas (aggregates: the heap of heaps), exposes all aspects we gather together to create and hold to our sense of self: form (body); vedanā (subtle preference); perception; saṅkhāra (mental formations – like intention, attention…); and consciousness (knowing).
By holding each of these building blocks in attention with illimitable heart qualities, like kindness, we can engender deep freedom that transcends the question of existence or nonexistence. Beyond clinging-identity-demands we open into an expansive peace and well-being.
