♦ MINDFULNESS Meditation with Buddhist Insight, Changes Our Whole Relationship to "Reality" Itself

♦ A Therapy for Maverick Minds - offers compassionate relief thru "Mindfulness" as an alternative • One-to-one Individual Counseling for Non-Ordinary Gifted people • Rebels, Artists, Activists, Atheists, Intuitives, Fugitives, Creatives • smart, savvy, cerebral, verbal, quiet, funny, sincere people --yet so Unhappy • Difficult to Communicate Feelings • Stress Wounded Spirit • "Mindfulness" cultivates a cure-able, stable, calm, kind, kewl, loving, fearless, insightful Big Good-Hearted Mind

♦ FORGIVENESS -- CLOSENESS "Our Fathers in Better Focus"

"Our Fathers

in Better Focus"

Mind-Fullness Practice

+ Buddhist Insight Therapy

----------------------------------

Dharma Counseling

Mindfulness Therapy

Santa Monica

♦ Intro: A Buddhist-based, more 'alternative' approach to relating with Your Self and All Others • One-to-One Individual Therapy or Relationship Counseling • All kinds of Partnering issues • Difficult to communicate with or resolve feelings • Therapy for Creatives, Mavericks -gifted, artistic, sensitive, smart, cerebral people - yet 'existentially' unhappy people • Maybe a more Maverick Spirited inner-quest to nourish a compassionate iconoclast intelligence and a kind Big Good-Hearted Mind can.

____________________

"Forgiving Our Fathers"

a Pre-Father's Day Meditation

__________________________________

We've all had to have biological Fathers,

or else we just wouldn't be here.

But did we have 'Good-Enough Fathering' ?

Well, that's a whole other story...

This will be a day of 'Forgiveness-work' onus

our fathers, our family, mates and any others.

For many of us this will be a sane positive beginning,

and as ongoing deep inner-work.

TOO FAR ?
TOO CLOSE ?
HOW CLOSE is TOO CLOSE ?
HOW FAR is STILL TOO FAR ? --
HOW CLOSE is STILL TOO CLOSE ? --

Yet...

You Must Be Aware That there is gonna be
another human being sitting standing or
moving around near you feeling
what they are feeling about
the distance between you ...
Always, You Must Always
Be Asking in a Soft,
Non-Judgemental
Yielding Warm Way:
Asking One's Best
Refined Sensibilities:
Always Asking:
HOW CLOSE is
TOO CLOSE ? --
( It's Already
FAR Too Close
or Too Distant For ME )
---------------------------------
HOW FAR is TOO FAR ?
HOWCLOSE is TOO CLOSE ?
HOW FAR is STILL TOO FAR ? --
HOW CLOSE is STILL TOO CLOSE ? --
( It's Already FAR= Yet Too Far Too NEAR )
HOW FAR is TOO FAR ?
HOW CLOSE is TOO CLOSE ?
HOW FAR is STILL TOO FAR ? --
HOW CLOSE is STILL TOO CLOSE ? --
( It's Already FAR=
Yet Too Far Too NEAR )
-------------------------------=
Whatever the Mad Margins
of Necessary NEARNESS
or DISTANCE Variations
are about How the Distance
Both IS and IS-Not Working .
CLOSENESS and DISTANCE
are UNSTABLE --SO ARE WE
--------------------------------------
Lovingly Testing a Stretch
for The Dance of Distance
Any Ttime in a FULL
Filled EMPTY Moment
Between a Being's Story
of Presence or Absence
LINEAR
for Wide Sky Safety
VERTICL
for Hi Ground Intimacy
--- or NOT ...

-------------------------------

" Forgiveness is giving up

all hope for a better past.

There is no future

without forgiveness." ~ Desmond Tutu

" Forgiveness is Possible – and how we can start using this timeless Forgiveness practice to transform emotional wounds into an authentic healing, and a way out of our pain. As compassion arises more naturally, we see how Forgiveness can be practiced as a 'Gift' we give – not only to others – but ultimately to ourselves.

Forgiveness has the awesome power to ripen forces of purity such as Love. Forgiveness creates the space for a life-renewal, a life now free from bondage to the past. Forgiveness dissolves separation and relieves us of the twin burdens of lacerating guilt and perpetually unresolved outrage. It is not so easy to access that hurt place inside of us that can forgive, that can love again.

Remember,

it is much more

difficult to forgive--

than not to forgive !

When we are held prisoner by the 'resentment', the pain, the shame, anger, confusion, doubt or the sense of betrayal -our present life just cannot be fully lived. The unwelcome inheritance we carry from the past, function to close our hearts and thereby narrow our world. Yet 'Forgiveness' does not mean condoning a harmful action, or denying an injustice done.

Forgiveness should never be confused with being passive toward violation or abuse.

The Core-intention of true ‘Forgiveness’ arises directly out of the greatest compassion for ourselves – so that we can create the spacious, wide open conditions for an unobstructed love." ~ Jack Kornfield

Forgive and be free.

Forget that you have forgiven -

- and be even freer ! ~ The Buddha ~.

A cultivatable ‘capacity’ for Forgiveness needs to be available in order for us to truly Love. And there's certainly an endless abundance of authentic ‘Practice Opportunities’ when ‘working’ on Forgiveness.

_____________________

"A Change of Heart

Changes Everything"

------------------------------------

Holding onto resentment is

letting someone else punish us.

-------------------------------------------

The “Act of Forgiveness” is

an act of mercy to yourself !"

--------------------------------------

What Silent Meditation Retreats ALWAYS Offer...

is the very necessary deeper "immersion-time experiences" so often missing in shorter meditation sittings. Retreats help you gradually build-in a consistent "working-relationship" with the meditation practice itself - so you can cultivate and stabilize an aware, wise, Dharma-informed intellect, a peaceful body-stillness, and a compassionate, calm equilibrium and emotional renewal, in a supportive space to continually re-awaken yourself to being "present in this moment" in silent-living for a sanctuary-day of sustained mindfulness and inner-inquiry.

+ Dharma-dialogue help us explore Love-related themes, new awakening-approaches, and there's lively Q/A discussion - and lots of welcome noble-silence.

____________________

" Metta ~
The Relationship

Your Heart Longs For...

Already Exists within You ! ~Akasa Levi~

In the stillness

– S P A C E
for a rebellious spirit.
~ Noah Levine

__________________________

Why are you so unhappy ?

Because 99.9 per cent

of everything you think,

and of everything you do,

is for yourSelf –

and there isn't one.

~ Wei Wu Wei ~

" Buddhist practice literally has 'Nothing' to offer you –other than what is in THIS very moment. That’s all.God(s), Goddesses, religion, entities and the ego-self can certainly attract you with so, so, so much more! "

~ Henri Van Zeyst ~

Always

Remember ~

Whatever 'It' is –

It's just a “Thought”.

Love exists only in

the True Friendship.

Love is True Friendship

set on Fire !

~ Jeremy Taylor - 1657 ~

Natural Dharma guides us in the practical necessity of creating our own clear relationship 'language of kindness'and skillful actions arising from a compassionate and yet correct-view of 'What Is'… and How to do this in a warm natural, flexible yet uncontrived, uncompromised way?

How do we "Do" Relationship in our lives

with full feeling and integrity, while at the

same time do a Buddhist-practice of

cultivating an awakened non-attachment ?

" The Buddhist

absence of 'Attachment' –

is not necessarily at all,
in any way
the absence
of profound Loving."

~ Ananda Maitreya ~

------------------------

“Mind-FULLY”

the Meditation

is coming soon

to a Mind near you !

The most common
attachment-mistake

in creating one's own
personal suffering

is to take the
Impermanent for
for Permanent." ~Buddha

---------------------------------------------------------

The True Reality of 'Experiencing is:
How I personally experience -

'Experiencing' itself - and that
may have to change !

The Buddhist Practice is always all about

OBSERVING OBSERVING OBSERVING.

Observing One's "Self-experience" Fully

'Experiencing' itself and becoming truly,

authentically Self-Conscious, consciously !

( 1 ) Buddhist Meditation Santa Monica • The LAUGHING BUDDHA SANGHA • Introduction to this chunky site •

• ( 2 ) DEFINITIONS of Meditation - and some enlightening Moon Poems

• ( 3 ) OVERVIEW of the Class • Our Philosophy and The Nature of the New Student • Buddha the Rebel "Iconoclast"

• ( 4 ) The Optional Beginner's "PRACTICE-CLASS-COMMITMENT" - a practice-option that we only 'suggest' to you -- is fully explored + plus some encouraging words

• ( 5 ) Upcoming RETREAT • Ongoing CLASS Announcements • Previous Retreat ARCHIVE of some good Poetry and Prose excerpts from PAST Retreats

• ( 6 ) ALL DETAILS • DIRECTIONS • LOCATION • WHAT to BRING • TIMES • COST • Evening Schedule

• ( 7 ) Class READINGS • Newcomers CATCH-UP OUTLINE • SITTING INSTRUCTIONS • Sitting Pointers • The Hindrances to Meditation

• ( 8 ) Teacher media BIO • our CONTACT Info • About Bringing a FRIEND • and about the Western misunderstanding about the Teacher/Student Relationship

• ( 9 ) ARTICLES on Meditation - Buddhism - Media News - Imported Writings - interesting stuff...

• ( 9 A ) The Henri Van Zeyst Archive

About our Teacher/Friend

310~450~2268, • 14th St near Pico Blvd • Santa Monica • CA 90405 •, United States

♦ AKASA-MAITREYA LEVI, DhMA (D.Min) ~ SUNY Harpur College / Binghamton University, New York – an American that went to live a full decade in Asia in the 1970s - to be directly with the last living spiritual teachers of the pre-global era. He was a Vipassana Buddhist forest monk for six years - trained and ordained into the Theravada monastic lineage by the revered Bhante Ananda Maitreya & Kassapa Mahathera of Sri Lanka. Arriving in India in 1972 as a filmmaker & student of the Gurdjieff 'Work', Akasa became a Vajrayana initiate of Lama Thubten Yeshe & Zopa Rinpoche in Nepal – a Vipassana student of Sri Munindra & S.N. Goenka, and sitting Zazen with Subhuti Shibuya Sensei: all in Bodhgaya, India - and Non-Duality Advaita with Nisargadatta Maharaj in Bombay. Akasa studied Western analytic therapy at UCLA on returning to America. He teaches Mindfulness Insight-Meditation at The Laughing Buddha Sangha - leads ZEN•MEN inner-growth groups - and offers buddhist-based counseling and therapy. Akasa is now a 'Bodhi-Acharya' lineage-holder of the Theravada teaching transmission. He is known for his spontaneity, ready warmth, and wry unpredictable humor.

WHAT is THERAPY -- Two People Sit Down - and Empathicaly Work On One of Them --- Together

-----------------------------------

♦ Buddhist Counseling
♦ Mindfulness Therapy
♦ Santa Monica

UNTRANSLATEABLE
POETIC Meditations
in The Buddha-Dharma
guided by former Buddhist
forest monk Akasa Levi

♦ A BUDDHIST-based, more
'alternative' approach to
relating with Your Self
• One-to-One Individual
Therapy or Relationship
Partnering Counseling
• Therapy for Creatives,
a more Maverick Spirited
inner-quest to nourish a
compassionate iconoclast
intelligence and a kind
Big Good-Hearted Mind.

"FORGIVING
OUR FATHERS"
----------------------
But did we have
'GOOD ENOUGH
FATHERING '? ? ?
-------------------
Father's Day
Mindfulness
Meditations

We've ALL had to have
biological Fathers, or
else we just wouldn't
be here ---
But did we have
'GOOD ENOUGH
FATHERING '? A day of
'Forgiveness-work' for us,
our Fathers, our family,
mates and any others.
For many of us this
will be a sane positive
beginning, and as ongoing
deep inner work --to really
give ourselves adequate
time beforehand to practice
Forgiveness-techniques
on our own for a week
at home with short
contemplative meditation
sittings –or for whatever
amount of time you wish to
devote to it. Less is more.
Using gentle-approaches
we will learn, tbat will
lead us confidently to
an auspicious Big Sunday,
whether or not we make
the trip home or
just in memory .

-----------------------------------

Yet...

You Must Always
Be Asking in a Soft,
Non-Judgemental
Yielding Warm Way:
Asking One's Best
Refined Sensibilities:
Always Asking:
HOW CLOSE is
TOO CLOSE ? --
( It's Already
FAR Too Close
or Too Distant For ME )
---------------------------------
HOW FAR is TOO FAR ?
HOWCLOSE is TOO CLOSE ?
HOW FAR is STILL TOO FAR ? --
HOW CLOSE is STILL TOO CLOSE ? --
( It's Already FAR= Yet Too Far Too NEAR )
HOW FAR is TOO FAR ?
HOW CLOSE is TOO CLOSE ?
HOW FAR is STILL TOO FAR ? --
HOW CLOSE is STILL TOO CLOSE ? --
( It's Already FAR=
Yet Too Far Too NEAR )
-------------------------------=
Whatever the Mad Margins
of Necessary NEARNESS
or DISTANCE Variations
are about How the Distance
Both IS and IS-Not Working .
CLOSENESS and DISTANCE
are UNSTABLE --SO ARE WE
--------------------------------------
Lovingly Testing a Stretch
for The Dance of Distance
Any Ttime in a FULL
Filled EMPTY Moment
Between a Being's Story
of Presence or Absence
LINEAR
for Wide Sky Safety
VERTICL
for Hi Ground Intimacy
--- or NOT ...

-------------------------------

"Forgiveness is giving up
all hope for abetter past.
There is no future
without forgiveness."

~ Desmond Tutu
-------------------------

" Forgiveness is Possible –
How we can start using
this timeless Forgiveness
practice to transform
emotional wounds into
an authentic healing,
a way out of our pain.
As compassion arises
more naturally, we see
how Forgiveness can
be practiced as a 'Gift'
we give -not only to others,
but ultimately to ourselves.
--------------------------------------

Forgiveness has the
awesome power to
ripen forces of purity
such as Love.

------------------------------

Forgiveness creates the
space for a life-renewal,
--- a life now free from
bondage to the past.

---------------------------

Forgiveness dissolves
separation and relieves us
of the twin burdens of
lacerating guilt and
perpetually unresolved
outrage or numbing...
It is not so easy to access
that hurt place inside of us
that can truly forgive,
that can love again.

Remember, it is much
more difficult to forgive,
than not to forgive !

When we are held prisoner
by the 'resentment', the pain,
the shame, the anger,
confusion, doubt or
the sense of betrayal
-our present life just
cannot be fully lived.

The unwelcome inheritance
we carry from the past---
functions to close my heart
and thereby narrow my world.
Yet 'Forgiveness' does not
mean condoning a harmful
action, or denying
an injustice done.
Forgiveness should
never be confused
with being passive
toward violation or abuse.
The CORE-intention of true
‘Forgiveness’ arises directly
out of the greatest practice:
compassion for ourselves
– so that we can create
the spacious, wide open,
contributing conditions
for an unobstructed love."

~ Jack Kornfield

----------------------

Forgive
and be free.
Forget that
you have forgiven --
and be even freer !

~ The Buddha

-----------------------

A cultivatable ‘capacity’
for Forgiveness needs
to be available in order
for us to truly Love.
And there's certainly
an endless abundance
of authentic every-day
‘Practice Opportunities’
when ‘working’
on Forgiveness

---------------------------

"A Change of Heart
Changes Everything"

--------------------------------

Holding onto Resentment--
is letting someone else
punish us.

---------------------------------

The “Act of Forgiveness”
is an act of
mercy to yourself !"
--------------------------------
Silent Meditation offers
the very necessary deeper
"immersion-time
experiences" so often
missing in shorter
'workshop' meditations..
You gradually build-in
a consistent
"working-relationship"
with the meditation
practice itself-- so you can
cultivate and stabilize
an aware, sweet, wise,
Dharma-informed
intellect, a peaceful
body-stillness, and
a compassionate,
calm equilibrium and
emotional renewal,
in a supportive space
to continually re-awaken
yourself to being
"present in this moment"
in silent-living for a gentle
sanctuary-day of sustained
mindfulness and deeper
inner-inquiry.

-------------------------------

" Metta ~
The Relationship
Your Heart Longs For...
... Already Exists within You ! "

--------------------------------------

" A day of heart/mind
training will really begin
to set you up in the right
direction -or allow you
to deepen the work
you have already begun.
-------------------------------
In the stillness –
SPACE
for a rebellious spirit."

~ Noah Levine

-----------------------------

Why are you so Unhappy ?

Because 99.9 per cent
of everything you think,
and of everything you do,
is for yourSelf –
and there isn't one.

~ Wei Wu Wei ~
--------------------------

" Buddhist practice literally
has 'Nothing' to offer you –
other than what is in
THIS very moment.
That’s all.
God(s), Goddesses,
religion, entities
and the ego-self
can certainly
attract you with so,
so, so much more! "

~ Henri Van Zeyst ~

----------------------------

Remember ~

Whatever 'It' is –
t's just a “Thought”.

and also please remember that . .
.
Love exists only
in the True Friendship

Love is True Friendship
set on Fire !

~ Jeremy Taylor - 1657 ~

----------------------------------

Natural Dharma guides us
in the practical necessity
of creating our uniquely own
clearly spoken relationship -
'Language of Kindness'
and skillful actions arising
from a compassionate
and yet -- a Complete-view
of 'What Is'....
and How to do this in
a warm, natural, flexible
yet uncontrived,
uncompromised way?
How do we "do"
Relationship in our lives
with full feeling and
integrity, while at the
same time do a Buddhist
-practice of cultivating an
awakened non-attachment ?

" The Buddhist
Absence of 'Attachment'
–is not necessarily at all,
in any way,the absence of
profound, profound Loving."

~ Ananda Maitreya

~----------------------------

Mind-FULLY Meditation
is coming soon
to a Mind near you !

The most common
attachment-mistake
in creating one's own
personal suffering
is to take the
Impermanent
for Permanent."

------------------------

The Buddhist-ideal:
the Absence of '
Attachment' –
is NOT necessarily,
in any way whatsoever,
the absence of
a profound Loving !

The True Reality
of 'Experiencing':
is How
I personally
experience -
'Experiencing' itself -
and that may have
to change !

Buddhist
Mindfulness Practice
is always all about
OBSERVING
OBSERVING
OBSERVING
Observing One's Self
and becoming truly,
authentically
Self-Conscious,
CONSCIOUSLY !

♦ AKASA MAITREYA LEVI,
310~450~2268, • 14th St
near Pico Blvd • Santa Monica
• CA 90405 •, United States
akasalevizz@msn.com

--- end ---

------------------------------------
BELOW is NOT REALLY
FULLY UP YET…
Bear with us PLZ
Read Anyway if you wish...

---------------------------------------

A CRACKED POT of
CRAZY POETRY In
DAMAGED POTTERY,
PERSONAL THERAPY
Full of PROFOUNDITY
amid little productivity
------------------------------

--:¦:- It's All About
that Old Analogy
of the Satisfied
Famous FULL Glass,
the Thirsty EMPTY Glass
and the 1/2 n' 1/2 Crowd,
Ones Like Us--- ask for
a rational explanation
-------------------------------
"Mind-FULLY"
Filled with Lama's
"BIG MIND" Mind
Better than Mud --
Empty with Knowing
Questing Questions
All Arising Naturally
The Lion's Silent Roar
Holds Me Undistracted
and Out of The Way !
Don't Tamper with
the New Merchandise
Lest it Become Artifice.
-------------------------------
When OBSERVING,
Notice the Energy
Re-positioning Itself--
Should I ? -- 'Get Close' or
Should I ? --'Take Distance'
EXPERIENCE 'IT' FULLY-
FEEL Yourself Feel Itself
WITNESS Other Beings
All Arising Naturally,
Watching Contented
Not Thought-making
Aware of Quiet Caressing
Wondering About Others:
TO BE or NOT TO BE -- NO,
That is NOT the Question:
The Real Question is
--- HOW to BE !
Now Who Creates
and Manages THAT ?
GOODNESS Balances
-------------------------------------
"Mind-FULLY" -- Rests and
Empties the 'BIG MIND' of
"CONSCIOUS UNIVERSE"
Not So Intelligent Universe
Guess Who ? The SPACE
In Between is FULL of YOU.
One's True Personal Space
-- especially In-Close-Up in
Intimate Relationship with
Compromised Partnering
based in IINTEGRITY and
DHARMA Understandings
You MUST Keep Asking...