When we purchased the Retreat House eight years ago, there was a stunted tree
in the back garden, some kind of pear tree, we were told. For four years, it was
an ugly stick that produced only a few withered leaves. Year five brought forth
three blossoms. They didn’t amount to anything . . . except for being a source of
wonder and joy! This morning there are over 50 baby pears on that tree.

Gray day? Only on the outside! Thanks for this image go to Keith Shaw, aspiring
master of light.

There is so much changing in our lives, we are living day-to-day, with glee. So
far, it’s all working, and we are deeply grateful to all those whose practical support
makes it possible. We are only able to continue because of your generosity. Deep
bows!

. . . looking back
Deep Retreat 2010 had a strongly Kiwi flavour, and we like that! Every year the
power of practice done here amazes and delights us.
In addition to daily guidance for meditators, Bonni was able to offer a very full
season of teachings during the three month retreat period. This was only possible
because so many others stepped up to help: Sara Fitzpatrick as Retreat House
assistant, Alison Lindsay, Sandy Quinn, Luinda Bleakley, Kathleen Thacker, Sarju
Sooch and Carrie Shaw as cooks and the merry band of 15 local students that
planned, postered and served to make the public classes such a wonderful
doorway for others. Thanks and deep bows to you all.

Matthew has been teaching the Meditation on Breathing with the intention of
giving new students a good base for their practice. What is truly splendid is that
many of the “old” students are finding them valuable as well. This Sunday
morning class has evolved into deepening group practice.

. . . and ahead
Our Summer Program (Part 1) was announced today. You should be able to find it
at www.retreathouse.bc.ca within the next day or so if you’d like to see what we’re
offering. Since there is no longer a Retreat House assistant, what teaching is
possible will be limited by the physical energy it takes for Bonni to keep the
garden thriving, the fish in the pond happy and Mila the dog cared for. Since he is
now 13, he is very opinionated about what that looks like!

. . . next stop, Boise
Bonni leaves for teaching in Boise this week. A very full city program of morning
explorations of the meditation on Peace, evening classes on the theme “Putting
Others First” and a weekend workshop focussed on the traditional vows and
commitments will be followed by a residential retreat based on the Namgyal
Sadhana. For more info, e-mail Cyrese Lingard at pclingard@juno.com

. . . another year of Deep Retreat
It seems safe to commit to this, since Deep Retreat 2011 has been pretty close to
full for a while. Please let us know if you would like to practice here next year by
June 1, and we’ll let you know what space is available.Email the Retreat House at retreathouse@dccnet.com
Right now we are uncertain about offering four spaces, or hoping that someone will come forward to
fill the role of assistant.

. . . beyond that
who knows? Impermanence, yes! That probably means things get better and
better and better, yes? So far, so good.

the world is my cloister!

This year the core group of students has taken responsibility for supporting the
needs of the Retreat House and the organization of public teachings, building on
the excellent outcome of last year’s efforts. Deep bows to all for these acts of
generosity of time, talent, energy and material support. Many all beings
experience the deep satisfaction of commitment to the Dharma!
The new space that Matthew has created from the former tool storage room is
beautiful indeed, and Sara Fitzpatrick is now living in it, helping with regular tasks
and other projects as her work schedule permits. The extra pair of hands is a
splendid gift! (The downside is that we will be living with a huge storage container
in the driveway until a new equipment space can be built in the spring.)

. . . the year ahead
Part of the chaos of the last few months arose from this entire year’s scheduling
wanting to happen all at once. There are some dates that may still shift a wee bit,
but the basic structure looks like this:

January — Deep Retreat (fully booked) at the Retreat House and
Path of Peace-sponsored public teachings on the Sunshine Coast. Go
www.pathofpeace.ca for details.

February and March — Deep Retreat (fully booked) at the Retreat House and
Teachings on the Mahayana Seven-Point Mind Training. Those on the local
and Vancouver mailing lists will receive e-mail announcements about these.

April – Venerable Sonam Senge http://www.lionsroar.ca/lr-ven-sonam-senge.html
will teach here. Dates and topics will be announced within the next
few weeks to those on the local and Vancouver mailing lists.

May – Bonni will teach in Idaho.

June and July — Summer Retreat period will be June 19 to July 25. Since last
year’s summer retreat was unable to accommodate everyone who wanted to
practice here, we have added an additional two weeks, and blended the time
together so that those who wish to practice for longer than two weeks have the
opportunity. Since space in Deep Retreat 2011 is substantially spoken for, the
summer may be the only opportunity for some. Therefore, we advise booking
early, understanding that booking space is a commitment to a retreat, not a
hope for one. To review how personal retreats work here, go to the website,
www.retreathouse.bc.ca

Summertime on the Sunshine Coast is a very energetic, extroverted energy, quite
different from the introverted softness and quiet of the rainy Deep Retreat
months. We will be designing the Summer Retreat to take advantage of this
energy, rather than trying to push against it. This might mean occasional car
rides up the mountain, or to the beach!

August — Nothing to announce at the moment, but stay tuned, there are
possibilities in the wind that haven’t landed yet. Matthew and Bonni are
committed to the visit of the re-incarnation (yangsi) of one Tibet’s greatest
contemporary masters, HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche with whom Bonni was
fortunate to study. For more information about this, go to
www.lotusspeech.ca/news-events/choktrul.php

September, October and November — Bonni will leave for teaching in New
Zealand and Tasmania (Australia) toward the end of September. For information
about NZ, contact Bridget Musters at (bmamusters@gmail.com) and for Tassie,
contact Chani Grieve (chani_grieve@yahoo.co.uk)

December — TBA, when we finalize travel dates.

. . . Deep Retreat 2011
At this moment, over two-thirds of the space has been booked. One of several
options we are considering is renting an additional house, if a suitable location can
be found.

the world is my cloister!

. . . then there is no mountain

. . . then there is
In the name of the daybreak
and the eyelids of morning
and the wayfaring moon
and the night when it departs,
I swear I will not dishonour
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.
In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and the female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the firefly and the apple,
I will honor all life
–wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell — on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.
– Diane Ackerman

. . . caterpillar sheds his skin

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/alexross/2009/10/messiaen-video.html

Be sure to look at both Parts 1 and 2

As you can see, we don’t have much to say after three months of silent retreat,
and others can say not much so easily! We’ve journeyed inward and outward
together, Matthew, Bonni and Sara, through the sun-drenched richness of
voluptuous August, September’s hints of change and October insisting that all life
concentrate itself deep in the ground.

. . . to find the butterfly within
Transformations will slowly unfold themselves, as we explore the changes that
have emerged as imperatives. We are going to create a living space for Sara, so
that she can continue to assist Bonni and the Retreat House. Matthew will ease
out of his business in Vancouver (and the health-destroying commuting hours that
go with it) in order to have a life and be focussed on Dharma. As for Bonni . . .
she is always full of surprises, so this should be no different.

. . . deep bows
To everyone who has stepped up to ensure that this experiment continue for a
while, and to Cat Stevens (for the section headings.)
the world is my cloister!

Why is it necessary to go to all this effort to learn about meditation? If it is true that the force of Universe is moving all of us in the direction of awakening, why the emphasis on this seemingly artificial “practice”?

The answer is that the “individual” consciousness, associated with a particular body, and the story that develops with it, is subject to many distortions which have accumulated on its journey from beginingless time until now. These distortions have three root causes: intentions and actions arising from hatred; from greed, and from ignorance. Obviously, there are many variations on each of these three themes. If this were not the case, the awakened state would be fully realized, because this transcendence is the fabric upon which our lives are woven. It is only because we carry the screens, blinds and filters created by past unwholesome activity that we are not able to perceive this reality right now.

These negative roots in consciousness create a cycle of difficulties, or hindrances, both in meditation practice and in life. Knowledge and observation of how this cycle feeds upon itself is helpful in understanding how unwholesome patterning repeats itself, thus creating future negative experience. Through this sort of observation we can avoid being blindly caught up in the repetition, and gradually begin to break the chains of habit that perpetuate our suffering.

The first of these hindrances is wanting something to happen, for the meditator this often takes the form of desire for results. If one is happily expectant and open-minded, whatever arises is interesting, even if difficult. When one has ideas about what should be happening, or what one wants to happen, and those ideas do not actually manifest, then the second hindrance makes its presence known: frustration.

The Buddha’s definition of suffering was: not getting what you want (greed), and having too much of what you don’t want (hatred). One could add: being confused about which is which (ignorance)! This wanting/frustration collusion causes the consciousness to freeze, no movement is possible, and this gives rise to the third hindrance, mental and/or physical exhaustion or collapse. Following on this rather dull state of being, as the flow of Universe continues to work away at the blockage, and states of agitation or disturbance, physical and/or mental begin to arise — the fourth hindrance. This restlessness creates the opportunity for the fifth hindrance to manifest — skepticism.

Unlike the curious, questioning, wholesome mind that wonders and speculates and explores, with openness to whatever experiences arise, the skeptical doubter weighs all experience against a pre-determined set of criteria and refuses to put new data or concepts to the test of personal experience. And this feeds directly back into the first hindrance: wanting a particular result or experience. And off we go again . . .

These conditioned, negative states have a terrific hold on us! Their tenacity is the reason the first meditation practices — to develop calm, or tranquillity — centre around training the mind to concentrate on one simple object, such as a colour, a natural form or the breath. We spoke last week of the three-stage development of meditative concentration: effort to stabilize and strengthen, steady and intense focus with secondary sensory inputs unable to distract, and complete absorption, or union, with the object.

This state of absorption has specific stages and can be developed with effort and lots of practice. It is important to cultivate for the simple reason that, while absorption is present, those nasty hindrances are temporarily suspended. One has the sense, when emerging from a state of full absorption into normal, waking consciousness again, that for a time all one’s burdens have been lifted. There is a sense of what it might feel like to live in an awakened state!

The stages of absorption begin with the initial effort to focus on the object, remembering to return to it again and again when distractions interfere. Then involvement deepens so that less will-power is needed — there is a natural-feeling, magnetic attraction to the object. When this state is present, one begins to experience the loosening movements of the energy body, or fine material body that we spoke of last week. These loosenings can be extremely pleasurable, full-body experiences of bliss, can be localized tingling and twitching and can also be rather unpleasant manifestations such as diarrhea or vomiting or itching.

As the fine-material energies begin to circulate more freely, beginning to clear blocks in the system, a feeling of wholeness, or well-being establishes itself in consciousness and one feels extremely calm and balanced. Continued resting in this happy state of equanimity leads to the one-pointed, or unitive experience of full absorption.

The first practices that the Buddha gave to train meditators in the development of absorption were very simple discs, called kasinas in the ancient language. These would be sized by each meditator according to hand measurements (the fingers of one hand expanded, plus the four fingers of the other side-by-side) and created with great care and craft to be as perfect as possible using the natural materials that were available at the time.

The first discs were of different colours: blue, yellow, red and white. Each colour has a range of vibration that affects the human organism, regardless of culture, in a specific way. Cool colours (the blue-green range) tend to soothe and slow down, warm colours (red to yellow) tend to activate or speed up — on the physical, metabolic level. To effect the organism in this direct, visceral way also changes the state of consciousness: blue calms, yellow loosens, red strengthens, white purifies and integrates. Present-day teachers will often begin with a green disc practice for stability — an attribute that was more or less automatic for beings 2,500 years ago who spent most of their lives in forest or jungle, but is greatly lacking for city-conditioned westerners.

The next category of discs to be studied could be the elements of earth, water, fire and air; the building-blocks of form. Finally, two further practices, bounded space and light, would be added. These are extremely powerful, profound meditations best practiced in a protected, retreat situation under the guidance of an experienced and trusted mentor.

These ten meditations all develop by training the mind to focus, first on the hand-made outer, physical object. When that object can be seen with complete detail and clarity on the inner plane, the concentration is directed unwaveringly to the visualized object. Each of these practices has very specific inner signs that arise in an orderly fashion as concentration develops. The manifestation of these experiences indicates to both teacher and student that the practice is complete.

So, of the 40 practices taught by the Buddha, we have now covered ten! Next week we will go further with our study of tranquility meditations.

May all beings be well and happy! May the energy of our shared exploration benefit the awakening process of all beings!

First of all, I’d like to refresh your memory of the Jungian mandala of the four functions of the human being which we spoke about last week. Do you recall what they are? Sensing, evaluative, intellectual and intuitive.

Now, the fact that you have a physical body is rather obvious to you! And most adults have some sort of understanding that this physical body has an anatomical structure similar to other adult human bodies, but with built-in strengths and weaknesses that are quite individual, conditioned by genetics, accident and opportunity (or lack of opportunity) for development.

What is less obvious is that in addition to this material body, living beings also have a fine material body, sometimes called an energy field, or auric field. This energy body, which pervades the physical body, also extends outside the physical body about 18 to 24 inches. This measurement is for an ordinary person; the energy body of a fully awakened being would be vast in comparison, encompassing an entire city, for example. This energy body has been photographed, somewhat crudely, with Kirlian photography, and can be perceived by most people when they are in an exceptionally calm state, or have had some training in what to look for.

Like the physical body, the fine material body of a human being has an anatomical structure that is basic, and individual distortions, or blocks, that are a product of the many lifetimes of experiences of that streaming of consciousness. The anatomy of the fine material body corresponds more or less to the four functions, beginning with the most dense, or slow moving energy, the sensing body, or physical form; and then decreasing in density through the layering of emotional; mental; and intuitive, or spiritual, bodies.

Running throughout the energy body are pathways or channels through which energy moves. These pathways conjoin at nexus points, or energy centres, the principal ones of which are located at the crown of the head, throat, centre of the torso, navel, and at the base of the spine. Each energy centre is associated with one of the endocrine glands in the physical structure, and activation of the energy centres influences the body through the neuro-endocrine system, and vice versa.

This entire anatomical structure, involving all four functions, is the “local” environment or territory of meditation practice. However, it is important to remember that one’s “individual” reality is always being influenced by the larger environment — the people around you, the political and economic and social conditions of the country you live in, the subtle effects of climate and weather, the movement of planets and the whole, vast, interconnected reality that is Universe itself. We are never separate from all these (and many, many more) influences — some of them carried from the distant past — the vast majority of which we are entirely unconscious of.

Now come back to earth again! When one reads the various meditation texts of all ages, the first discussion in them invariably concerns itself with the cultivation of a virtuous, or ethical life. The reason for this is very simple: certain types of behaviour are proven to cause agitation in consciousness. In order for meditative concentration to stabilize and deepen successfully, the consciousness must become very calm. Agitation created by living in a fashion that causes harm to oneself and/or other beings works against the development of these calm states.

A life based on the principle of non-harming would include refraining from killing, stealing, lying, sensual indulgences of various kinds and using any substances that cause the mind’s perception, analytic and reaction functions to be clouded or distorted. Most religions rely on an array of formal prohibitions to ensure correct behaviour. In Buddhadharma there are various levels of training precepts — a basic three for all who formally commit themselves to working within this framework, five for most lay people, eight for those with the type of ordination which I hold, ten for newly-ordained, celibate, nuns and monks and up to several hundred for those who become fully ordained. These precepts are presented as a study, rather than a list of “thou shalt nots” in order to encourage practitioners to keep trying without guilt, and to deepen their appreciation of the subtleties of action, speech and thought that the training principles address.

To live a wholesome life presupposes an understanding that there is a law of cause and effect — that one’s present experience, pleasant or unpleasant, is a direct result of one’s past wholesome or unwholesome motivation and behaviour. Therefore, it is important that one’s present actions, words and thoughts are thought of as seeds which will (or will not) produce future experience supportive of spiritual development.

For those who would like to explore these, and other fundamental ideas of Buddhadharma, I recommend reading a book entitled WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT by Walpole Rahula. Then, if you have questions about the philosophical milieu in which these practices were taught, you can bring them to class.

Last week I mentioned that two main divisions exist. Does anyone recall what they were? Tranquillity, or calming, meditations and insight, or direct experience. We’ll begin by considering the territory of tranquillity practices, with the understanding that the development of calm is essential in order for insight to arise.

Tranquillity meditations involve the development and deepening of states of concentration. Now this word immediately causes many Westerners to show signs of tension — something about how we are conditioned in school, perhaps, that equates concentration with tight muscles, furrowed brows and the appearance of great effort! Meditative concentration has a different quality — more of a relaxing into, absorbing into, the object of concentration, rather like a pussycat settling into a patch of sun for a long, intense, nap. We all have experienced this type of concentration when we are interested in something — a film or book, perhaps, that is so involving we forget who and where we are, becoming completely engrossed in the story. This ability to absorb into objects is trained, through meditation practice, to be used at will (rather than only spontaneously) and with objects conducive to the purification and development of consciousness, rather than those which provide, at best, escapist fantasy.

This quality of concentration begins with a certain application of effort, which strengthens and stabilizes the mind, and develops in steadiness and intensity to the point where the meditator is aware of other sensory inputs, but is not distracted from concentration by them. Finally the experience becomes unitive or holistic — no “meditator”, no “meditation object” — simply a flow of pure conscious experience in which subject and object have merged with Universe.

Next week we’ll speak about the states of absorption further, and begin our exploration of the practices themselves.

May the positive energy of this exploration be shared for the elimination of suffering throughout the universe and the speedy liberation of all beings!

To Overview (3)

What is meditation? It may interest you to know that in the ancient language of the culture where these practices were first developed, there wasn’t a word which exactly translates as “meditation”. This English word is our Western construct; the being who taught the system we are going to study over the next few months, Sakyamuni Buddha, used two words to describe the process: one which means “concentration” and another which means “mental development”. So here is a new idea for you. Meditation exercises involve training the “individual” mind to concentrate on particular objects in very specific ways, in order to strengthen and purify consciousness to the point where it is possible to awaken to, or perceive its union with, transcendent or “universal” consciousness.

To begin at one possible beginning, let’s examine the standard equipment that every human being has. Carl Jung, a Swiss psychoanalyst of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spoke of the human being as possessing four primary functions: sensing (the body), feeling (evaluation), thinking (intellect) and intuitive (spiritual). These four operate together, in dynamic equilibrium, and provide the human organism with a wide range of data which is assessed and utilized for survival. The sensing function lets data in through the doorways of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The feeling function makes very simple judgments about this data: yes, it’s acceptable, no, it’s not. The intellect provides us with a way to classify and analyze the data and create concepts about it and the intuitive knits the whole together and also acts as doorway for more information, on a more subtle level, to be received.

All of these functions are conditioned — their abilities enhanced or limited — by the experiences we encounter from the moment of conception in the womb, through our birth, and then by the quality of the environment we find ourselves in as children, adolescents and adults. This conditioning process continually creates our sense of “I” or ego, a unique, separate individual with particular talents and wholesome qualities, weaknesses, lacks and unwholesome qualities. Even though we know our bodies, feelings and thoughts were hugely different at earlier stages in our lives than they are now, we persist in thinking of ourselves as somehow possessing a fixed state of consciousness or being.

Meditation arises from the context, in most cultures, that this limited and conditioned ego consciousness is not the whole story. Here language becomes very slippery, and people’s concepts vary enormously as they attempt to describe another type of consciousness which is much vaster than the ego. Words such as God, enlightened, transcendent, universal are used. Meditation systems (and every exoteric religious expression has had its corresponding esoteric, spiritual work) all have the purpose of providing a bridge or connection between the ego mind and the depth mind. Meditation addresses the questions that arise when neither intellectual understanding nor religious faith is sufficient to explain the nature of universe and the place of the individual in it.

One of the observations that gives rise to such questions, a fact of life that every mature person will have taken in, consciously or unconsciously, is that everything changes. There is nothing that remains static indefinitely anywhere in the universe of observable phenomenon. In some cultures more than in others, great value is placed by the ego mind on establishing a sense of permanence and stability, which is equated with safety. Our culture has developed this priority to such a degree that many people live their whole lives without ever confronting the personal meaning of the fact that they are someday, some unknown day (perhaps tomorrow) going to die. It does not require a huge leap in understanding to see clearly that the tension between the universal quality of change and the cultural value of permanence creates an anxiety, a built-in tension or existential sense of anxiety in people.

Beginning at this point, that all existence shares this fundamentally unsatisfactory state, the Buddha progressed through deep realizations of the causal factor of this state, the cessation factor, and then composed an eight-point process or path which would lead those inclined to the realization of their essential union with transcendent consciousness, with the result that the cause of struggle would be eliminated. All the meditations that he adapted and crafted were for the purpose of bringing people to their own direct experience of these truths.

Now, meditation techniques, regardless of what culture or religious system creates them, can be divided into seven basic categories. There are practices based on breathing, on colour and/or form, on sound, on movement, on points within the body where energy pathways conjoin. There are practices that are devotional in nature, and finally, there is direct experience of the essence of mind, sometimes referred to as insight. The first six of these categories, and all the variety that their combining in different ways can produce, is for the purpose of the establishment and deepening of calm, or tranquillity, in consciousness. The seventh, insight, is a category which stands alone because it depends on the prior development of calm in order to arise.

Formal, disciplined meditation practice is important for individual unfoldment because it helps to stabilize and purify the mind. It also opens doorways to inner sensory experience and helps to remove blocks in the energy of the organism that inhibit clear functioning. But formal practice is most effective for liberation if it takes places within an environment where continual awareness of all the functions of the human being is maintained to the best of one’s ability. Awareness is everything! Some teachers will declare that meditation exercises are merely clever ways of making it interesting for students to pay attention!

The context, or way of life, in which meditation is practiced will determine its effectiveness. Sincere motivation for liberation from suffering, or union with the divine, is of paramount importance. The whole evolutionary push of universe is moving toward awakening, but there are many ways we can collude to slow this process down. The Buddha taught an eight-fold process which provides guidance for those wanting to experience for themselves the great liberation which he experienced. Three of these principles have to do with the quality of our actions, words and how we earn our living; two involve cultivating a complete, truthful knowledge of reality based on direct experience and the purity of intention or motivation to awaken. The final three relate to the training and development of the mind through meditation.

In his lifetime, the Buddha taught 40 different methods of meditation, some suitable for all people in all circumstances, some as specific tools to strengthen a particular quality of consciousness or to antidote some habitual unwholesome tendency. In the 2,500 years since his lifetime, these practices have been used effectively and reliably by many millions of people. Developing with the experience of these practitioners and adapting to different cultural and temporal contexts as the Teaching spread, the number of practices that are called “Buddhist” today number in the thousands — but they all stem from the basic plant which we will begin to study in detail next week.

May the benefit of this work be shared for the speedy liberation of all beings!

To Overview (2)

Two weeks ago we ended with a consideration of the word samma and you were invited to explore the implications of a totality perspective in your daily lives. If you gave this a try, you will know directly how difficult it is. Only when we begin to realize how much we think, speak and act without awareness of totality do we begin to develop as students of the path of liberation. We have to see how much our lives are dominated by partiality. This lovely word can mean two things: preference and incompleteness — really the same, when you stop to consider.

Tonight’s task is very big . . . to give an overview of The Eightfold Noble Path as the foundation for our life as practitioners. So we have to start with the first principle the Buddha taught, also the most difficult: totality view or totality understanding. We’ll spend a lot of time with this principle, because
all the rest flows from it. Samma ditthi means knowing the nature of reality as an awakened being would know it — directly, without concepts. But for us, who dwell so incompletely in the realm of concepts, we can try to use them skillfully, as the Buddha did.

Continue reading the PDF version.

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”– The Red Queen to Alice, in THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, by Lewis Carroll

“I, too, use concepts, but I am not fooled thereby.” — Namgyal Rinpoche

I take refuge in the vast intelligence of Universe.
I take refuge in the order and chaos of universal law.
I take refuge in the interconnectedness of all manifestation.

At a small gathering with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Victoria nearly 20 years ago, he was asked to give a talk on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the Three Refuges, in some traditions referred to as The Three Jewels. He arrived late by helicopter from Vancouver, was visibly tired (and dare to say it, stressed) after speaking to a large crowd in BC Place Stadium that morning, and he had a very short time with us before he had to helicopter back to Vancouver for an evening reception in his honour.

Continue reading the PDF version.

Continue reading the PDF version.

One contributing factor is misunderstanding the importance of service, in the context of dharma practice. Like all words, service carries a load of cultural conditioning. We think of it as “performing good deeds” or “helping out” or “doing our part.” Volunteering fits into the same mental category as writing a cheque to a community charity . . . something we do in order to be responsible citizens and which makes us feel good about ourselves.

Continue reading the PDF version.