Rodney Smith's Dharma Talks
--
Select from Rodney Smith's
118
talks
--
VIEW ALL
2010-12-12
"I Teach One Thing Only"
2009-04-08
3.8 Billion Years Ago
2000-02-27
A Glimpse Of Connection
2009-06-20
A wise Orientation to Practice
2001-03-10
Accessing The Dharma
2001-10-01
After The Retreat: What Now?
2010-07-20
Aligned With Selflessness.
2009-04-05
Aligning the Mind With the Now of the Body
1999-01-01
Anger: About Anger
1999-01-01
Anger: Control, Fairness And Non-Existence
1999-02-01
Anger: Transforming Anger
2001-03-12
Arriving In The Here And Now
2008-04-05
Authentic Action
2005-03-30
Boundary Formation
2004-05-23
Caring Attention
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - I
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - II
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - III
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - IV
2007-03-19
Contrasting Wise Effort And Right Effort
2010-01-05
Courage Toward the Infinite
1998-03-26
Death Be Not Proud
2004-07-19
Distorting The Mind
2011-03-20
Distortions Of Mind
2010-07-22
Effort and the End of Suffering
1998-02-02
Essential Elements Of Formless Practice: An Overview
1998-02-16
Essential Elements Of Formless Practice: Right Attitude
1998-02-09
Essential Elements Of Formless Practice: Right View
1998-02-23
Essential Elemetns Of Formless Practice: Finding Our Passion
1996-04-20
Finding Our Breath
2002-04-08
Following The Pain Line
1975-01-01
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Investigating The Dharma
1975-01-01
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Of Consciousness
1975-01-01
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Of Feelings
1975-01-01
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Of The Body
2010-01-01
From Adaptation To Surrender
2009-12-29
From Noise To Stillness
2000-12-15
Illusion 1: Taking What Is Insubstantial To Be Permanent
2000-01-08
Illusion II: Taking What Is Incapable Of Satisfying As Happiness
2001-01-01
Illusion III: Taking The Momentary Display Of The World As Continuous
2001-02-01
Illusion IV: Taking What Lacks Independent Existence As Independently Existing
2007-12-30
In Alignment With Zero
2000-12-31
Inspiring The Heart
2005-01-04
Integrity: Confronting The Assumption Of Incompletion
1999-01-01
Journey Into The Mind
1999-01-05
Leaving The Wilderness
2000-12-29
Life's Lessons
2010-07-24
Living A Blameless Life.
1999-10-13
Perpendicular Universe
2008-01-05
Questions And Answers
2011-03-24
Questions and Answers
2006-12-29
Radical Accountabilty
2001-03-14
Receiving The World
2008-01-02
Recovering The Primary Intention
2002-11-01
Referencing The Moment
2001-12-12
Reflections On September 11Th
2006-03-11
Relax, Observe And Allow
2005-12-29
Relax, Observe, Allow
1999-12-29
Resolutions Of The Heart
2008-07-13
Restless Body, Unworried Mind
2008-03-30
Right Effort And Wise Effort
2011-03-22
Secrets Of The Mind
1999-02-27
Self-Kindness And Self-Indulgence
2002-12-29
Sensitivity Of The Heart
2001-12-17
Sitting Practice And Its Effect On Our Life
1995-07-01
Taking Responsibility
2003-04-08
Task-Centered & Heart-Centered Meditation
2000-07-05
The "No" Of Love
2006-07-14
The Art Of Non Doing
2003-04-10
The Awakened Heart
2006-01-01
The Bored Mind
2000-08-07
The Controlling Mind
2004-07-21
The Doubting Mind
2002-03-29
The Eightfold Path 1: Wise View
2000-03-06
The Eightfold Path 2: Wise Aspiration
2000-03-13
The Eightfold Path 3: Wise Speech
2000-03-27
The Eightfold Path 4: Wise Action
2000-04-03
The Eightfold Path 5: Wise Livelihood
2000-04-17
The Eightfold Path 6: Wise Effort
2000-04-10
The Eightfold Path 7: Wise Mindfulness
2000-04-24
The Eightfold Path 8: Wise Samadhi
1998-01-06
The Essential Elements Of Formless Practice
2006-01-05
The Evolution Of Insight Practice
1998-03-28
The Evolution Of View
2002-04-12
The Four Great Efforts
2007-01-01
The Governing Laws Of The Mind
2008-04-02
The Governing Laws Of The Mind
2002-01-03
The I Of The Storm
2000-08-14
The Isolated Mind
2002-11-05
The Judging Mind
2000-08-21
The Moody Mind
1996-03-16
The Natural Way
1998-08-02
The Need To Conform
2004-05-28
The Non-Doing Of Practice
2000-08-28
The Obsessive Mind
2004-05-26
The Path Of Not Knowing
2001-01-03
The Personal And The Impersonal
1998-08-17
The Room Of The Mind
2002-12-23
The Sangha
2003-04-06
The Search For Meaning
2003-03-27
The Spirit Of Questioning
2004-07-23
The Story And The Story Teller
2003-01-05
The Urban Buddhist
1998-01-01
The Wanting Mind
1998-03-24
The Way Things Are
2009-06-23
Three Point Eight Billion Years Ago
1995-01-01
Time: Death, The Ending Of Time
1995-01-01
Time: Fractured Time
1995-01-01
Time: Quieting Time
1995-01-01
Time: Time And The Ending Of Suffering
1999-12-02
Touching The Earth
2006-07-11
Untying The Knot Of Contraction
1996-01-01
Using Death To Understand Life
2005-01-01
Utterly Ordinary
2003-03-24
Wanting: The Payoff And The Pain
1998-08-21
What's Love Got To Do With It
2001-11-01
Why Meditate?
1996-04-18
Wise Speech
Rodney Smith
More and more, the teaching practice takes me into the community where I engage directly with students. My focus right now is on bringing the continuity of the Dharma into the market place. Although retreating is an important form for self-knowledge, I find myself less interested in the immediate results of a retreat and more interested in helping students investigate their relationship to the ups and downs of their everyday life.
Nature, death and spontaneous freedom continually interweave themselves into my teaching. From the forest of Thailand, where I spent several years, I bring a deep awareness of the healing quality of nature into my teachings. Relaxing into our true nature allows us to realize what it means to be a human being. It is here we find a resting point, a counterbalance to the speed and turbulence of our culture.
My work in hospice brings a sense of urgency into my teaching. Working with the theme of death and dying reveals the here and now of life to us, how important it is to open to each loss, change and transition that marks our path. Life is precious. We need to awaken without hesitation.
Many of us crave to be more calm and centered. We know that life has more to offer than this fleeting material world. For each of us, the Dharma offers an immediacy of freedom for which we do not have to strive or wait. In practice, we can learn to relax deeply into the moment and rediscover spontaneous freedom.
