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Retreat Dharma Talks

Monday and Wednesday Talks

Regular weekly talks given at the lower Spirit Rock meditation hall

Spirit Rock Meditation Center

  
2024-02-28 Transforming the Judgmental Mind 2 64:50
Donald Rothberg
We begin by reviewing some and expanding last week's introduction to practicing to transform the judgmental mind, including clarifying our language and the way that in English "judgment" can ambiguously mean either an expression of the judgmental mind or a non-judgmental discernment. We identify examples of the judgmental mind, and point to how it can be understood in terms of the sequence of contact to grasping (and pushing away) in the Buddha's teaching on Dependent Origination, how negative judgments (in the sense of the judgmental mind) typically come out of unacknowledged or unprocessed pain. We also point to how our practice with the judgmental mind, as it goes deeper, begins to identify "limiting beliefs," often from childhood, that generate our most chronic judgments. We end the talk with naming a number of ways to practice with the judgmental mind. The talk is followed with discussion.
2024-03-04 In the Footsteps of the Buddha 1:44:56
Nikki Mirghafori
2024-03-10 The Power of Intention 1:22:16
Amana Brembry Johnson
2024-03-11 Gratitude and Realistic Optimism 1:44:47
Pawan Bareja
2024-04-01 All Things Coverage on Vedana 1:44:15
Gullu Singh
2024-04-03 Ways of Deepening Practice and Taking One's Next Steps: Reflections on a Four-Week Retreat 51:05
Donald Rothberg
Following four weeks of Donald's personal retreat, he identifies a number of ways of deepening practice that he experienced and that we might bring into our lives. The invitation is to see what one or two or three ways of deepening resonate and seem to call us to our "next steps." Among the ways of deepening are going on retreats (understood as periods of intensive training), staying in touch with and periodically remembering one's deeper intentions, pausing and stopping regularly, clarifying priorities, the importance of working with the subtle energy body, opening to non-doing in meditation and daily life, integrating awareness and metta, and finding ways of regularly coming back if stuck, caught in reactivity, or lost in thought. The talk is followed by discussion.
2024-04-10 Ten Ways of Deepening Practice 66:11
Donald Rothberg
We continue with the main ways of deepening practice identified in the talk from the week before, based on ways of deepening experienced in Donald's March four weeks of retreat. We go into more depth on each of the ten, inviting listeners to choose one or two ways of deepening for the next period of time. The talk is followed by discussion, and there's a downloadable pdf listing the ten ways of deepening practice (see below).
Attached Files:
  • Ten Ways of Deepening Practice by Donald Rothberg (PDF)
2024-04-24 Freeing the Mind that is Held Hostage in Tight Places:The Keys to Liberation 1:33:02
Sylvia Boorstein
Includes guided meditation, dharmettes, & select moments of group discussion
2024-05-06 Fierce Compassion: Addressing Global Moral Crises, Gaza 1:38:22
JD Doyle
This talk explores engaging the practice of fierce compassion to meet global martial crises and references the resource “Gaza, Calling for a Dharma Response” offered by the Sacred Justice Coalition.
2024-05-13 Monday Night Live Talk from Spirit Rock 1:27:04
Mark Coleman
Includes meditation & dharma talk
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