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Dharma Talks
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2009-06-09
Equanimity
41:43
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Shaila Catherine
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This talk explores equanimity as the fourth of the four qualities called Brahma Viharas. Previous talks in this series addressed loving kindness, compassion, and appreciative joy. Equanimity allows us to remain present and awake with the fact of things—equally close to the things we like and the things we dislike. It is important to develop equanimity in two arenas: 1) in response to pleasant and painful feelings, and 2) regarding the future results of our actions. Equanimity develops in meditation and in life. We can use unexpected events that we cannot control to develop this quality. Our job is not to judge our experiences, but to be present and respond wisely. Equanimity is a beautiful mental factor that can feel like freedom, but if "I" and "mine" still operate, there is still work to be done. Many suggestions are offered for cultivating equanimity.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Four Brahma Viharas
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In
collections:
Four Brahma Viharas,
The Ten Paramis
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2009-05-21
Realizing the Nature of Mind
63:55
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Rob Burbea
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Through practice we can glimpse a sense of the nature of awareness as something ever present and awesomely vast, and this sense can be cultivated as a profound resource for freedom and peace in our lives. But eventually we must see even beyond this to know the ultimate nature of the mind - empty, completely groundless, and dependently-arisen - a seeing which brings an even deeper freedom. This talk explores some of the ways this realization might be encouraged and developed in meditation.
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Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge
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May 2009 at IMS - Forest Refuge
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2009-05-20
Three Gifts That Serve Freedom
56:43
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Tara Brach
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There are three spiritual capacities that are essential for our freedom. The first, forgiveness, is the releasing of stories that this self, or another, is bad. It is an opening of the heart to include all parts of our own being and this world. The second, inner fire, is the energy of devotion to what most matters to us. The third, looking within to realize what we are, reveals the truth of reality itself. This talk uses an ancient Indian teaching tale and guided meditations to explore these core elements of spiritual liberation.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2009-05-12
Factors That Support and Hinder Concentration
58:22
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Sally Armstrong
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Any time we practice mindfulness and wise attention, we are weakening the impact of the hindrances, and strengthening what are known as the five jhanic factors: meditative qualities that support the continuity and deepening of our meditation. Each of the jhanic factors actually balances and acts as an antidote to one of the hindrances. This talk looks at how to strengthen the jhanic factors, and use them skillfully as antidotes to the hindrances.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Concentration Retreat
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2009-04-21
Mind is the Core
47:36
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Bhikkhu Bodhi
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Mind (citta) as the Buddha’s focus of investigation.
As both the cause of suffering and the means to its cessation
The Buddha points to two states or tendencies of mind
Akusala - unwholesome, unskillful
Kusala - wholesome, skillful, beneficial
Suffering follows the unwholesome mind, Happiness follows the wholesome mind like a shadow that never departs.
Our task, step by step, is to train the mind and supplant the unwholesome state with the wholesome states.
Greed, hatred and Delusion are the root causes for the unwholesome mind.
We must cultivate the factors that are the cause for the wholesome mind at three levels.
Coarse - Actions, bodily or verbal. We use the five precepts to prevent unwholesome tendencies at this level. Obsessive, compulsive patterns - Thoughts, emotions. We use meditation, deep samadhi directed to an object, to see the arising of these tendencies and still the mind. Underlying tendencies, attachments - the remaining defilements We use wisdom, insight, to investigate the body and mind and see their impermanence and stop the clinging to a false self to uproot these final tendencies. This is liberation.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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