May Half-Day Workshop with Adam Groff — Practicing with Right Effort: Not Too Tight, Not Too Loose (5/3/2025) (In Person Only)

When one of the Buddha’s disciples was considering leaving the holy life after not attaining enlightenment despite intensive practice, the Buddha offered an analogy: a guitar that is strung too tight is not playable, and neither is a guitar that is strung too loose – it has to be tuned just right to produce the desired sound. “In the same way,” said the Buddha, “over-aroused persistence leads to restlessness, overly slack persistence leads to laziness. Thus, you should determine the right pitch for your persistence, attune the pitch of the five faculties to that, and there pick up your theme.” Of course, the disciple then attuned his persistence and shortly thereafter reached enlightenment. 

Reaching enlightenment will not be our goal for this program. However, we will talk about the concept of Right Effort – an important factor of the Noble Eightfold Path – and how it can help us attune our practice. In particular, we will discuss ways to avoid the arising of unwholesome mind-states and encourage the arising of wholesome ones. 

This half-day workshop is open to beginners and experienced meditators and will be held mostly in silence with teacher-led discussion and instructional talks.