{"id":22624,"date":"2023-09-12T14:42:58","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T19:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dharma.org\/?p=22624"},"modified":"2023-09-15T15:31:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T20:31:55","slug":"qa-jeanne-corrigal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dharma.org\/qa-jeanne-corrigal\/","title":{"rendered":"A Q&A with IMS Teacher Jeanne Corrigal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeanne Corrigal\u00a0is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community. She has been meditating since 1999, and is a graduate of IMS\u2019s Teacher Training Program and of Spirit Rock\u2019s Dedicated Practitioner and Community Dharma Leader Programs.<\/p>\n

Certified in Indigenous Focusing Oriented Trauma Therapy, Jeanne is also a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher and Life Skills Coach trainer with more than 20 years\u2019 experience facilitating adult programs. She is a member of the mixed heritage M\u00e9tis Nation, one of three Indigenous communities recognized in Canada. One of her first teachers in loving presence was Cree Elder Jim Settee.<\/p>\n

In this Q&A, Jeanne talks about her upcoming online program which will explore how the Satipatthana Sutta, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, is an experiential map showing the way that external nature supports awakening in our internal nature.<\/p>\n

Nature as Teacher of Awakening<\/strong>
\nSunday, October 15, 2023<\/strong>
\n9:00 am \u2013 5:00 pm ET<\/strong>
\nRegister for this program here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why is reflecting on nature as a means of awakening so important right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this time of climate crisis, I\u2019m seeing the Buddhist teachings more and more as teachings from nature. For me, it\u2019s about being able to move from our love of nature, of Dharma, into whatever we need to do to meet this time with wisdom. Opening to nature as the foundation for many of our teachings helps me to stay connected rather than to shut down my heart in fear.<\/p>\n

Why is the Satipatthana Sutta such a useful tool for helping us explore awakening?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of us have experiences of feeling\u2014even in very small ways\u2014connected to nature. We might have a photo or painting of nature that we really like, or a beloved memory of a time when we sat quietly by a lake. We don’t have to be outdoors to enjoy nature. House plants can bring us happiness. The Satipatthana Sutta is a description of how these simple experiences with nature can be understood and worked with intentionally as a doorway to understanding awakening.<\/p>\n

Tell us a bit about how the Satipatthana Sutta is a nature practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first line in the refrain from the Satipatthana Sutta is: \u201cIn this way, a practitioner abides contemplating the body as a body internally, or they abide contemplating the body as a body externally, or they abide contemplating the body as a body both internally and externally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When we are in a place in nature where we can relax, we begin to tune in\u2014through our senses\u2014to all that surrounds us, and as we do this our internal nature calms down. What we are doing is sensing the body internally and externally. This happens so naturally that it\u2019s not something we need to learn.<\/p>\n

The next line is:\u00a0\u201cThe practitioner abides contemplating in the body its nature of arising, or they abide contemplating in the body its nature of vanishing, or they abide contemplating in the body its nature of both arising and vanishing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When we are sitting in a place of nature, maybe watching the sun set, or waves lap, or leaves rustle, we get it in our being\u2014in an embodied, non-cognitive way\u2014that things rise and pass. Our internal nature can be understood as part of this flow. We are able to hold our thoughts and emotions as coming and going, much as we observe the coming and going of birds, clouds, and waves. Nature teaches us how to know that we\u2019re a part of it through this internal and external contemplation.<\/p>\n

The next line in the sutta is:\u00a0\u201cOr else mindfulness that \u2018there is a body,\u2019 is simply established in the practitioner to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and mindfulness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This invites us to know\u2014with just enough effort\u2014the body internally and externally. This invites us into a way of being that\u2019s present and easeful, without striving or tuning out. When we tune into external nature, we come into a way of being that\u2019s more in rhythm with the natural cycles. Nature is a teacher of this fundamental attitude.<\/p>\n

And then the last sentence of the refrain is:\u00a0\u201cAnd they abide independent, not clinging to anything in the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

One way of understanding this non-clinging is to feel into the release we can experience by spending time in nature.\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019re not clinging so tightly to the knot we had before our walk in the urban park or our weekend in the country. We\u2019re a little looser, clinging less tightly, able to see with more wisdom how to respond, rather than react. We\u2019re dwelling a little more independently from external conditions and leaning more into this sense of our connection with this flow of being.<\/p>\n

We can even tune into this shift simply by remembering ourselves in nature. At the beginning of his teaching in\u00a0Still Flowing Water,<\/em> Ajahn Chah invites readers to “create the feeling that right now you are sitting on a mountain or in a forest somewhere, all by yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give this a try sometime! Stop whatever you’re doing for 15 seconds, and recall a favorite place in nature. As you do this, observe what happens in your body and mind. See if you notice a calming in your internal nature, just from recalling external nature. In a way, this exercise is much like the practice of \u201cTouching the Earth\u201d and receiving help, like the Buddha did. Perhaps this is part of what Ajhan Chah meant when he said, \u201cWe can learn all we need to know from nature to awaken.\u201d<\/p>\n

How can this sutta help us understand and face the extreme challenges our planet is experiencing right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This natural process of release from what Wes Nisker calls the \u201ctight shoe of separate self\u201d allows love, compassion, connection, spaciousness, and other wholesome qualities to flow naturally. We can then channel this love to wholeheartedly addressing the crisis in the world now. We can move from love to love in action.\u00a0Reconnecting, touching the earth, again and again, especially when we do this in community, can protect us, support us, and help us find wise response, even in the midst of the overwhelming challenges that all beings now face.<\/p>\n

What do you hope people who join you will experience with this program?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love for the sangha to have an experience of the Satipatthana Sutta as a natural awakening process that can support them in daily life and in any climate care work they may do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeanne Corrigal\u00a0is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community. She has been meditating since 1999, and is a graduate of IMS\u2019s Teacher Training Program and of Spirit Rock\u2019s Dedicated Practitioner and Community Dharma Leader Programs. Certified in Indigenous Focusing Oriented Trauma Therapy, Jeanne is also a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher and Life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":21871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-22624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ims-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"A Q&A with IMS Teacher Jeanne Corrigal – Insight Meditation Society<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dharma.org\/qa-jeanne-corrigal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Q&A with IMS Teacher Jeanne Corrigal – Insight Meditation Society\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jeanne Corrigal\u00a0is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community. 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