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Donald Rothberg's Dharma Talks
Donald Rothberg
Donald Rothberg, PhD, has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice and the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy. Formerly on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Saybrook Graduate School, he currently writes and teaches classes, groups and retreats on meditation, daily life practice, spirituality and psychology, and socially engaged Buddhism. An organizer, teacher, and former board member for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Donald has helped to guide three six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality through Buddhist Peace Fellowship (the BASE Program), Saybrook (the Socially Engaged Spirituality Program), and Spirit Rock (the Path of Engagement Program). He is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers.
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2023-12-20 The Dharma in Times of Crisis 1:20:00
with Donald Rothberg, Stephen Fulder
Stephen Fulder, the founder and senior teacher of Tovana (the Israel Insight Society), is in conversation with Donald Rothberg. We hold the understanding of "crisis" broadly, remembering that we are in the midst of multiple crises, while giving more attention to Israel/Palestine. Such crises are a major challenge to our dharma practice. In this context, we explore a number of different themes, including bringing our practice to difficult experiences that often arise in a crisis, such as fear, emotional pain, reactivity, numbness, and the presence of repetitive negative narratives and views. We also identify, during the conversation, a number of resources, including qualities of compassion, empathy, equanimity, and the importance of finding a "refuge"and deep support in different ways. The conversation is followed by discussion, and a closing guided meditation. [During the conversation, we see a short (3:28) video of Tovana teachers speaking a sentence each about the current crisis, in Hebrew, with English sub-titles. The video can be seen at https://youtu.be/NqKoCm2TMhA?feature=shared.]
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2023-11-29 Practicing with Conflict 4: Applying the Ten Foundations of Conflict Practice to Israel/Palestine 66:34
We begin with a brief review of the framework of ten foundations for practicing with differences and conflicts (defining conflicts as differences of goals, values, views, strategies, etc. and not necessarily involving hostility or aggression). Then we apply the ten foundations as guides for seeing how we can bring our practice (both more "inner" and more "outer") to the seemingly complex and intractable conflict of Israel/Palestine. After the talk, there is discussion of a number of areas and questions.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
Attached Files:
  • Ten Foundations for Practicing with Conflict by Donald Rothberg (PDF)
2023-11-29 Brief Guided Meditation Exploring One's Experiences of Conflicts 12:06
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2023-11-22 Practicing with Conflict: Foundations 3 66:27
We start by reviewing briefly the two times' accounts of the foundations for practicing with differences and conflicts, first giving a definition of "conflict" as a difference of values, goals, or strategies, and not necessarily involving hostility or aggression. There's an invitation to focus on a conflict in one's life that is in the moderate range of difficulty, and bring this to mind as we work with ten foundations of skillful practice with conflict. We look again briefly at the multiple reasons why bringing our practice to conflicts is often difficult, and then review the more "inner" four foundations of skillful practice with conflict (1-4). We then bring in six further foundations which are more "outer," including (5) developing guidelines and agreements, especially in groups or organizations, but also with individuals; (6) clarifying a vision of a "win-win" or "both-and" approach to conflicts that meet the underlying interests or needs of all concerned; and (7) developing empathy. We offer two brief empathy practices, including one done in the context of one's own conflict. Three further foundations are offered: (8) grounding in Buddhist ethics, particularly the precepts and the understanding that one should bring care and kindness to all, and that all have Buddha Nature; (9) skillful speech (part of ethical training); and (10) the bringing of these ethical dimensions into collective life, through nonviolent action and the concept, in Dr. King's work, of the beloved community. After the talk, there is a discussion.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
Attached Files:
  • Johan Galtung's Win-Win Model of Conflict Transformation by Donald Rothberg (PDF)
  • Feelings Inventory from NVC by NVC (added by Donald Rothberg) (PDF)
  • Needs Inventory from NVC by NVC (added by Donald Rothberg) (PDF)
  • Empathy Map by Donald Rothberg/Oren Jay Sofer (PDF)
2023-10-25 Practicing with Conflict: Foundations 2 68:46
We start by reviewing last week's initial account of the foundations for practicing with differences and conflicts, first giving a definition of "conflict" as a difference of values, goals, or strategies, and not necessarily involving hostility or aggression. We also look again briefly at the multiple reasons why bringing our practice to conflicts is often difficult, and then review the more "inner" four foundations of skillful practice with conflict. We then bring in three further foundations which are more "outer": developing guidelines and agreements, especially in groups or organizations, but also with individuals; clarifying a vision of a "win-win" or "both-and" approach to conflicts that meet the underlying interests or needs of all concerned; and developing empathy. After the talk, there is a discussion.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
Attached Files:
  • Johan Galtung's Win-Win Model of Conflict Transformation by Donald Rothberg (PDF)
  • Feelings Inventory from NVC by NVC (added by Donald Rothberg) (PDF)
  • Needs Inventory from NVC by NVC (added by Donald Rothberg) (PDF)
  • Empathy Map by Donald Rothberg/Oren Jay Sofer (PDF)
2023-10-18 Practicing with Conflict: Foundations 1 66:41
We begin by identifying the importance of developing skillful practice with differences and conflicts, whether inner conflicts or interpersonal conflicts or group or organizational conflicts or social or international conflicts. The claim is that the general principles and practices are fundamentally the same, even as the practices take different forms when there are more complexities. We first give a definition of "conflict" as a difference of values, goals, or strategies, and as not necessarily involving hostility or aggression. This definition may help to go against the prevalence of negative conditioning about conflicts; we look at a number of reasons why bringing our practice to conflicts is commonly difficult. For the rest of the talk, we examine four more "inner" foundations of skillful practice with conflict: examining our own conditioning; working with the core relevant teachings of the Buddha, particularly about the nature of reactivity (as in the teaching of the Two Arrows); practicing with difficult emotions, body states, and thoughts; and bringing in the heart practices. After the talk, there is a discussion.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2023-08-16 Cultivating Wise Speech 4: Practicing Wise in Challenging Situations, including with Social and Political Polarization 69:31
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.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2023-08-09 Cultivating Wise Speech 3: Review of the Foundations of Wise Speech, and Bringing Wise Speech into Difficult or Challenging Interactions 66:45
We first review four foundations of wise speech: (1) developing presence in the midst of communication; (2) working with the four guidelines for skillful speech developed by the Buddha; (3) bringing our mindfulness and skillful responses to our thoughts, emotions, and body states into our speech practice; and (4) empathy practice, tuning into others' and our own emotions and sense of "what matters." We then explore the importance of being with challenges and difficulties in our practice generally, and do two exercises exploring a difficult or challenging interaction with another, including working with an "empathy map." Discussion follows. (Materials on emotions [or feelings], needs, and an "empathy map" are given below, under "documents.")
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
Attached Files:
  • Feelings Inventory from NVC by NVC (added by Donald Rothberg) (PDF)
  • Needs Inventory from NVC by NVC (added by Donald Rothberg) (PDF)
  • Empathy Map by Donald Rothberg/Oren Jay Sofer (PDF)
2023-07-23 Talk: Dukkha and the End of Dukkha 2 64:06
We start with a review and expansion of the main themes of the talk from two weeks ago, looking especially first at the possible confusion around the nature of "dukkha" (usually translated as "suffering"). We look at four meanings of dukkha in the teachings of the Buddha (the first of which is the most common meaning of dukkha as what is "painful"). Only the last sense of dukkha as reactivity (based on the teachings of the Two Arrows and of Dependent Origination) helps us make sense of what the "end of dukkha" means. We then give attention to a number of different ways of practicing to transform and "end" reactivity, followed by discussion with the community.
Benicia Insight Meditation
2023-07-23 Guided Meditation Exploring Reactivity 45:10
After an introduction of the teacher, there is a 30-minute guided meditation. We set the intention to track for moments of reactivity, and then have the first 10 minutes or so for settling. Then there are several lightly guided suggestions of ways to practice with reactivity, including noticing moderate or a little greater experiences of pleasant or unpleasant, and seeing whether we move to wanting and grasping, on the one hand, or not wanting or pushing away, on the other. At the end, there is guided practice on bringing up an experience of reactivity and exploring it especially with mindfulness and the wisdom of appropriate response. The meditation is followed by a dana talk.
Benicia Insight Meditation

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