I Love You Keep Going with George Haas

When most teachers discuss "attachment" in relation to meditation, they're talking about the Buddhist sense of the word. However, there's also many links between psychological attachment and meditation practice. George goes a step further and discusses how this all relates back to the classical non-goal of enlightenment (or liberation) through meditation.

George discusses the body-mind and how attachment strategies are connected to our physiological experiences. Recorded live at our new weekly drop-in class on the Mettagroup terrace in Los Angeles. If you would like to engage in the practice of dāna (generosity), you are invited to help support us by purchasing an item from our shop at mettagroup.org/shop, where all proceeds go to the Mettagroup Sc...

Captured during the first class of The Meaningful Life Six-Month Intensive (now called Meditation x Attachment), this brief talk gives an  overview of George Haas's signature teaching. Drawing connections between meditation and Attachment Theory, he explains how these tools can have a profound effect on your life.

This special episode of the podcast offers a highly informative introduction to George’s signature course Meditation Interventions for the Addiction Process (MIAP). Drawing on the same attachment-based healing that’s the cornerstone of all of Mettagroup’s teachings, this podcast - and course - are specifically designed to address addiction and addiction-related issues. Interested in the upcoming s...

Recorded on day three of this past Winter Retreat in Central California, George explains how as your practice develops you can learn how to recognize and regulate your mind states, and how that is an essential aspect of spiritual development.

Welcome to the Meditation x Attachment with George Haas Podcast. Our new format will explore the connections between ancient Buddhist meditation techniques and modern psychological attachment theory. This first episode was captured on The Meaningful Life Retreat in Central California just over a month ago, and explains the basics of George's hybrid Metta-Vipassana meditation techniques and how the...

Marking the end of our journey exploring Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight, this podcast is from the final Deepening Your Practice class in Echo Park. This dharma talk explores metta jhana, going back to the Pali term “piti” and how it relates to its English translation as “rapture” and how mind-states affect the sense of self. Stay tuned for our new class - and podcast - format which will start...

George takes a break from Mahasi Sayadaw’s Manual of Insight to acknowledge the role of New Year’s resolutions and how they affect practice. Jumping off from there, he gets into Dr. Dan Siegel’s “windows of tolerance” and how to eliminate negative mind states.

Branching out from the traditional Theravada Buddhist view, George explains how his teacher, Shinzen Young, takes a more distinctly American view of the ten fetters. This continues the Contemplation of Mental Objects section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

George explains how the arising and passing (appearance and disappearance) of physical phenomena occurs with the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking.

Starting with a brief discussion of Burma's influence on Western meditation styles, George then delves into the text of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight, drawing connections between the experience of senses, Western Attachment Theory and the big questions around self.

regret, and doubt, and delves into the context of how they unfold. This marks the beginning of the Contemplation of Mental Objects section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

Vedna, the Pali word for feeling tones, describes the capacity to sense, which can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. The experience breaks down further into worldly and worldly. George explains it all, from the Contemplation of Feeling section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

Delving deeper into the concept of awareness of awareness, George unpacks how the experience of the self is dependent on the conditions of the moment. He also tells the story of the Buddha and the mustard seed.

George discusses the concept of realizing mind, or in more Western terms awareness of awareness, and describes the differences between sensing and awareness. From the"Contemplation of Mind" section in Chapter 4 of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

Moving on to the "Contemplation of Mind" section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight, George discusses the eight mind states ranging from the ordinary to the esoteric and explains how meditation leads to the conclusion that most experiences are neutral rather than pleasant or unpleasant.

George breaks down how the first milestone of spiritual maturity is the ability to recognize that you have a mind-state and that it can distort how you perceive your own sensing experience, and gives a close reading on Pleasure and Displeasure, in both its Worldly and Unworldly forms. From Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

Embarking on a new section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight, George explains why "mind" is considered the sixth sense in Buddhism and unpacks how feelings can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

After a close reading of the text explaining how the sensing experience unfolds based on past experiences, George gets into how childhood experiences influence future mind states and reviews the first foundation of mindfulness. This episode wraps up the Contemplation of the Body section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight. If you would like to engage directly in the practice of dāna (generosity)...

Continuing his discussion of the Contemplation of the Body section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight, George gets into the sense of self vs. no-self and how the mind interprets the sense experiences.

George narrows in on what the "mind door" is and discusses how thought is related to the typical physical senses. This discussion continues Chapter Four of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

Based on the traditional categorizations of earth, fire, water and air, this episode examines the somewhat pre-scientific point of view on the four energies in the body. Of course, there's some enlightening tangents, including mortality and aging, and the purpose of your personal practice. From Chapter Four of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.

This episode wraps up the section of Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight that deals with the physical aspect of sensing as it relates to practice. Along with a succinct review of the chapter, George gets into codependency and how early childhood affects attachment in adult life.

George reviews the paths to classical enlightenment and explains how it is indeed possible for ordinary householders to achieve insight, before getting into some specific techniques for finding equanimity within each strand of the six sense gates: eye/seeing, ear/sound, nose/odor, tongue/taste, body/touch and mind/mental objects. The basis of this discussion is Chapter Four (section: The Case of S...

With poignant contemporary observations, and a dose of humor of course, George explains how developing mindfulness leads to equanimity even in the face of defilements that arise during practice. From Chapter Four of  Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight.