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Dharma Talks
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2016-01-09
Q and A
44:55
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Please give examples of how to cultivate right view within and outside meditation
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2016-01-07
Characteristics of mindfulness
51:29
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Ajahn Sucitto
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the doors to the deathless; right view the essential reference; that which can arise and be gladdened; 11 doors or entry points –4 jhanas, 4 bhrama-viharas and three immaterial states; the Buddha advised meditators to “absorb”, rather than concentrate / tightening up; a sponge must absorb to open up, not contract; need to drench ourselves in withdrawal; viveka, vitaka, vichara, piti and sukka; in the body; using wise (rather than hard or tight) attention; withdrawal from unwise attention; intention (the inclination of the heart) comes before attention and replaces immature lunging in or irresolute attention; make the intention one pointed as the mind settles down and the attention will follow; necessary wise preparation; a wise cow in the mountains; shortcoming of language; tracking the breath through the body, its beginnings and endings; a careful and deliberate enjoying is to be encouraged; open and soften; spread it through the body by directing it; first jhana; seeing the presence and absence of hindrances and learning though the simplicity of the experience of it; it’s like THIS now; not rushed , not biased or corrupted by the mind turning things upside down/ getting things wrong; appreciate the comparative slowness of the dawning quality on the citta; the open moments; pausing at the end of things; what’s helpful now?
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2016-01-05
Right view
43:40
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Right view; qualities of the citta; recognizing awareness and attention; the mutual support of body and mind; difficult mind states /letting go; using the internal body sense to deal with “this”; tuning into incremental subtleties
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2015-07-28
How Conduct Bears Fruit: Training in Not Killing
37:52
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Shaila Catherine
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This is the second talk in a speaker series titled Ethics, Action, and the Five
Precepts. This talk by Shaila Catherine explores kamma (karma) and the training precept to refrain from killing. The Abhidhamma presents a detailed analysis of both wholesome and unwholesome mental states to explain how some actions lead to suffering, and other actions lead to happiness. The conditions that surround an action, the intentions that instigate it, and the reflective understanding of potential consequences will influence the intensity of the patterns that affect our options. If you find that you have killed a living being, perhaps an insect, notice your mental state. Was hatred or greed present? Learn what happens in the mind to enable killing, and what happens in the mind when you refrain from violence. The act of restraint is a particularly potent action. When virtue (sila) is pure, reflections on the abstention from harming can be a source of joy. The potency of wholesome restraint can be increased by reinforcing it with the wisdom that understands the causes and end of suffering—right view of the path.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Ethics, Action, and the Five Precepts
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2014-07-01
Roles, Relationships, and Awakening
38:16
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Shaila Catherine
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This talk was given as a part of the series "Where Rubber Meets the Road: A Series on Mindful Living." We live in a world that requires a diversity of relationships. How do you choose your friends? What kind of relationships support or stunt your spiritual growth? How do you relate to life, and to love? We can bring wisdom and mindfulness to our interactive lives, to the roles that we perform, to our intimate sexual relationships, and our friendships; we practice both in solitude and in community. Harmony, generosity, and joy are developed through noble friendship. Relationships can challenge us to work with the tendencies of our own minds, clarify our precepts, develop compassion, learn to let go, and nurture the path of awakening. Deep friendship is considered to be the precursor of right view. A good friend encourages the best in us and supports our development of the noble eight fold path.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks
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In
collection:
Where Rubber Meets the Road: A Series on Mindful Living
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2013-08-27
Dependent Origination: Grasping and Clinging
57:24
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Rodney Smith
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When the energy of self-formation moves through desire to clinging, there is a dramatic change in intensity. The grasping feels like a compelling need of the organism. We may feel that we must have this experience in order for life to be worthwhile, and we are usually willing to do whatever is needed to obtain it. The energy is very tightly bound to the sense of survival. The Buddha grouped the areas of clinging in four broad categories: (1) pleasurable experiences, (2) views and opinions, (3) rites and rituals, and (4) belief in self. When we see the ferocity of our need to procure and defend our right for pleasure, our personal and political opinions, the indoctrinated beliefs in our religious views and practices, and the obstinate way we defend our self-image, we begin to understand the entrenched positions our egoic state stands upon.
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Seattle Insight Meditation Society
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In
collection:
Dependent Origination
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2013-05-21
Freedom From Opposites
39:54
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Martin Aylward
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When we hold tightly to our views and positions, we feel like we are right. In this talk Martin explores then tendency to cling to views, to see life through the dichotomies of rational mind that obscure what is outside of our own view. He invites us in to to abiding with life's ambiguity, the inclusion of all opposites, the infinite breadth of the Middle Way.
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Gaia House
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Right Now It's Like This...
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2013-04-20
Connecting Inner and Outer Responses to Climate Change
37:37
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Donald Rothberg
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At this time of climate disruption, we need powerful responses--integrating more "inner" spiritual practices and principles, on the one hand, with skill in "outer" responses, on the other. This integration or marriage can happen in many ways as we participate in the "great turning"--whether our primary emphasis, to use Joanna Macy's analysis, is stopping further damage from occurring, transforming our institutions, or helping to shift consciousness. Without this integration, however, spiritual practice runs the risk of becoming a kind of middle-class escapism and activism runs the risk of being caught in self-righteousness, attachment to views, demonization of the "enemy," and burnout. We need a new integration! We look at several dharma principles that can be the basis for such an integration, consider briefly how Spirit Rock is responding (and might respond further) to climate issues, and especially look at the figure of the bodhisattva.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Responses to Climate Change: Awareness, Action and Celebration
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In
collection:
Responses to Climate Change: Awareness, Action and Celebration
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2013-02-23
Cultivating Wise Speech
62:30
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Donald Rothberg
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This is the first segment of a daylong on cultivating wise or "right" speech, including when there are difficult speech situations. There is a general introduction to speech and communication practice and an overview of the basic guidelines for speech given by the Buddha.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2012-02-21
Danger of Fixation
36:05
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Shaila Catherine
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How does suffering manifest in attachment to views? This talk explores right view and addresses the danger of attaching to a position, philosophy, belief, or opinion. Primary sources are the teachings from the Middle Length discourses numbers 72 and 74. Recognizing the dangers of attachment and clinging to beliefs and opinions, we directly investigate what can be known in the mind and body. This is a pragmatic path of mindful awareness that results in actions that are immediately liberating.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks—2012
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In
collection:
Buddhist Perspectives on Right View
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2012-02-07
Opinions and Truth
41:14
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Shaila Catherine
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Our views, beliefs, and opinions affect our perception of events. To what extent do we assume that we are right and become attached to our opinions? With attachment to views we solidify a sense of self. Mindfulness meditation invites us to observe our relationship to views and opinions and see how it might be distorting perception by reinforcing a fixed sense of self. The term "right view" does not imply a more accurate or factual perspective; rather, right view describes a perspective beyond all attachment to views and opinions.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks
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In
collection:
Buddhist Perspectives on Right View
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2012-01-24
Buddhist Perspectives on Right View
3:23:09
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Shaila Catherine
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Right view appears as the first step of training in the Noble Eight-Fold Path. It leads to an integrated understanding of the liberating teachings of the Buddha and the successful development of meditation and wisdom. Right view is essential to understanding the causes and the end of suffering. Without right view awakening is impossible, and wrong view is considered the insidious obstacle to all progress. In this six-week series Shaila explores right view from several perspectives found in the discourses of the Buddha. Related themes of wise attention, concepts of liberation, truthfulness, false beliefs, attachment to opinions, kamma, cause and effect, learning and peaceful engagement in discussion will bring this traditional theme to life in our contemporary practice.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2012-01-24
What is Right View
41:01
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Shaila Catherine
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Right view is an approach to life that leads to awakening, to enlightenment. As mindfulness becomes mainstreamed in western culture, serious practitioners should take care that the framework of virtue, the integrated eight-fold path, and the liberating potential of meditation practice are not lost. Both mundane and supramundane right view are examined in this talk. Ultimately, right view implies a direct realization of the four noble truths and of the model of dependent arising.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks
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In
collection:
Buddhist Perspectives on Right View
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2011-11-13
Right View
31:10
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Ajahn Karunadhammo
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The focus of this day led by two senior monks from Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery is an exploration of mundane and transcendent right view and how skillful action and lifestyle support meditation practice and the development of insight. The day will include periods of reflections from the monastics, sitting and walking meditation, and time for questions and answers.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2011-11-13
Right View & Kamma
64:16
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Ajahn Yatiko
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A talk given on Wise View and Karma at Spirit Rock's monastic daylong in November 2011 with senior teachers from Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.
The focus of this day is an exploration of mundane and transcendent right view and how skillful action and lifestyle support meditation practice and the development of insight.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2011-09-11
Wise Speech in Groups, Part 2: Becoming More Skillful in Challenging Group Situations
3:22:40
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Donald Rothberg
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We begin with a review of what was covered in Part I (July 10, 2011), covering the importance of speech practice, the basics of Wise (or “Right”) Speech practice, what this practice looks like in the context of small groups, and the basics of how to approach speech practice in challenging situations. We then bring in new materials, using short presentations and exercises, that expand our capacities to respond skillfully in challenging situations. We first examine how to direct mindful attention to emotions and underlying interests or values both in ourselves and in others (using some of the models from Nonviolent Communication and the Harvard Negotiation Project on "Difficult Conversations"). We also bring attention to our stories and narratives, using the model of the "Ladder of Inference" to help clarify how we often go very quickly to stories (particularly self-centered ones, often way beyond the "data") in challenging situations. We then develop further our capacities to use these tools and perspectives in situations in which we are triggered, and to respond more skillfully.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2007-08-21
Enlightenment and Mindful Awareness
62:50
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Lama Surya Das
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Unlike the three Western monotheistic religions, Buddhism is not a religion of the book. Rather, Buddhism is based on the Buddha’s enlightened experience. More specifically, among other things, the Buddha was an early scientist. He said that if you reproduce his experiment by cultivating the Eightfold Path, your can replicate the same enlightenment result in yourself. There is no need for any beliefs, cosmology, dogma or creed. Indeed, all sentient beings are endowed by the luminous Buddha nature. The Buddha merely serves as a mirror for us to see our own enlightened nature. However, this means that we need to have the wisdom to see our true nature as it really is. This wisdom is described as the “right view” in the first step of the Eightfold Path. The problem is how can we see things as they really are when our attention is so scattered and our view is so obscured by poisons such as greed, hatred, delusion, pride and jealousy? The answer is through mindful awareness. Indeed, mindful awareness is something that we can learn even the first time we meditate. Eventually, we can reach a state of effortless awareness. This clear seeing allows our mindfulness to create some space between the stimulus and our response. Instead of knee-jerk, blind response, our mind has more time to choose a more skillful, intelligent response, thus, leading to more freedom and proactivity.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2006-06-12
It Will Never Happen To Me
40:26
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Shrouded in the cloud of ignorance, we believe that suffering will never happen to us. But when we emerge from that fog into a radical simplicity of heart, suffering becomes our teacher. Our eyes are opened thanks to Right View and direct experience of the Four Noble Truths. At last we transcend the tyranny of fear.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2002-12-12
The Poison Arrow
46:43
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Stokes Valley Monastery Retreat, New Zealand
The poison arrow of ignorance spreads its toxins through passion, desire and ill will. By sitting still, applying mindfulness and surrendering to what is, the right view will illuminate our minds and will help us extract the arrow and heal the wound.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2002-12-10
A Mind Empowered 5 Ways
34:01
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Learn how we can refine our mental skills of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. Enhanced by right view and a deepened understanding of the Four Noble Truths, these spiritual powers vanquish hatred and fear, nurturing our readiness to forgive, and the blessed qualities of universal loving-kindness and compassion. A talk given during a 10-day retreat at Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand in 2002.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2001-04-17
Trust In Being The Knowing
67:43
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Ajahn Sumedho
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Using reason and logic, that is, acquired knowledge, we get caught in dualistic positions: right and wrong, good and bad, etc. We tend to
establish a fixed view about things. In this talk Ajahn Sumedho is trying to get us to a place beyond such dualistic thinking, beyond taking sides. He says that intuitive awareness involves a one-pointedness (ekaggata) that includes, rather than excludes. It is not dualistic. Transcendence is a matter of “being” it, not thinking about it.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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1999-03-14
The Liberating News Of Impermanence
53:41
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Sylvia Boorstein
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Everything arises and passes away, like the breath. How to not be frightened by this or experience "existential angst" from inevitable loss in connection is often what brings us into practice. Liberation is in the heart that is wide enough to hold joy as well as the greatest pain of loss. In managing inevitable loss, we become kinder, softer, gentler and much more careful. To liberate "fixed point of view," we stay awake and attentive, always open for new insights to our stories about ourselves and others. Views change, bodies change, relationships change, but what does not change is the capacity of the heart to respond with compassion and lovingkindness.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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