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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2022-04-12
Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Free the Mind
29:30
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Shaila Catherine
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On the occasion of the publication of her third book, Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Free the Mind, Shaila Catherine shares a progressive series of strategies to overcome the hindrances of restlessness, obsessive thinking, and rumination; dispel thoughts of anger, hatred, and anxiety; and curb habitual distractions. By freeing the mind from the fetter of restlessness, meditators can calm their minds, develop tranquility, strengthen concentration, create the conditions for jhana, comprehend the nature of the mind, experience emptiness, and incline the mind toward liberating insight and nibbana. These teachings are based on two suttas (19 and 20) in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2022-04-09
Mindfulness of the Interactive Domain
39:05
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Moving into the inter-reactive, inter-responsive world we can become distracted, scattered. Seeing the seeds or tendencies to act in worldly ways contributing to disparities and lack of fellowship, we hold our attention suitably, living with others calmly and peacefully.
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Cittaviveka
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2022-04-08
On the four iddhipādās
1:20:47
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Bhante Sujato
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From Harris Park. Bhante Sujato on the four iddhipādās: chanda (desire, zeal, enthusiasm), viriya (energy), citta (awareness, clarity, knowing), vimamsa (inquiry). Included in the 37 factors that sum up the teaching and are the backbone of structure of the Samyutta Nikaya. Dhamma chanda: desire to get rid of desire. viriya: keeping going, not giving up. citta: mind; synonymous with samadhi and jhana = citta bhavana. vimamsa: reflecting, looking back, curiosity leading to wisdom.
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Lokanta Vihara
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2022-04-08
Talk at Bodhgaya
1:16:37
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Ajahn Achalo
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40:19 Q&A (questions are précised) 40:33 Q1 History and geography teach us that ten thousand years ago people were living in filth, like animals. Yet the scriptures speak of many thousands of eons of lives. How are these [two very different time frames] possible? 43:00 Q2 Could you please give more tips and advice for real beginners in meditation? 50:08 Q3 Regarding the four foundations of mindfulness, is there one which is more important? 53:57 Q4 I have come to see doubt as a most important hindrance in my practice. I even doubt the existence of that thing called enlightenment. How can I get rid of that? 58:46 Q5 Regarding sense restraint, can you say more about practicing with sound here. 1:07:54 Q6 How can householders go deeper into vipassana with the limited time in their lives? 1:12:31 Q7 Could you clarify how we would do the Buddho mantra in our daily tasks
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Bodhgaya
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2022-04-07
Clear Comprehension: The Buddha's Teaching on Four Different Elements of Practice
48:53
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James Baraz
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This talk explores the topic of Clear Comprehension (sampajañña in Pali) a powerful Dharma teaching on four different aspects of practice. In the Satipatthana Sutta the Discourse on the Four Foundation of Mindfulness, with regard to each foundation, the Buddha says the following: "Here, bhikkhus (practitioners), a bhikkhu (practitioner) lives contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending and mindful, having overcome, in this world, covetousness and grief..."
Clear comprehension means more than just having bare attention. Understanding and applying these four facets of Clear Comprehension can support a real deepening of our Dharma practice.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2022-04-07
Dharma Talk : "From Either-Or" to "Neither-Nor"
49:16
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Kirsten Kratz
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The teachings on the Middle Way, in their different expression, all point to a dynamic, responsive balance that aims to avoid skewing to any side of a perceived polarity. They do not imply a "being stuck in the middle", nor do they promise that we can eventually find a place to land, settle and discover freedom in taking a side in any duality. The teachings on the Middle Way keep us on our feet, questioning, opening, refining. They reveal and offer the liberating perception of "Neither-Nor".
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Gaia House
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Stillness Moving: The Play of Opposites
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2022-04-07
Guided Meditation: No Preference
43:24
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Kirsten Kratz
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A guided meditation inviting us to be wth our experience without aversion or clinging, staying open to whatever is arsing in our awareness. Acknowledging that at times we identify and then soldify and even calcify around a position or way of seeing, we explore if it is possible to engage and take a clear ethical stance, without falling into the trap of extreme polarisation. Attending to experience in this way can potentially soften, calm, and mute our habitual reactions.
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Gaia House
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Stillness Moving: The Play of Opposites
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2022-04-04
The Nature of Contemporary Awakening and the Transformation of Racism
1:13:51
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Donald Rothberg
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On this 54th anniversary of the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 55th anniversary of his talk, "Beyond Vietnam," at the Riverside Church in New York, we explore the nature of Buddhist practice to transform racism, in the context of examining the nature of awakening in the contemporary world. We start by asking whether we may be undergoing a kind of "Fourth Turning," in which there is emerging an expanded contemporary sense of awakening, which includes the transformation of forms greed, hatred, and delusion not explicitly identified in the traditional understanding of awakening. Answering the question affirmatively, we point to two broad areas of ignorance, related to psychological material, and to social conditioning and institutions. On this basis, we then use the traditional Buddhist framework of training in wisdom, meditation, and ethics (and action) to give a preliminary account of a Buddhist approach to transforming racism. From a wisdom perspective, we look particularly at the Buddha's response to the caste system, and his sense of caste divisions as arbitrary (and empty) constructions, followed by looking closely at the constructions of whiteness, blackness, and race in the colonies in the 17th century, linked with greed and the strategy of divide-and-conquer, which have been central to maintaining racism since then. We then look more briefly at the nature of meditative and ethical training in the transformation of racism. A discussion period follows the talk.
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Louisville Vipassana Community
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2022-04-01
Mission: Inner Space
23:22
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Our mission is to find truth by turning inward to the space of the heart. We may think we know why we are here on this earth but we can only really know when we enter the sanctuary of this inner space and turn the world off. Then we will surely find the pearl of truth we long for. It is universal, not contrived nor concocted by our ignorant mind – and it gives us a peace and happiness that is unshakeable, incorruptible, and unconditional.
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Ottawa Buddhist Society
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2022-03-31
Bringing the Practice to Life – Thursdays
25:32
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JD Doyle
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A weekly drop-in group that focuses on bringing our Buddhist practice fully into our lives. We will meditate together, listen to Dharma teaching, and share the lived experience of our practice. We aim to create a radically inclusive space where all are welcome (especially those who might have experienced marginalization such as LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled, and economically impacted people). All levels of experience are invited to attend. All are welcome.
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Insight Santa Cruz
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2022-03-30
Wise Compassion and its Near Enemies
43:13
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Betsy Rose
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Compassion (karuna) is an upwelling of tenderness and care in response to suffering. This beautiful quality of the heart has some "near enemies" that disguise as wise care, but cause our good intended words and actions to fall short, or even do more harm, to us and others. With song and story, this talk explores examples of near misses, and offers practices that allow wise compassion to emerge.
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Assaya Sangha
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2022-03-30
Reflections after Returning from Four Weeks on Retreat
68:28
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Donald Rothberg
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A few days after returning from four weeks on retreat at Spirit Rock, Donald reflects on a number of themes related to his retreat, including: the importance of retreat (as well as short periods of meditation) and getting away, if possible, from everyday demands and busyness; the centrality of noticing habitual tendencies and patterns; opening to the unknown and the mysterious; attending to what surfaces, including difficult material, deep aspirations, and insights; the importance of exploring "non-doing" in meditation and activities, and an opening to what is larger than oneself; and taking everything as part of a path of learning.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-03-28
Open, Spacious Awareness Meditation | Monday Night
27:27
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Jack Kornfield
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Reflect on the value of a peaceful heart. What is it like to have a peaceful heart among the worldly winds of praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, fame and disrepute. These are the worldly winds that constantly change.
It's important to stop, take a pause, and feel that we are part of something so much greater than the individual life that we live. Our awareness is big enough to hold all of this, because we are awareness itself.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-03-28
Peace is Possible | Monday Night Talk
45:38
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Jack Kornfield
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We are in a time of great transition. The climate crisis, the pandemic, war, injustice, racism: they're all pressing on us to live in a different way. And if you live with a peaceful heart, the point is not to let your heart get hardened. Don't turn your gaze away. But see another possibility—see with the great heart of compassion.
My teacher Ajahn Chah said, "We human beings are constantly in combat, at war to escape the fact of being so limited by so many circumstances we cannot control. But instead of escaping, we continue to create suffering, waging war with evil, waging war with good, waging war with what is too small, waging war with what is too big, waging war with what is too short or too long, or right or wrong, courageously carrying on the battle. It's time to stop the war. "
The sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson said, "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology."
The first response is tend the wounds, feed the hungry, and stand up for peace in whatever way you can. But there is also an inner response needed. We know where war starts—it starts in the human heart. We must make the heart a zone of peace. Set your compass to your highest intention. Something in us knows there is another way.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-03-27
The Dog Knows Its True Master
46:56
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Ajahn Sucitto
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A lot of our practice is to recognize the ‘I am’ cannot do it – it has to be understood carefully as energies, habits, stories. Find another vehicle, the 5 indriya, the spiritual allies. The beauty of the practice is it works beyond the ‘I am’. The ‘I ‘can’t do it, but the indriya can. Give them a chance to keep working, and nature of citta is it does recognize these transpersonal qualities, like when a dog knows where its true master is.
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Cittaviveka
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2022 Cittaviveka Winter Retreat Closing Group Practice
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2022-03-25
Meditation and Dhamma talk on the five aggregates (khandā)
1:26:10
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Bhante Sujato
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From Harris Park. Meditation on the five "aggregates" (khandā), guided by Bhante Sujato. Dhamma talk by Bhante Sujato on the five aggregates. Subtle (sukhuma) rūpa perceived by the mind. The aggregates as inseparable aspects of experience. Perception recognizes and puts details together to meaningful wholes. Sankhārā in this context: volition. Meaning of "upadāna khandā"; metaphor of the hand. Q+A: Contemplation of khandas in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. Why such brief introduction of the concept of khandas in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta (reference: MN 26).
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Lokanta Vihara
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2022-03-24
Understanding the Whirlpools of This Heart
65:57
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Mark Nunberg
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The Buddha taught that we are all spinning due to our habits of greed, hatred, and delusion, long enough to have become wise and dispassionate about how we keep getting hooked into these stressful cycles. What is it that we are not seeing clearly enough that keeps this spin spinning? The Buddha’s teachings encourage us to stabilize present-moment awareness so that we can begin to see how impersonal and lawful all this inner and outer activity actually is. Understanding the river of experience in this way leads to a natural letting go and a releasing of attachment.
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Cambridge Insight Meditation Center
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2022-03-24
Bringing the Practice to Life – Thursdays
27:48
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JD Doyle
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A weekly drop-in group that focuses on bringing our Buddhist practice fully into our lives. We will meditate together, listen to Dharma teaching, and share the lived experience of our practice. We aim to create a radically inclusive space where all are welcome (especially those who might have experienced marginalization such as LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled, and economically impacted people). All levels of experience are invited to attend. All are welcome.
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Insight Santa Cruz
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