Dharma Seed - James Baraz's Dharma Talks

Trust is a big part of my teaching. I try to get out of the way, to trust that the Dharma knows how to speak through me, so I can say what is true and speak to the essence, clearly and simply.

I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves. I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing.

The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening. I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing. It is accessing this dimension of our being that becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear. We have everything we need inside ourselves. We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.

2009-12-10 Shower the People with Love 46:04	Download Stream Order
This is a talk about establishing healing and reconciliation on both a personal and a community level. The Buddha taught was "As long as followers of the Way hold regular and frequent assemblies, they may be expected to prosper and not decline. As long as they meet in harmony, carry on their business in harmony, and break up in harmony, they may be expected to prosper and not decline."
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks