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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2026-01-28
Impermanence as a Possibility for Liberation
49:37
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Andrea Castillo
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If things didn’t change, there would be no hope to become free. Those not trained in perceiving impermanence embrace it only as long as the change is pleasant. However, those trained in the Dharma experience the flow of change with equanimity. We recognize that it is the changes that cause us suffering that spark the most spiritual urgency for cultivating clear seeing, wisdom, and freedom. In this talk we will explore a discourse from the Buddha in which we are instructed how we can train in the perception of impermanence. Recognizing and understanding impermanence (anicca) brings the greatest happiness, which is peace.
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Cambridge Insight Meditation Center
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2025-12-02
Q&A
52:34
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Ajahn Sucitto
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0:00 Q1 What is the purpose of meditation? 19:14 Q2 I've been practicing for a long time, but recently feel I've reached a plateau with no further progress. Can you advise? 29:53 Q3 [Am I on the right track] when I reach a certain level of samadhi and contemplate the truth, like impermanence? Will wisdom come by itself? 32:02 Q4 In order to practice the parami, do we dwell on each part of them one by one? I'm not aiming for buddhahood, so do I still have to do this parami stuff? 42:25 Q5 Does avijja mostly refer to the illusion of selfhood? 42:49 Q6 Can the viveka /stepping back from anger and aversion gradually chip away at them to complete elimination?
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Nera Nara Retreat Centre
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Pak Chong Silent Retreat with Ajahn Sucitto
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2025-10-30
Transition From Settling to Seeing (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
1:49:25
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Tere Abdala-Romano
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This talk explores the gentle transition from shamatha (calm abiding through concentration) to vipassanā (insight), inviting us to cultivate stillness not through effort but through nourishment, (as The Budha did) curiosity, and kindness. It reminds us that the mind’s obstacles—dullness and agitation—are gateways to balance and presence. From this grounded calm, clarity naturally arises, revealing the truth of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. In resting with things as they are, stillness ripens into seeing, and seeing reveals freedom.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Settling, Seeing, and Spacious Awareness (276R25)
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2025-09-17
Awakening from Ignorance: Going beyond the Main Habitual Constructions of Experience 2
63:38
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Donald Rothberg
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We begin with a review of how the Buddha saw "ignorance" of the basic nature of things (not so much of facts or information) as the basic problem of human life; we are as if asleep, caught in dream-like living, and need to "wake up." For the Buddha, we are especially ignorant about impermanence, dukkha (or reactivity--grabbing at the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant or painful and believing that this is the way to happiness), the nature of the self, and nirvana or awakening.
We bring in a brief report of the experience of attending the previous week's EcoDharma retreat at Spirit Rock, emphasizing especially the pervasiveness of a sense of separation--from the earth, other living beings, and each other--and the connection of such sense of separation with our systemic problems. Indigenous teachers at the retreat particularly emphasized living without such separation.
The second part of the talk, we focus on the teaching of not-self (anatta), and ways of practicing that deepens our understanding of not-self, as well as how we hold this understanding of pervasive human ignorance with compassion and kindness, including in our responses to the manifestations of ignorance.
The talk is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2025-09-03
Awakening from Ignorance: Going beyond the Main Habitual Constructions of Experience 1
60:24
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Donald Rothberg
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The Buddha saw the core problem in human life as "ignorance"(avijjā), not an ignorance of facts or information, but rather a not-knowing about the basic nature of reality and our experience. The Dalai Lama tells us: "There is a fundamental disparity between the way we perceive the world, including our own experience in it, and the way things actually are." We explore how similar understandings of a core human ignorance are found in Plato, Christian and Islamic traditions, and in later Buddhist traditions.
The Buddha said, in particular, that we are ignorant about impermanence, dukkha (or reactivity), and the nature of the self. We look into some of the main habitual constructions of experience, including a sense of permanent, stable, separate external objects, and a sense of a separate, independent self, pointing to ways of exploring such constructions meditatively. We also point to experiences in which we go beyond such constructions, in meditation and also in "flow" experiences. The talk is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2025-06-25
The Big Picture 2: Nine Ways of Deepening Daily Life Practice
65:55
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Donald Rothberg
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We continue our series of meditations and talks exploring the foundations of contemporary Buddhist practice. We begin by reviewing last week's talk on the basic model of Buddhist meditation, identifying three aspects of practice. These three are (1) developing samadhi or concentration; (2) cultivating three modes of liberating insight--into impermanence, dukkha or reactivity, and not-self; and (3) opening to awakened awareness. Then we focus on a crucial, central, and not always developed dimension of contemporary practice, especially for the vast majority of Western Buddhist practitioners who do not live in monastic contexts--bringing practice to everyday life. We identify nine ways of deepening daily life practice (see the attached document, #314). The talk is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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Attached Files:
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Nine Ways of Deepening Daily Life Practice
by Donald Rothberg
(PDF)
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2025-03-15
The Process and Experience of "Streaming"
53:36
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Tempel Smith
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The Buddha wanted us to learn how to wakefully "stream", to realize we are forever and only a stream of mental and physical phenomena. We have no part internally or externally which is permanent, though in daily life we subjectively feel as if there is a lot of dependably permanent parts of life. With the deepening intimacy of mindfulness all there is is a flow and change. With patience we can learn to find liberation within the universal aspect of impermanence.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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March Insight Meditation 1-Month Retreat
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2025-01-13
Understanding Impermanence - Week 1 of 6 - Meditation
23:03
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Mark Nunberg
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UNDERSTANDING IMPERMANENCE with Mark Nunberg
This six-week course will explore the Buddha’s teachings on impermanence, the first of the three characteristics that are said to mark all of existence. Sensing deeply the changing and insubstantial nature of all conditioned experience liberates the heart from its entrenched habits of attachment. Participants will be expected to use the teachings as a focus of their daily practice. This ongoing program is designed to deepen our understanding through the study and application of the teachings of the Buddha.
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Common Ground Meditation Center
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Buddhist Studies: Understanding Impermanence
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