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Dharma Talks
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2023-08-16
Cultivating Wise Speech 4: Practicing Wise in Challenging Situations, including with Social and Political Polarization
69:31
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Donald Rothberg
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We begin by acknowledging the importance of Wise Speech practice, and then outline four foundations of Wise Speech that we've explored in previous talks. We then review how we can bring Wise Speech into difficult or challenging situations. The last half of the talk goes further, and explores how we can bring aspects of Wise Speech into situations of social and political polarization, including in our present time in the U.S. (and other countries). We watch two brief videos. The first is a selection from "A Force More Powerful" (a 6-part series on nonviolent action), on a moment of powerful empathic yet firm speech from Diane Nash at a critical moment in the Civil Rights movement in Nashville in 1960 (go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4dDVeAU3u4&t=3082s, with the video shared going from 43:04 to 48:58). The second is a brief contemporary account of an experience of "deep canvassing" (and deep listening) by Caitlin Homrich-Kneileng in rural Michigan (go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no0NzGhwobA). This is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2023-06-21
Q&A
42:28
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Questions précised - 00:06 Q1 A lot is said about ‘moving away from’. Could you also say something about moving towards? 15:31 Q2 When I have pain while sitting I usually practice with the pain until I feel there may be a risk to my health, for example by restricting blood flow in the leg for too long. Any ideas on this please? 17:23 Q3 Regarding sleepiness while witting, I discovered that by surrendering to it my body deeply rests and then the mind is bright again. Any comments please? 21:52 Q4 Meditation doesn’t allow me to gather energy but actually dissipates it. Why does this happen? 30:53 Q5 I live in a country where’s there’s a lot of suffering and misery and this often throws me into a state between empathy and impotence. What can you advise please? Q6 34:40 I live in the midst of great fear, witnessing emotional hostility. Where do actions and decisions and wise reflection play a part in helping but if I do too much the thinking mind goes astray. What is your advice please? 37:31 Q7 How does one we free oneself from jealousy and comparison? 40:12 Q8 How can we help others who are suffering but believe they are happy?
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Moulin de Chaves
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Regaining the Centre
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2023-03-29
The Importance of Cultivating Right Intention
50:04
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Tuere Sala
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Intention is present in every experience, response or action. Cultivating Right Intention in the context of contemporary society can often seem self-indulgent. The constant demands of being a householder can also over shadow intention and make it harder to recognize the expectations, assumptions, desires, beliefs, and/or energy (in other words- the intentions) behind our actions. Intention is part of the unconditional and thus, a necessary aspect of awakening.
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Cambridge Insight Meditation Center
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2021-11-24
Body regulates heart
39:32
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Ajahn Sucitto
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You’re born into a system that knows how to regulate and discharge emotions and energy. If the energy is right, distractions and unevenness fade away, and the harmony of body and mind acts by itself. Practice asking what is needed now to bring ease, clarity and joy into your life. Use cultivation to do what’s needed, to maintain health, balance, sanity, lightness of being.
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Bodhi College
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Breathing to Liberation (Ānāpāṇasati)
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2021-11-14
Q&A Buddhist Fellowship Singapore
45:54
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Ajahn Achalo
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00:05 Q1 If one does not believe in kamma and rebirth, does it affect one's dhamma journey? 01:07 Q2 What kind of actions give rise to neither dark or bright kamma and how do they lead to the end of kamma and rebirth? 08:42 Q3 How do relics come about? How and why do they grow and multiply? 24:47 Q4 How difficult is it to get another human rebirth? 29:37 Q5 If we have broken a precept, how can we remedy it so we will not fall into a lower rebirth?
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Anandagiri Forest Monastery
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2021-06-03
Divisiveness in the Buddha's Community: The Quarrel at Kosambi
52:18
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James Baraz
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One of the greatest challenges today in the US is divisiveness within the country. However, the Buddha faced the same problem right within his community! The Quarrel at Kosambi tells the story of his sangha dealing with a bitter argument that almost created a schism in the sangha. And the Buddha had a very difficult time trying to bring peace between the two factions. We will discuss this story and the lessons we can learn that can be applied in today's time.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2021-03-29
Questions and Answers The Cauldron of Emotions
23:18
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Amita Schmidt
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Question and Answers including: What is the one breath and one awareness? What is a spiritual bypass? What is a way to open up space when stuck in emotions? How do we act with right action in Buddhism?
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Dharma Zephyr Insight Meditation Community
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2019-08-18
When The Mind Sees Itself
29:37
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Ayya Medhanandi
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How long must we wander misguided in life? To courageously seek Truth, extract all impurity from the mind under the scrutiny of the Wisdom Eye – silent, watchful, fully aware, and dedicated to inner purification. See what fills the space of the mind, what percolates within and how we fuel it. Gradually, we will triumph over the sway of delusion and habitual distractions that betray the mind again and again. We’ll take our rightful seat, empty and poised on the throne of present moment awareness. In the safety of true refuge, there’s no going, and no one who goes. When the mind sees itself, there's just pure knowing, awake to its innermost sanctity.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2018-10-24
Cultivating Wise Speech 2
2:06:45
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Donald Rothberg
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Description:We review first why speech practice is so important and how it connects with the Noble Eightfold Path, and then two of the foundations of skillful or wise (or right) speech. We cover: (1) working with the four guidelines from the Buddha for wise speech, and how we can use the guidelines both to guide our speech and as spurs for mindfulness, when we find ourselves going against the guidelines; and (2) developing a sense of presence during speaking and listening. We then explore some general ways to strengthen our speech practice, as well as begin to bring it into challenging or difficult situations involving speech and interaction. We end with a speech exercise involving dyads, and discussion of the exercise and our practice generally.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2018-09-27
3 Kinds of Intention
58:57
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Sally Armstrong
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3 Kinds of Intention
To develop any skill, to fully cultivate any qualities in our lives, particularly on the Buddhist path, we need to engage with three kinds of intention that operate on different time frames. Cetana is the moment-to-moment intention, the urge to do, that we can bring into the field of our mindfulness practice. The next level, Adhitthana, is usually translated as resolve or determination and is one of the paramis. The highest level is Samma Sankappa, right or wise intention. This is the second path factor, after right view, so it is the kind of intention developed by right view. There are three kinds of Right intention - the intention towards renunciation, non-ill will, and non-harming. These skillful intentions can then inform our choices and actions (Adhitthanas), which we keep in mind through awareness of moment-to-moment intentions, or cetana.
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Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
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Three-Month Retreat - Part 1
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2017-02-23
3 Kinds of Intention (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
57:10
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Sally Armstrong
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To develop any skill, to fully cultivate any qualities in our lives, particularly on the Buddhist path, we need to engage with three kinds of intention that operate on different time frames. Cetana is the moment to moment intention, the urge to do, that we can bring into the field of our mindfulness practice. The next level, Adhitthana, is usually translated as resolve or determination, and is one of the paramis. The highest level is Samma Sankappa, usually translated as right or wise intention. This is the second path factor, after right view, so it is the kind of intention developed by right view. There are three kinds of Right intention - the intention towards renunciation, non-ill will, and non-harming. These skillful intentions can then inform our choices and actions (Adhitthanas) , which we keep in mind through awareness of moment to moment intentions, or cetana.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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February Month-long Retreat
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2016-09-22
Three kinds of intention.
58:29
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Sally Armstrong
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To develop any skill, to fully cultivate any qualities in our lives, particularly on the Buddhist path, we need to engage with three kinds of intention that operate on different time frames. Cetana is the moment to moment intention, the urge to do, that we can bring into the field of our mindfulness practice. The next level, Adhitthana, is usually translated as resolve or determination, and is one of the paramis. The highest level is Samma Sankappa, usually translated as right or wise intention. This is the second path factor, after right view, so it is the kind of intention developed by right view. There are three kinds of Right intention - the intention towards renunciation, non-ill will, and non-harming. These skillful intentions can then inform our choices and actions (Adhitthanas) , which we keep in mind through awareness of moment to moment intentions, or cetana.
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Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
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Three-Month Part 1
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2016-07-28
Refrain from False Speech
29:28
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Shaila Catherine
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Shaila Catherine gave the fourth talk in a six-week series titled "Ethics, Action and the Five Precepts." Speech is given particular importance in the Buddhist path because wrong speech can cause tremendous harm, and right speech can be profoundly beneficial. Practicing right speech is given emphasis because it's a very vivid way of applying our practice to daily life. When we lie based on delusion and greed, our intention usually is to benefit ourselves. When we lie based on delusion and hatred, our intention is usually to harm others. Even when we lie to cause less harm than would be caused if we spoke the truth, we should be aware of the potential karmic consequences.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Ethics, Action and the Five Precepts
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2016-03-24
"Sacred Activism Part. 2: We Don't Know What We Don't Know"
59:04
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James Baraz
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In our response to unsettling news we can easily react with self-righteousness, sure that our "dharmic" view is the "right one" and feeling superior to those who act in ways we don't understand. But the Buddha asked us to put aside any such arrogance. Through genuinely trying to understand another's perspective, we can cultivate true humility for our ignorance of their reality and greater understanding about the thinking behind their actions. Then our response, which might be one of fierce compassion, is not coming from hatred and ill will but from compassion and wisdom.
This talk includes some thoughts on white privilege as well as Andrew Harvey's brilliant audio clip on Sacred Activism.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2015-07-28
How Conduct Bears Fruit: Training in Not Killing
37:52
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Shaila Catherine
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This is the second talk in a speaker series titled Ethics, Action, and the Five
Precepts. This talk by Shaila Catherine explores kamma (karma) and the training precept to refrain from killing. The Abhidhamma presents a detailed analysis of both wholesome and unwholesome mental states to explain how some actions lead to suffering, and other actions lead to happiness. The conditions that surround an action, the intentions that instigate it, and the reflective understanding of potential consequences will influence the intensity of the patterns that affect our options. If you find that you have killed a living being, perhaps an insect, notice your mental state. Was hatred or greed present? Learn what happens in the mind to enable killing, and what happens in the mind when you refrain from violence. The act of restraint is a particularly potent action. When virtue (sila) is pure, reflections on the abstention from harming can be a source of joy. The potency of wholesome restraint can be increased by reinforcing it with the wisdom that understands the causes and end of suffering—right view of the path.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Ethics, Action, and the Five Precepts
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2013-07-30
Dependent Origination: Feelings
57:27
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Rodney Smith
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Each feeling tone has a body posture and pose that reveals its occurrence. As pleasant feelings emerge and shape themselves into a psychic force, the body starts literally leaning into the experience with expectations. This can be noticed as a hurried pace, and a forward leaning tilt. Aversion is just the opposite. The avoidance occurs as a kind of backpedaling, a leaning away and tilting back in contraction or a sudden change in direction. Delusion is harder to pin down but is spacey, airy, and glazed over, often only tangentially connected to the earth. Delusion has lost the ground of its experience and because of that is usually more difficult to notice physically. There is of course the vertical stance that is upright and open to whatever comes that the homework is meant to address.
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Seattle Insight Meditation Society
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In
collection:
Dependent Origination
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2012-02-21
Danger of Fixation
36:05
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Shaila Catherine
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How does suffering manifest in attachment to views? This talk explores right view and addresses the danger of attaching to a position, philosophy, belief, or opinion. Primary sources are the teachings from the Middle Length discourses numbers 72 and 74. Recognizing the dangers of attachment and clinging to beliefs and opinions, we directly investigate what can be known in the mind and body. This is a pragmatic path of mindful awareness that results in actions that are immediately liberating.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks—2012
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In
collection:
Buddhist Perspectives on Right View
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2011-11-13
Right View
31:10
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Ajahn Karunadhammo
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The focus of this day led by two senior monks from Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery is an exploration of mundane and transcendent right view and how skillful action and lifestyle support meditation practice and the development of insight. The day will include periods of reflections from the monastics, sitting and walking meditation, and time for questions and answers.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2011-11-13
Right View & Kamma
64:16
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Ajahn Yatiko
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A talk given on Wise View and Karma at Spirit Rock's monastic daylong in November 2011 with senior teachers from Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery.
The focus of this day is an exploration of mundane and transcendent right view and how skillful action and lifestyle support meditation practice and the development of insight.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2010-10-29
The Heart of Dharma
52:52
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Yanai Postelnik
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In our hearts we all long to be released from the ongoing suffering inherent in unsuccessfully seeking satisfaction through sensory experience. The liberating heart of dharma is revealed when we come to rest in the realisation that what we are looking for has been right here all along.
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Gaia House
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Awakening the Heart
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2003-01-01
Suffering And Its End
55:55
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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RESPECT FOR SUFFERING
The suffering that arises in the practice is a noble truth, something worthy of respect. You can’t just push it away. If you’re going to end suffering you have to give it space, understand it, and approach it systematically.
INTERCONNECTEDNESS
Interconnectedness is not always pretty. It means that our bad actions can have endless repercussions, and that our happiness is dependent on a very fragile web. But by becoming more skillful in our actions we can turn the principle of interconnectedness into a good thing: a path to a happiness that’s truly independent.
BEING STILL
The quieter you are, the more you see. Being quiet is a form of doing, and sometimes it’s the most skillful thing you can do: You learn perspective and sensitivity, and you position yourself in the best spot to recognize insight when it arises.
THE WORLD IS SWEPT AWAY
Instead of trying to find our happiness in a world of change, we take that changing world and turn it toward the changeless, look for that which is unchanging right here, right now.
THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS
The teaching on the Three Characteristics is meant to liberate the mind from unnecessary burdens. The normal mind shadows everything that happens, but as you bring the mind to every more subtle levels of stillness and ease, you can detect ever more subtle levels of inconstancy and stress, and so naturally let them go.
FIVE TALKS ON ONE CASSETTE OR CD
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Metta Forest Monastery
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