Practice with Pleasure
Last night I listened to one of Sally Armstrong’s talks from the Concentration Retreat being held right now at Spirit Rock. The title of the talk is: Skillful Development of Pleasure in Practice and in Life, and it is one of the clearest, most non-jargon-y talks I’ve ever heard on the importance of the experience of pleasure in practice.
Not pleasure that is based on physical contact. But pleasure based on the mind’s ability to become collected and unified, which is a type of pleasure that is “felt” in the body, but which, frankly, is A WHOLE LOT BETTER! Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true.
At one point early in her practice, Sally experienced this kind of pleasure as “being like one of those long streams of sea-kelp, floating in an ocean of warm honey.”
At the time, she described this to her teacher, and expected to be told: “Just let it go. Don’t hold on to it. Don’t get attached.”
Instead, she was told: “Do more of that!”
Which she did!!!
***
This talk is a pleasure to listen to. You can find it on Dharmaseed here.