Skillful Means Podcast

#6 What is RAIN meditation?

November 21, 2019 Jennifer O'Sullivan & Sarah Jane Shangraw
Skillful Means Podcast
#6 What is RAIN meditation?
Show Notes

RAIN (Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Nurture) is a mindfulness meditation method developed by western Insight Meditation teachers to support practitioners in skillfully dealing with difficult emotions. RAIN can be used as an antidote to obstacles when they arise during meditation practice, as a practice in and of itself, in partnership, or off-the-cushion as a means to simply and mindfully pause during a challenging situation.

Sarah Jane is a regular practitioner of RAIN, and Jen has questions. In this episode, Jen shares what she has heard about RAIN meditation and asks Sarah Jane to help fill in the gaps. Together they cover its purpose, method, and benefits...and how it fits with each of their developing understandings of the Buddhadharma.

In an effort to make what she believes is an incredibly transformative meditation practice seem as accessible to others as it feels to her, Sarah Jane attempts to breathe life into what may at first sound systematic. Get a sense of the creativity involved in using RAIN to go from a contracted state of over-identification, confusion or denial into a state of loving awareness.

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