Episodes
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Lila interviewed Christopher Titmuss for several years, on different themes and topics relevant to awakening in our life.
Christopher Titmuss, a senior meditation and Dharma teacher in the west, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, offers Dharma teachings addressing the wide variety of issues in daily life including mindfulness, meditation, communication and wise action.
Lila and Christopher are long term friends and were teaching together since 2004, including in this MTTC course (Mindfulness teacher training course).
EXTRACTS FROM THE INTERVIEW MTTC course, June 2017 Germany
On becoming a Dharma teacher – criteria? Not exactly. Something else runs the show.
The primary interest is to give support for teachers to express their understanding in their way which is supportive to people. I'm not concerned if they use the language of the form (Silla, Samadhi, Pannya) or not, they need a person outside of themselves to tell them – you can do it.
I wanted to ask you about the next generation and how do you see your Role as a teacher, how do you chose.
Q - When you give teaching, what is for you the primary intention?
A - Liberation. That’s the thread that runs through. The liberation from the stuff, the freedom to be, the freedom to act. Something that is simultaneously transcendent but immanent, but close. That consistently what I wish to get across so It realized or understood
But not to make it into a criteria in any way. In teacher meetings people discussed qualities that makes a teacher. But I never participated. Why list all this, and who has got it perfect anyway? … In the last analysis, in a way, the sangha decides a teacher. You and I and others can give support, but if that person hasn’t got the dedication in and outside of retreat - they'll fade.
I opt for a general sense of potential that this person can flower in and with the role, given the right guidance and support from one who has done it for years. These can bring something deeper out if the person.
One of the most common things I hear from teachers is that how challenging it is to find the words around ultimate truth. I say to people – at least try to put in a sentence or two about where it's all going: Nibhana, liberation, the truth, the unconditioned, call it what you like. Keep it alive inside yourself as well as with the others.
If I sense the basics are there – Ethics, lifestyle, which is respectful to the earth – living modestly. A real love of the dharma, a sense of practices, connection and support with others- sangha, the India, Thailand, Burmese, experience. That itself is speaking to me. I'm not too concerned with the personality of the individual. And because of dependent arising – giving them more nourishment.
Looking back at your generation of teachers, when you were in your early 30 late 20, you didn’t have much experience with all these. But there was something else. Most of them couldn’t even tell me what the 4 noble truths are (laughter)… and saying all kind of things like "you create your own reality… and still do (laughter). I'll respond, but not as a criteria.
With the group of the MTTC I'm cutting the corners. I think the planet is chronic self doubt
What would be your advise for someone who would like to be a dharma teacher?
(21.48 min– starts a new topic )- what's your advice – what should people do to get the transcendent more immanent? A – the combination of retreats, coupled with the transcendent on a retreat, in the dialogue, in the listening, is the best climate possible.
3 kinds of teachers that I'm totally fine with:
one, is good with all the basics: sila- Samadhi-panna, methods and techniques, loving kindness meditation, mindfulness, 8 fold path etc. they teach on retreats and its totally fine. I encourage some people to do that.
Second kind of teacher has more to offer – could be jhanas, insight, more understanding of the psychology of people – deeper.
Third kind of teacher – a certain consistency with the ultimate.
There are overlapping and sometimes a gradual shift.
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Lila interviewed Christopher Titmuss for several years, on different themes and topics relevant to awakening in our life.
Christopher Titmuss, a senior meditation and Dharma teacher in the west, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, offers Dharma teachings addressing the wide variety of issues in daily life including mindfulness, meditation, communication and wise action.
Lila and Christopher are long term friends and were teaching together since 2004, including in this MTTC course (Mindfulness teacher training course).
EXTRACTS FROM THE INTERVIEW MTTC course, June 2017 Germany
Meditation advise – there has to be a point when the meditator lose interest in focusing the mind upon an object of meditation. That is no longer a priority. Moving from the form to the formless. Receptivity that allows something to move in consciousness to provide insights and realization and takes the power out of the world to have dominancy over one life.
Emptiness - It makes everything else possible…
Its not that I have something that others don’t have. Its knowing it that makes all the difference… life and death rest in something that is not life and is not death…
Knowing is the end of movement
We live under a spell of movement: of doing. It’s a spell of the consciousness
When the spell finishes and is over with, the sense of something genuine and real which all this rests in, manifests, reveals, confirms.
A seeing and a knowing that is e quite comfortable with duality and non duality
Freedom is freedom – 3 manifestations of freedom - freedom from the problematic, freedom to be, - and these 2 leads to the freedom to act.
What motivates you?
The life so far had sustained itself in real sense of being fulfilled
Q- What is your deepest wish?
A- The full awakening of human beings and flowing along with that, make all these teachings applicable
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Lila interviewed Christopher Titmuss for several years, on different themes and topics relevant to awakening in our life.
Christopher Titmuss, a senior meditation and Dharma teacher in the west, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, offers Dharma teachings addressing the wide variety of issues in daily life including mindfulness, meditation, communication and wise action.
Lila and Christopher are long term friends and were teaching together since 2004, including in this MTTC course (Mindfulness teacher training course).
EXTRACTS FROM THE INTERVIEW MTTC course, June 2017 Germany
Christopher is talking about his first steps in teachings, and about his first meditative experiences as well as various spiritual experiences from early childhood. "God is always with me". That sense haven't changed. Always been there. Only with gaps of days at maximum. I was always a happy child.
About God – that which I can rest in, rely upon and is always available.
It’s the quiet unshakable sustained sense that one is resting in something bigger then oneself, which I referred to as god, and I can refer to as reality or infinite or eternity.
Entering the monastery, I can't remember looking for something, but more the interest in this human being. Something was moving and exploring, and it just had to be that way…
There is very little suffering in my life. As long as the receptivity is there, I can hear theirs without too much getting in the way.
Not experiencing major suffering is due entirely to the resting in God. The resting in somehow gives enough space to put perspective on the little events. And that perspective is the saving grace from God. The resting generates a natural freedom which in turn generate curiosity. The word Infinite is important to me. I want to express it through exploration. There is no limit to the exploration. Outwardly, form, practices, ways of teaching, infinitely different kinds of ways of meditation, of working on myself, infinite opportunity and that gives a lot of vitality.
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Interview with Aviram and Yorit, Sadhana forest, Auroville, India. 7.1.19
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Lila Interviews Aviram and Yorit, an Israeli couple who have created Sadhana forest - a huge re-forested area and community in Auroville, South India. Their life mission is compassion through action. The aim to work together towards a more compassionate world in a practical and down to earth way. To be part of a transformation of a piece of land and via that - transformation of so many lives.
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
#24 Meditation Instructions-Metta Practice
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Instruction given on a retreat in Israel, April 6, 2015
The practice of Metta - loving kindness, or deep friendship. Metta is one of the four divine qualities of the heart-mind and is one of the most important qualities to cultivate on the path to freedom.
Friday Jul 19, 2019
#23 Inner Authority - Finding our True Voice
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Talk given in an MTTC course (Mindfulness Teachers Training Course), September 2017, Israel.
The journey of finding our inner authority –The journey of the Buddha and our life journey – What am I going to do with ?my life"? How to work with the negative voices inside of us. The practice of "No junk thoughts" – as an act of love.
Friday Jul 19, 2019
#20 The story of the Buddha And The First noble Truth
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Friday Jul 19, 2019
Talk given in a Vipassana and Yoga retreat, June 2019, Germany
Monday Dec 04, 2017
#8 On princesses and Dragons and Myths
Monday Dec 04, 2017
Monday Dec 04, 2017
Talk given at a desert retreat in Israel, 2012
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
#5 What About the Heart?
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
Talk given on the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course in Germany, October 2017
Wednesday Nov 22, 2017
#3 Four Noble Truths and Deep Mindfulness
Wednesday Nov 22, 2017
Wednesday Nov 22, 2017
Talk given on the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course in Germany, October 2017