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Donald Rothberg's Dharma Talks
Donald Rothberg
Donald Rothberg, PhD, has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice and the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy. Formerly on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Saybrook Graduate School, he currently writes and teaches classes, groups and retreats on meditation, daily life practice, spirituality and psychology, and socially engaged Buddhism. An organizer, teacher, and former board member for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Donald has helped to guide three six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality through Buddhist Peace Fellowship (the BASE Program), Saybrook (the Socially Engaged Spirituality Program), and Spirit Rock (the Path of Engagement Program). He is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers.
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2018-04-18 Things Are Not As They Appear 5: The Emptiness of Phenomena 64:47
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After a brief review of the previous talks in this series, we look at the "constructed" or "empty" nature of phenomena (trees, chairs, and other "external" objects), with perspectives from psychology, philosophy, the neurosciences, and especially, Buddhist practice.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-04-18 Guided Meditation on Mindfulness of the Flow of Phenomena 39:06
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-03-28 Things Are Not What They Appear 4: The Emptiness of Self 59:18
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After a review of our first three sessions, exploring three ways that “things are not as they appear,” we explore how there is typically a sense that we are given a world of solid, separate individual beings and objects . We focus here on the counter-understanding related to selves and beings, that the nature of the self is “empty,” as developed in the teaching of anattā or not-self.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-03-28 Guided Meditation on Impermanence and a Sense of Self 41:42
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-03-21 Things Are Not As They Appear 3: Contemplating Impermanence 62:42
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After a brief review of our first two sessions on this theme, we explore the third of the five ways that things are not as they appear. We look into how we see permanence and solidity where in reality there is a lack of permanence and solidity, pointing to a number of practices that help us examine this theme.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-03-21 Guided Meditation on Impermanence 40:14
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-03-14 Things Are Not As They Appear 2: Examining the Personal and Collective Lenses of Perception 64:01
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We review some of the main themes covered in the first session on this theme, in the context of a series of talks on five ways that “things are not as they appear.” We first examine in more depth some ways that we see through the lens of the personal self. We then explore how we also see through the lens of our social conditioning, particularly focusing, on this morning when students are walking out of their schools and universities to point to the need to respond to gun violence, on ways that we don’t see, for various reasons, many of the roots of gun violence clearly.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-03-03 An Overview of the Nature of the "Dark Night" 45:35
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with Donald Rothberg, Marisa Handler
Marisa Handler and Donald Rothberg give an overview of the nature of the "Dark Night." Marisa speaks particularly about her Dark Night experiences; Donald gives a brief account of the Dark Night in the work of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), a Spanish Christian mystic who coined the term (“La noche oscura del alma”) in his writing, and then looks at how elements of the Dark Night appear in shaman's accounts of their initiatory experiences as well as in Buddhist tradition.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  Through the Dark Night: Breaking Down, Breaking Through, Waking Up (with Marisa Handler)
Attached Files:
  • Resource List by Donald Rothberg (DOC)
  • Dark Night Presentation by Donald Rothberg (PPT)
2018-02-28 Things Are Not As They Appear 1 1:16:27
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Our Practice is to "wake up" from being asleep and not seeing our lives and experience clearly, with wisdom. We explore four ways that we see in a distorted manner, and explore the first two in this session, pointing to practices to help us see more clearly in these two areas.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2018-01-17 Not Knowing But Keeping Going 2: Cultivating "Not Knowing" in Mindfulness Practice, Listening to Others, and in Periods of Transition and Difficulty, including the "Dark Night" 63:06
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We review and expand several perspectives on the relationship between knowing and "not knowing" (or openness) and three core practices of not knowing: (1) in mindfulness practice; (2) in listening to others (and oneself); and (3) in challenging transitional phases of one's life, when significant concerns in one's life are not resolved or clear. In the context of the third type of practice, we explore the "Dark Night," first named by the Spanish mystic, Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), which may be briefer or longer, in terms of some of its dynamics and some suggestions on how to work with it.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center

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