Balanced Sensitivity

The Relation between Sensitivity Training and the Buddhist Teachings “Developing Balanced Sensitivity” is a program I developed for training to achieve emotional balance. It is based on the Buddhist teachings, so all the various practices in it derive from Buddhist sources;...

[As an introduction to this training program, see: Work-Life Balance: How to Get More Satisfaction in Life] Introduction This weekend, we are going to discuss and practice methods for integrating our life. We don’t actually find them in the Buddhist teachings or elsewhere....

What Is Sensitivity? Certain people seem naturally more sensitive than others. Sometimes this is an admirable quality. Partners are sensitive to each other's moods and do not make demands when the other has had a difficult day. Because of this type of sensitivity, our...

Statement of the Problem Because of the deeply rooted habit of confusion about reality, our mental activity instinctively and constantly produces not only dualistic appearances, but also "triplistic" ones. According to madhyamaka (middle way) theory, it fabricates a deceptive...

Why We Need to Develop Balanced Sensitivity? We’ve seen that “Developing Balanced Sensitivity” is a training program concerned about how to develop balance with our attentiveness: how we pay attention to situations and to the effect of our behavior on others and ourselves,...

Dispelling Insecurity through Deconstruction To dispel the problems of insecurity that our confusion and its instincts create regarding mind's natural functions, we need to identify the triplistic appearances that fuel these problems. Recognizing the absurdity of our...

Creating a Quiet, Caring Space Traditional sadhana practice for deconstructing one's negative self-image and creating a more positive one begins with quieting the mind of preconceptions and establishing a "circle of protection." The latter practice may consist of an...

The Three Objects and the Three Poisonous Attitudes The text continues with what we do after formal meditation on the tonglen giving and taking practice for developing relative bodhichitta. It says: (In regard to) the three objects, (take) the three poisonous attitudes and...

Eight Transitory Things in Life The lam-rim (graded stages) literature speaks of eight transitory things in life. These "eight worldly concerns" or "eight worldly dharmas" are praise or criticism, good or bad news, gains or losses, and things going well or poorly. We may be...

Developing balanced sensitivity requires a clear idea of the goal we wish to achieve so that we can focus our efforts in that direction. A Buddha is a paramount example of someone fully sensitive in the positive sense and totally free of all negative aspects. The...