Dharma Seed - James Baraz's Dharma Talks

I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.

I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves. I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing.

The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening. I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing. It is accessing this dimension of our being that becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear. We have everything we need inside ourselves. We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.

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2012-12-20 A Time For Healing 51:58	Download Listen Order
Dealing with the tragedy of Newtown, Conn.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

2012-12-13 Practicing With Difficult Emotions. 61:36	Download Listen Order
Exploring themes from the current issue (Volume 29/Number 1/Fall 2012) of Inquiring Mind with guest editor of the issue, Kevin Griffin.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

2012-11-29 Who we really are. 49:28	Download Listen Order
Who You Really Are Walt Whitman wrote: “I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness." A key aspect of genuine awakening is realizing the basic goodness that is our true nature (when we're not confused or lost in our stories). What gets in the way of accessing this basic goodness? What supports it?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

2012-11-15 Cast Aside the Costume 49:44	Download Listen Order
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

2012-11-08 Empathy: The Key that Unlocks the Heart 49:19	Download Listen Order
The ability to put oneself in someone else's shoes is the doorway to compassion. Once there is compassion then forgiveness, connection and genuine metta naturally follow. This talk includes a teaching from Thai master, Ajahn Maha Boowa, on the power of empathy.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

2012-11-03 Trust and Surrender is Available in Any Moment 57:17	Download Listen Order
While many wholesome states are experienced by cultivation, the state of peace and wholeness that is possible comes from relaxing all doing and simply allowing ourselves to just be. This state of being emerges from equanimity, involves trust and surrender and is available in any moment.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center: Awakening Joy: Dharma Practice as a Path of Happiness

2012-11-01 Buddha Dharma as a Path of Happiness 62:34	Download Listen Order
The Four Noble Truths are usually presented as the truth of suffering, its cause, its end, and the path that leads to the end. This talk presents these truths with an emphasis on well-being: 1) There is happiness, 2) There is a cause of happiness, 3) Happiness is possible, and 4) There is a path that leads to the highest happiness.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center: Awakening Joy: Dharma Practice as a Path of Happiness

2012-10-18 A Simple Twist of Fate 50:46	Download Listen Order
Our lives are filled with turning points that can steer us in different directions. To have found the Dharma and be facing in the direction of greater consciousness is extraordinarily good karma that can powerfully fuel and inspire our practice with sincerity and gratitude.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

2012-10-04 No Credit, No Blame. 56:40	Download Listen Order
"In this world no one escapes from blame," said the Buddha. How can we deal with blame from others skillfully without getting crushed by criticism or react to it in a way that causes more suffering for ourselves and other? The key to not being lost in Praise or Blame is non-identification, not taking ownership of your experience. This includes not identifying with your body or mind. We can appreciate the gifts we've been given as well as our shortcomings without taking them personally. This is the natural by-product of understanding anatta, the selfless nature of existence.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

2012-09-27 No Place to Land 57:17	Download Listen Order
Advaita teacher H. W. L. Poonja spoke of emptiness as "No place to land." This follow-up talk on Praise and Blame, discusses how understanding the Buddha's teaching on Emptiness—the selfless nature of the process—we can appreciate the positive impact we have on others without taking personal credit when praise comes our way.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley: IMCB Regular Talks

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