Wild Heart Meditation Center

Andrew offers an overview and instructions on the four heart practices.

Andrew speaks on the topic of "Buddhism Without Borders". Enjoy!!

Andrew discusses opening to difficulty on the path -- how to familiarize the heart with the dissatisfaction that is inherent in our life's journey, for the purpose of acceptance & compassion.

Andrew discusses the role of energy & effort in the Buddhist path of practice, in particular, looking at the qualities of urgency, applied effort, persistence, & patience.

Andrew Chapman returns back after a 20 day silent retreat in Myanmar. He shares some personal reflections regarding his relationship to Buddhist practice, while also discussing the importance of faith & encouragement on the path.

Andrew offers a guided meditation, using 'breathing' as the primary object.

Against the Stream Founder, Noah Levine, visits Against the Stream Nashville & offers a Dharma Talk on the Fire Sermon. Enjoy!!

Against the Stream Founder, Noah Levine, visits Nashville & offers a period of practice and a Dharma Talk. Here is Part 1 - Meditation Instructions & Guided Meditation. Enjoy!!

Andrew elaborates on the role of samadhi (concentration / focus / unification of mind) in the development of insight. How does concentration play a role in helping us to deepen and sustain our attention within the mindfulness practice?

The Buddha's path of practice is aimed at extinguishing the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion that so often overwhelm our unconscious motivations and behaviors. In doing so, we must learn how to look deeply into our own minds to examine our beliefs and motivations and learn to practice and intentional way of relating to the changing conditions of our lives. Our ability to awaken demands that we have access to enjoyment, learning to take active delight in the pleasures and successes of our lives without falling into the habit of enmeshment, obsession, or unhealthy attachment. We must also learn to take delight and sympathize with the goodness of all beings. Having an ability to see the good in others allows for the development of a compassionate heart, one that dissolves the barriers of separateness that so often keep us isolated and in conflict.

One of the most transformative aspects of the Buddha's teaching is his teaching of Anatta ("Not-Self"). Through the practice of vipassana ("insight meditation") we can learn to identify the destructive and confining views of ourselves (i.e. sakkaya ditthi - 'self view') and learn to embody a more spontaneous and authentic way of relating to our lived experience.

ATS Facilitator, Mikey Noechel, discusses Buddhist practices for working with Shame.

Forming intimate relationships are necessary for both an integrated sense of self in the world and the development of healthy coping mechanisms to help us overcome life's inherent struggles. Often times, some of our most troubling experiences stem from our interactions with others. Through our formative years, most of us have learned patterns of communicating that are often maladaptive and push people away, despite our need to feel close. In this talk, Andrew explores how the Buddha's teachings on Wise Communication can bring us into healthy relationships.

Often times we develop clarity and wisdom through the most challenging aspects of our lives. As we embark on a contemplative path of practice, we learn to tune into more moments of experience and investigate the nature of dissatisfaction in the mind. Although we will never rid our lives of painful physical, emotional, or mental experiences, through practice, we learn that we can, indeed, come to liberate ourselves from the very habits that perpetuate further depths of dissatisfaction and distress -- the "extra" suffering. The Buddha discussed the importance of fully knowing the wide breadth of our humanity -- the pleasure & pain, gain & loss, and beauty & tragedy of our lives. Learning to embrace the existential reality: we are susceptible to woundedness, but we don't have to wound ourselves.

What is taking up unnecessary space in our lives? What types of behaviors and what particular patterns of thoughts no longer serve us any more? One way to look at renunciation is the practice of "not needing anything extra". Through mindfulness and the ethical trainings in Buddhist practice, we can learn to bring awareness to the aspects of our life that are taking up space and causing ourselves and others distress and come to liberate ourselves from unnecessary patterns of suffering. We call this the Joy of Renunciation. Because, counter to our cultural messages, it is by letting go of our attachment to things that we learn to truly find peace and ease in our lives.

The process of awakening is likened to tending to a field for harvest. The growth and deepening of wisdom develops as we learn to: 1. Survey the land, 2. Plan & Prepare the field, 3. Plant the seeds, 4. Tend to the crop, and 5. Pick the fruit. The Buddhist path of practice invites us to take a seat in the middle of several fields of experience, amidst the intersection of our internal & external lives. The Buddha offered a holistic map in which we can navigate and tend to our fields of experience with greater clarity, empathy, and wisdom: complete view, wise intention, wise speech, action, and livelihood, and wise effort, mindfulness, & concentration

The Buddha offered the cultivation of mindfulness as the direct path to liberating wisdom. Through observing our thoughts, emotions, and feelings in present awareness, we develop insight and familiarity with our inner landscape. However, we are often looking at our direct experience through the lens of aversion, fear, obsession, etc... "HOW" we focus on our present experience is just as important as what we are paying attention to. With mindfulness, we learn to bring a gentle, kind, & friendly attitude to the practice of present time awareness. Mindfulness is, and should always be, looked at in the context of the Buddhist ethical basis of "non-harming". Buddhist meditation asked us, how can we look into our own hearts and minds with a kind & gentle quality of awareness? How can we learn to befriend the mind?

The historical Buddha's style of teaching was open, inviting personal exploration and investigation (pali sanskrit term, Ehipassiko, meaning "come and see"). Although the encouragement of mindfulness practice is to bear witness to one's own subjective involvement in moment to moment experience, we can often fall into the trap of judging our experience as "right" or "wrong" or "good" or "bad". “Although discerning skillful from unskillful is basic to the Buddha’s teaching, in our Western culture it is a very delicate process. For many people, it is an easy step from recognizing a particular mind state, [mood, or attitude] as being unwholesome to the feeling that you’re a bad person for having it, or that somehow it’s wrong for the mind state to even arise. This pattern of reaction simply leads to more self-judgment, more aversion, and more suffering. It’s not a helpful cycle” - Joseph Goldstein.

Often, when we build up our defenses around the heart, we are trapping ourselves inside the walls with the pain we are trying to protect. Forgiveness is the intentional practice of "giving up any hope for a better past", learning to dissolve the resentments towards ourselves and others that keep us bound to past experiences. We can learn to understand that harm is caused out of suffering, and we can learn to let people back into our hearts, without letting them back into our homes.

Andrew continues his discussion of the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness, speaking on the theme of the Five Hindrances. Through mindfulness, we can bring active awareness to the most subtle defenses of our minds and learn to transform obstacles on the path into opportunities for awakening. Listen to explore how we can bring active awareness and skillful resourcing to these Five Hindrances: craving, aversion, laziness, restlessness, & doubt. Enjoy!