Would you like to find peace in a chaotic, F’d up World?

Thankfully, there are time tested spiritual tools you can practice for transformation and wisdom. Watch this video to hear Doug and Catherine Sensei share their thoughts on why we struggle and what we can do to find true peace.

Enlighten-Up is a monthly livestream session with Dharma Teachers Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat. These candid talks on spirituality and awakening are to enliven and enlighten you, as the world spins in challenging times.

How do we find peace in a chaotic world?

Practice the Perfections (Paramis)

The Paramis, also known as the perfections, are specific practices that lead one out of suffering towards the shore of awakening. It is on that shore, that one is no longer subject to the struggles of the world. 

One can then focus on giving peace to the world from a state of compassion and clarity.

By perfecting the Paramis through practice we can make the transition from ego focus, fear, worry, and anxiety, towards spaciousness.

The Six Paramis

The first parami is Dana, also called generosity.  Interest is the highest form of generosity. To measure if an action is indeed generous, we ask ourselves, “Does this take me forward into more trust and love?”

The second parami is Sila.  Sila translates as ethics or coolness in the sense of an unruffled state, or a refreshed way of being. To practice Sila parami is to learn from experience what actions lead to a cool, calm state in your being.  

Ksanti, or patience, is the third parami. 

The fourth parami is Viriya, or energy.  Call upon your innate wellspring of energy to practice the Paramis in order, to see deeper into our desires and how they manifest in our lives. 

The fifth parami is Dhyana, known as concentration and equal to a meditative absorption or attentiveness.

The sixth parami, which results from the former five parami, is Prajna, or Wisdom.  Wisdom understands the place of the ‘self’ in relationship to emptiness and the material world. Wisdom is the understanding that bliss, clarity, and radiant non-clinging spaciousness permeates every arising.

In summary, to maintain a state of peace in a F’d up world, one can practice generosity, ethics, patience, energy and concentration. This will lead to the wisdom of experiencing spacious emptiness in each moment.  From there, starting from a place of wisdom, compassion and loving kindness, we can truly participate in helping make the world a better place.

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