Bhāvanā: A Year of Committed Practice with Adam Stonebraker

Bhāvanā is a Pali word meaning cultivation, the careful, sustained tending of mind and heart that the Buddha described as the essence of practice. Over the course of a year, a small cohort of committed practitioners works with three pillars of the path: samādhi as the ground of a settled, unified mind; the four applications of mindfulness as the field of clear seeing; and the brahmaviharās (mettā, karuṇā, muditā, and upekkhā) as both the motivation that sustains practice and its natural ripening. These teachings are rooted in early Buddhism and the Thai Forest tradition, brought to life through the Ānāpānasati Sutta and the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta as the primary practice texts, with Shantideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra joining the arc in the fall as the heart teaching of compassion.

Bhāvanā is first and foremost a practice program. The teachings serve direct, experiential investigation rather than intellectual understanding alone. Participants are expected to bring the…