Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

The Conscientious Heart: An exploration of Appamada and the Elephant’s Footprint

With Roshi Joan Halifax recorded on March 3, 2024.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

We will explore through practice and teachings the importance of “appamada” or heedfulness, conscientiousness, or what Stephen Batchelor has translated as care. Appamada has been called the path to the deathless. ” Just as the footprints of all living beings with legs can be encompassed by the footprint of the elephant, and the elephant’s footprint is declared to be supreme among them in terms of its great size; in the same way, heedfulness is the one quality that keeps both kinds of benefits secure—benefits in this life & benefits in lives to come.” We actualize this blessed path.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Ronya Banks

    Inner Peace – Even in a Chaotic World

    “Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught that that is not our real home. Our real home is inner peace.” – Ajahn Chah How can you possibly experience inner peace at a time when human-kind and our planet appears to be tumbling deeper into “chaos”? Can inner peace even…

    Read More

  • Yahel Avigur

    The Necessity of Trust

    The qualities of trust, faith, and confidence are essential for mental health, profound spiritual explorations and the depth of relationships. To serve well, trust needs cultivating in conjunction with qualities of discerning wisdom and conscious intention. This session explores how this can be encouraged in both meditation and in our heart’s countless daily actions. 

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of October 23, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Touched by Dukkha”. Living life involves being in touch with various experiences, some of which are challenging. These challenging experiences, referred to as ‘dukkha’ by the Buddha, inevitably stir the heart-mind. Our sensitive nature is touched by dukkha, manifesting in ripple effects like impulses, emotions, and thoughts. This week, we’ll explore together what the Buddha called the second noble truth, to understand how our reactions and responses to dukkha shape our lives.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Warrior heart: transforming anger into strength, dynamism and creativity

    Dharma teachings point to how dangerous and destructive anger is, and how words and actions can cause great suffering. This class looks at skilful means for meeting and exploring anger, and for understanding and transforming it. Martin leads a specially oriented meditation, and his talk explores the inner strength and confidence which can arise from…

    Read More

  • Cultivating self-compassion

    So many of us struggle with self-hatred and self-judgment. Self-compassion is so deeply needed in these times, and brings together mindfulness, loving kindness practices, and a recognition of our shared humanity. This session explores the cultivation of this core set of practices.

    Read More

  • Nina la Rosa

    A Pathway to Freedom Through Connecting with the Body

    Where’s your body? Can you feel it? Is it still there?! Life is full. There’s so much to plan and think about. We can go hours without feeling a single breath or footstep. Can you relate? By getting lost in our thoughts we over-identify with a limited sense of “self” and therefore suffer. We will…

    Read More

  • Trudy Goodman

    Breathe! Delight in Meditation

    How can we delight in our meditation? Learning to bring loving awareness to the breath, feeling the ebb and flow in real time as we sit quietly, is an art. The key is in our approach. Sometimes in practicing mindfulness of breathing, there can be an over-emphasis or insistence on focusing attention that drives delight…

    Read More