An Open Dharma Q&A Session with Guo Gu and Fred (9-28-25)

Following a three-day retreat led by Guo Gu at the Florida Community of Mindfulness, Guo Gu and Fred Eppsteiner answer a variety of questions from the audience, some highlights of which included the following advice:
• The foundation of meditation practice is to relax the body, cultivate contentment, and develop focused curiosity on the breath.
• Habit energy causes the mind to replay past scenarios; transforming this requires shifting feeling tone and compassionate visualization.
• Finding common ground in times of division requires being grounded oneself, cultivating right view, and responding with wisdom and compassion.
• Success and failure are uncontrollable outcomes; focus on controlling effort and understanding causes and conditions.
• Meditation should be enjoyable and tailored to one’s psychophysiological type, ideally with teacher guidance.
• Managing strong emotions like anger and fear requires building mindfulness strength gradually, recognizing early signs, and physical grounding.
• Spiritual practice deepens during unstable times as people seek stable ground beyond societal distractions and consumer culture.