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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Stephen Batchelor's Dharma Talks
Stephen Batchelor
2011-07-17 Two Metaphors: The Snake and the Raft 60:49
Gaia House Meditation and Study Retreat
2011-04-21 An Ordinary Person's Life 60:49
The story of Ch'an Master Teshan; through Ch'an (Zen) the Chinese make Buddhism their own - a similar challenge faces us in the West today; the practice of 'What is this?' is the practice of the First Noble Truth: dukkha; how Zen fits into the context of the Four Truths; the Four Truths and the Four Great Vows; the self who practices the path is neither existent nor non-existent; Layman P'ang: chopping wood and carrying water.
Gaia House The Zen Retreat
2011-04-19 Where the Mind has Nowhere to Rest 65:42
Hui-neng's definition of sitting meditation; the middle way as the avoiding of the 'deadends' of existence and non-existence; the Greek philosopher Pyrrho as an example of a similar attitude; Hui-ko asks Bodhidharma to 'set his mind at rest'; the infinity of things; emptiness as the unfindability of things; to question 'what is this' is the practice of such emptiness that neither affirms nor denies anything.
Gaia House The Zen Retreat
2011-04-17 Coming to Terms with Birth and Death 49:09
Reflections on the nature of 'religion'; the Buddha's awakening as a resolution of the questions posed by life itself; Zen as a 'direct pointing to the heart, independent of scripture'; the aim of Buddhist practice is the achievement of autonomy; towards the possibility of a 'secular religion'.
Gaia House The Zen Retreat
2010-11-13 The Parable of the City 55:46
Wellington Insight Meditation Community Secular Buddhism
2010-11-12 Stream Entry 59:09
Wellington Insight Meditation Community Secular Buddhism
2010-11-11 The Four Noble Truths 62:34
Wellington Insight Meditation Community Secular Buddhism
2010-11-10 Conditioned Arising 58:57
Wellington Insight Meditation Community Secular Buddhism
2010-11-09 What is Secular Buddhism 54:19
Wellington Insight Meditation Community Secular Buddhism
2010-10-20 Self and Others 60:51
Concluding remarks: recap. on namarupa/consciousness, and reiteration that, as a way of embracing dukkha, this account of experience is prescriptive NOT descriptive; example from literature that illustrates the poignancy of this view of life; reflection on Dhammapada v. 80 to illustrate how the self is a project to be realised, a middle way approach that avoids both eternalism and nihilism; reflection on three suttas that provide a foundation for ethics and one's relation with others; how to tend to the Buddha entails tending to those who suffer.
Australian Insight Meditation Network Teachers' retreat at Springbrook, Queensland, Australia

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