“Unifying the end and the means” with Benjamin this Sunday at Minneapolis Insight

Dear Community,

Sunday 10am Community Practice & Discussion

This Sunday Benjamin will lead a practice and exploration of “Unifying the end and the means,” based on a passage in Ajahn Amaro’s book The Breakthrough (freely available here). The passage below is the concluding paragraph of Chapter 1: A Foundation of Loving Kindness.

There is the aphorism often used in the world that says that ‘the end justifies the means’, but in Buddhism we recognize that the end and the means are unified. The Buddha recognized that it’s impossible to develop peace of mind by using an aggressive and contentious method. If you want peace, peace has to be your method. If you want clarity, then clarity has to be your method. If you want to arrive at a quality of focus and calm, the effort has to embody calm as well as the other wholesome qualities that we bring to it. If you try to arrive at calm by attacking your thoughts, if you turn your thoughts and emotions into the enemy, the mind becomes a battleground. If you want a peaceful end, you must use a peaceful means. If you want to have a mind that abides in loving-kindness, you need to use loving-kindness as the way of working.

All are welcome to join this exploration on Sunday! Registration and Zoom information available here.

With mettā,

Minneapolis Insight