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The greatest gift is the gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
2021-07-07
Deepening Daily Life Practice 2: Practicing with Reactivity
69:27
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Donald Rothberg
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We begin with a review of last week's opening exploration of deepening daily life practice, naming some of the challenges of daily life practice, some initial ways of deepening such practice, and the centrality for such practice of mindfulness of the body. We then, for the rest of the session, explore how we can practice with reactivity when it arises, in its two forms--grasping after the pleasant and pushing away what is taken as unpleasant. We ground such practice in the Buddha's teaching in the model of Dependent Origination of the sequence from contact to feeling-tone to wanting (or not wanting) to grasping (or pushing away). We then point to a number of ways of practicing with reactivity and some of the complexities of such practice, particularly the ways in which reactivity can be enmeshed with discernment. A discussion follows!
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2021-06-30
Deepening Daily Life Practice 1
68:12
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Donald Rothberg
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In an important sense, daily life practice is central and vital; it is where we live! Yet at times in the non-monastic Insight Meditation approach as it's developed in the West, such practice has been somewhat marginalized, with retreat practice and formal meditation practice at the center. We explore first the challenging context of daily life practice for many Western practitioners, including not just such a lack of sustained emphasis on daily life practice, but also the challenges of living in what is often a very busy, "mental" culture and society. We then look at a number of ways to bring more awareness into daily life, inviting the listener to see what one or two ways of practicing might be emphasized in the next period of time. We give a more in-depth focus on one very central way of bringing more awareness into daily life--developing mindfulness of the body. We offer a number of different practices that support such mindfulness of the body.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2021-06-04
Day 6 Q&A2 – The Sacred, Body, Self and Other
47:37
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Trying to find triggers and safe space in the midst of health issues that affect nervous system, heart rate and breathing; stiff neck and shoulder muscles keep re-contracting; how to respond to getting so tired; what is the wise and caring response to body; navigating touch and contact skillfully; how can we be heirs to our kamma if there is no self to inherit it; through investigation of qualities of citta clarity and falling away has occurred – how to sustain; the more I see things clearly the more I feel the weight of delusion causing sadness and disgust and feeling of pointlessness for practice; how to approach in and out breath to calm mental activity (citta)/please speak to mindfulness of feeling from the Ānāpānasati Sutta.
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Cittaviveka
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Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload
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2021-06-04
Day 6 Q&A1
34:29
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Is citta able to verbalize/understand words; citta’s role in nightmares; differences between hindrances and fetters; is cultivating bhavana or khanti better for burning off defilements; a lot of pain in the body caused movement in meditation disrupting energy; cultivating mētta; alternative healing methods; startled out of the body when bell rings; locating ancestral exclusions in the body; understanding workings of mind from Abhidhamma perspective vs. contemplation of 4 foundations of mindfulness for realizing non-self; accessing solar plexus during meditation; finding firmness when touching into open spaciousness; musician is torn between music and meditation.
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Cittaviveka
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Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload
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2021-06-03
Day 5 Q&A2
54:25
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Working at our levels but there’s nothing to attain/is citta is inherently pure; how to think about kamma after death; how does being enveloped in compassion feel; after moving energy down into belly deciding to move from samatha to vipassanā; the knower merges with the known and there’s no object left; when beginning to become concentrated I get hijacked into numbness/feeling lost in brahmaviharā; relationship between awareness, citta, mindfulness and the mind.
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Cittaviveka
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Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload
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2021-06-03
Day 5 Q&A1
51:17
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Bright pure light which comes up in meditation; dealing with trauma from a kammic standpoint; how to practice with back pain and lack of sleep; if there’s no self who puts forth effort into the 4 right efforts; offering of invitation was not received leaving sourness; when feeling arises from words do I just stay with the feeling or inquire about it; a lot of pain in body and sudden urge to cry; mind first allows phenomena to subside and investigates later; transitioning back into kammic realm from a place of presence is challenging too easily losing mindfulness; difference between citta and manas; compulsive tendency around cleanliness; struggle with breath meditation feeling like I’m controlling it.
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Cittaviveka
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Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload
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2021-05-12
Remembering: The Practice of Sati
47:02
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Kate Munding
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Mindfulness (Sati): Part 7 of a series on the Eightfold Path, this talk discusses Sati, or mindfulness, as a state of mind and a way of being. The complexity of mindfulness is explored (vedanas, wholesome desire) as well as the ultimate simplicity of remembering our truest self through practice of paying attention, alertness and contact with experience. Q & A at the end is included.
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Assaya Sangha
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Assaya Sangha Dharma Talks
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2021-05-05
Attuned and in Balance: Wise Effort
47:21
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Kate Munding
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Wise Effort: Part 6 of a series on the Eightfold Path. Wise effort is explained as attuning to what is happening in the present moment, making adjustments based on conditions and balancing our energy so that it expresses the Middle Path - between striving and burnout - to create a sustainable practice. Reference is made to the teachings of Ajahn Chah and ways to develop a continuity of mindfulness in everyday living. Emphasis on softening and trust in the heart practices that balance the habits of the mind.
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Assaya Sangha
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Assaya Sangha Dharma Talks
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2021-05-02
Q&A2
45:41
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Where is the experience of bodily energies found in the suttas; what is the source of Ajahn’s ‘forensic precision’; how to us somatic presence with the 3rd and 4th foundations of mindfulness; please help with insomnia; experiencing resistance to standing meditation; grief and pain experienced with ‘Future and Past’ exercise; how to deepen into the ‘neither/nor’ space; is samādhi developed by sustaining sati; how to deal with overactive citta; how did you deal with the fear of death when being robbed in India?
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London Insight Meditation
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Clearing the Floods
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