Dharma Talk

This talk explores the Buddha's teaching on Clear Comprehension also called Full Awareness. The commitment to see our motivation in our mind, moment by moment, without glossing over, leads to happiness and purification. By clarifying our greater aspiration we create a mindful container to see our habitual thinking arise without acting upon it and the result is living of life of non-harming.

Any review of the fundamentals must go squarely through bare attention. Bare attention is the essence of our practice, and the single tool that nourishes our wisdom and understanding all along the way. "Baring" our attention is why the practice seems to take so long to mature. We are so used to looking to thought for guidance that we overlay a film of thought on our attention to give a familiar tinge to what we see. Without that film of memory there would be the simple essence of emptiness seeing itself. Many of us feel unprepared for that level of reality so we subtly think about what we see, and our thinking makes this great expanse feel safer and more manageable. Cleaning up our attention becomes our work.

After reviewing the emphasis on grounding in more direct experience, we explore how to be skillful as we move away from indirect experience with our thinking, focusing on (1) having our thinking connected with direct experience and (2) using "views" wisely. Includes Q and A.

Meditation practice invites us to enter the dharma stream. Stop thinking and creating imaginary worlds. Experience life directly, here, now.

When life doesn't go our way, we often launch into a chain reaction of obsessive thinking, blaming and unpleasant emotions. This talk explores how we can use meditative practices to step out of reactive patterns and respond to life's challenges from our naturally wise heart.

Friendship is necessary in life for the support of psychological and educational growth. It can equal the Dhamma or eight fold path. How to make our mind our friend, tentative exploration owith " Vitaka SanThona Sutta" MN -19 + MN -20

This talk deals with the last of the areas of our obsessional thinking: views. We also examine the Brahma Viharas as distinct forms of mindfulness that lead to liberation. We look closely, in particular, at metta as the necessary soil out of which grows and blooms the beautiful flower of compassion (karuna).

In this talk we examine what the Buddha means by the 'self', which is the second of the three poles around which thinking contracts and fixates. We look closely at the five processes that constitute the self not as a static phenomena, but as an unfolding and dynamic development.

In this talk we examine what the Buddha means by the 'self', which is the second of the three poles around which thinking contracts and fixates. We look closely at the five processes that constitute the self not as a static phenomena, but as an unfolding and dynamic development.