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

Understanding and developing Citta (heart-mind)

With Dave Smith recorded on January 28, 2018.

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

All schools of Buddhism acknowledge that the development of Citta is an essential aspect of the awakening process. Within classical Mindfulness teachings, it encompasses the entirely of the third foundation of practice. At its core, it encourages us to recognize the presence and absence of greed, hatred and delusion. In its fruition it points to embodying a mind and heart of wisdom, kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In this teaching session Dave outlines the basic nuts and bolts of how this can be understood and developed, both on and off the cushion.

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

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Joy is Always Available

    On autopilot, our mind often resists opening to joy with: “But right now in my life, there is …” So we explore what stands in our way of the unexpected ordinariness of joy. We’ll discover how the awakening factor of meditative joy (piti) illuminates our capacity to open to delight and rapture, allowing our hearts…

    Read More

  • The Compass of Wise Intention

    In times marked socially by uncertainty, injustice, polarization, and sometimes overwhelm, in the midst of the typical personal joys and sorrows of our day to day experiences, it can be difficult to know how to act-or even how to keep the heart steady. The Buddha’s teaching on Wise Intention (sammā saṅkappa) offers a compass, a…

    Read More

  • Leslie Booker

    Faith in the Three Jewels

    Booker writes: “Growing up in the Baptist faith, I was taught to believe what I was taught, and to not have my own experience or exploration; to not know for myself. This didn’t sit well with me as a child! During this teaching, I will share my spiritual journey from Bright Faith to Verified Faith….

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 8, 2021

    This week’s topic is The Freedom of an Unassuming Mind.

    The Buddha used the image of a tangled and knotted thread to represent the complex roots of human suffering and distress. It takes sensitivity, persistence, and care to disentangle the tangle of ‘dukkha’. A tricky part of this is that our assumptions about the world radically shape the way the world appears, while remaining quite hidden to us. Fortunately, wisdom teachings and practices bring assumptions into view and support the untying of these unseen knots, opening us into a wide and free existence.

    Read More

  • Christine Kupfer

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christine Kupfer – Week of April 10, 2022

    This week’s topic is “Body like a temple”. We often refer to the body as if it were a functional tool. We talk about my body, as if it were supposed to be at our service. Sometimes all it takes is one breath for everything to change, and in a dazzle, we experience body as a temple, a sanctuary for life. What is a temple? It is a sacred place, a place whose spiritual reality goes beyond the physical plane. In our daily meditations this week, we will bow to the miracle of the body that we are, honoring the presence of life unfolding in all its realities.

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of 06 July, 2026

    This week’s theme is: Abiding in Vibrant Tranquility; Cultivating Stillness, Ease and Wellbeing . Meditation practice can guide us into deeper and fuller restfulness, clarity and aliveness. This week we will delve into teachings and meditative approaches that nourish ease, stillness and vibrancy. As we explore the appearance and confluence of these qualities, deeper possibilities of insight and awakening open up. Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More