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Retreat Dharma Talks
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Unknown
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| General area for talks without a retreat |
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Unknown
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2022-01-09
Awakening Now
51:57
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Amita Schmidt
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May this be the year for you to Awaken. Strategies, tools, and insights to move towards awakening even in difficult times. This talk is also available via video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhZZONPLjoc
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2022-01-12
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 1 Introduction
45:38
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Bob Stahl
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Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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2022-01-12
Wise Hope
13:32
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Betsy Rose
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Wise Hope, as articulated by Roshi Joan Halifax, can be a wise practice for our times. Unlike "Ordinary Hope" it does not focus on a desired outcome, but is rooted in the sense of infinite possibility in the face of, and in fact BECAUSE of, the groundless and impermanent nature of reality.
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2022-01-12
Compass of Our Heart
50:24
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Tara Brach
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All of our actions, our entire life experience, arises from the energy of intention. While it’s natural that our intentions are shaped by egoic wants and fears, when we bring this into conscious, compassionate awareness, we can discover the deep aspiration that guides and energizes our awakening hearts and minds. This talk explores the movement from egoic intention to liberating intention…the movement from “my will” to “my heart’s will” (a favorite from the archives).
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2022-01-12
Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (20:04 min.)
20:03
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Tara Brach
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When we fully inhabit our body, we discover the space and wakefulness of awareness itself. In this meditation, we rest in this open awareness, and when the attention narrows into thoughts, we practice relaxing back into the openness that includes passing sounds, sensations and feelings. We close with a brief offering of lovingkindness to our own hearts and our world (with community OMs – no bell at end).
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2022-01-12
Training the Heart
0:00
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Oren Jay Sofer
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(Recording not available)
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How do we meet the challenges of our times? This talk reflects on how we can shape and train the heart-mind to have access to qualities that enrich our potential and resilience.
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2022-01-16
Q&A
54:26
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Ajahn Sucitto
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00:53 Please explain the idea of the pāramī; 04:59 Letting go of thinking/expectation; 07:44 Using the sound of silence in practice; 15:58 How Qigong connects to practice; 24:47 Tension in tongue and jaw; 25:03 Remaining “upright and joyful”; 29:23 Family does not agree with my practice; 34:13 Dealing with pain; 38:10 Experience of a deep horrific fear; 43:45 Out of body experiences while meditating; 45:19 Relationship between release of somatic knots and releasing the citta; 48:55 Regrets and resentment; 50:13 Can you speak about the āsava? 53:37 Difference between peace, serenity and tranquility? Pīti and sukha?
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2022-01-19
Gifts of Uncertainty, with Joanna Macy
46:12
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Betsy Rose
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We listen to a 2009 talk by ecologist, Buddhist, and systems thinker Joanna Macy, on the 5 gifts of uncertainty -- gifts for these unstable and uncertain times. With further teachings from Betsy Rose on Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and these gifts manifest in their life work.
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2022-01-19
Meditation: Silence, Presence and Care
21:04
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Tara Brach
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Quieting our busy bodies and minds brings alive our heart and spirit. This practice begins with a reading on silence by Gunilla Norris, and then includes guidance in letting go of tension, opening to aliveness and resting in a caring and wakeful awareness.
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2022-01-19
Resilience and Wisdom in an Uncertain World - A Conversation
65:22
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Tara Brach
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Resilience and Wisdom in an Uncertain World, a conversation between IMCW’s executive director, Trisha Stotler and Tara Brach. The Buddhist scriptures describe a mind that “no longer shakes, in a world where everything is shaking.” Our times are deeply stressful and troubling, and we need individual and collective ways of responding from our deepest understanding and care. In this interview, Tara reflects on the perspectives and ways of practicing that allow us to engage in relationships and our larger society from an awake compassionate heart.
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2022-01-20
Equanimity with Uncertainty: Finding Balance in Difficult Times
51:13
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James Baraz
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Equanimity or Upekkha is a highly valued quality in Buddhist teachings. It is one of the Four Divine Abodes, one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, one of the Ten Perfections and on a number of other lists. When highly developed it is the precursor to the experience of awakening. But what is equanimity? How can we cultivate it in our meditation practice? Even more, how can we access it in our daily life, especially in times like these with so much uncertainty, fear and sadness over the suffering in the world? We will explore various aspects of equanimity that can be pragmatically applied to our life off the cushion.
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2022-01-26
Meditation: Know That You’re Here
19:22
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Tara Brach
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We spend many moments in a trance, time traveling to the past and future, lost in a virtual reality. This meditation helps us collect our attention with our breath, awaken through the body, and open the senses. We then rest in the wakeful openness that includes changing experience, aware of the mystery and vividness of being Here.
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2022-01-26
Living with Courageous Presence
46:53
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Tara Brach
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The essence of courage is to willingly feel our vulnerability; this is what allows us to respond to life with an undefended, wise heart. This talk explores the ways we resist opening to vulnerability, and three key steps in cultivating a courageous presence.
Ask, “What does it mean to be courageous at this moment?”
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2022-01-27
Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh
51:02
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James Baraz
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The great Vietnamese Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, passed away on January 22nd at the age of 95. Thay, as he was known to his students, was one of the most influential Buddhist masters in modern times.We spend the evening exploring his teachings and honoring his spirit. A short clip of him teaching is included as part of the evening.
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2022-01-28
Honoring Thich Nhat Hannh, Breath meditation, Q+A
1:34:56
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Bhante Sujato
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Honoring Thich Nhat Hannh. Breath meditation explained and guided by Bhante Sujato. Q+A: sīlā, samādhi, paññā as a comprehensive framework for the elements of the path, derived from the Buddha's teaching on the Gradual Training, e.g. in Dīgha Nikāya 2. Breath meditation as opposed to ancient pranayama techniques trying to control the breath. Meditation methods require balance between receiving and doing. Threshold concentration. Weird experiences during meditation.
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Attached Files:
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DN 2, Sāmaññaphala Sutta
by suttacentral.net
(Link)
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AN 106, Nijjara Sutta
by suttacentral.net
(Link)
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2022-02-01
The Tiger’s Challenge: Impeccability and Aspiration
48:52
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Ajahn Sucitto
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The one thing we can train in and recollect is that we can aspire. No other creature aspires. We are born with desire, and if we don’t use it for aspiration it leaks out into sensuality and thinking. Then the mind loses its alertness. One of the most fundamental things we aspire to is a different alignment. Finding a place to stand which is true, empowering, dignified, blameless – a refuge. This is how you stand apart from the worldly currents, and live in the quality of good intent.
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2022-02-01
Progress or No Progress
40:57
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Dhammadīpā
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A talk about self-judgment, distress, trust, seclusion, and perceptions of progress on the Path. Based on the Therigatha poem by an anonymous nun who spoke five verses, part of the Tuesday Tune In series at Dassanāya Buddhist Community.
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2022-02-02
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 4 Heart, Liver, Diaphragm, Spleen, Lungs
46:24
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Bob Stahl
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Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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2022-02-02
The Earth is Crying in Our Hearts
43:58
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Tara Brach
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The suffering in our world arises out of a sense of separation—from our own bodies and hearts, each other, and this living web. These two talks explore this trance of separation and how it’s led humans to destroying our larger body, earth. We then look at the pathways of awakening to the truth of “interbeing” and responding to our precious world with love.
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2022-02-02
Meditation: Breathing Through
17:08
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Tara Brach
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Drawn from a classic Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice, this guided meditation invites us to open to the sufferings of the world, and let it move through our hearts and out again. The blessing of this offering of presence is that our hearts become a transformer of sorrow.
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2022-02-09
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 5 Large Intestines, Small Intestines, Stomach, Feces, Brain
52:24
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Bob Stahl
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Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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2022-02-09
Stories and Songs Honoring Thich Nhat Hanh
16:40
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Betsy Rose
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I met Thay in 1987 and assisted him in many retreats and public talks, singing the songs I wrote inspired by his teachings and poetry. In this talk, I share some stories and songs from these early days that focus on his unorthodox, creative, intuitive, and courageous embodiment of dharma.
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2022-02-09
Meditation: Spacious, Clear Awareness
22:41
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Tara Brach
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This meditation begins with a breath that calms and collects the attention, and then a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, clear awareness.
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2022-02-09
Love in Action: Realizing Interbeing
53:57
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Tara Brach
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The suffering in our world arises out of a sense of separation—from our own bodies and hearts, each other, and this living web. These two talks explore this trance of separation and how it’s led humans to destroying our larger body, Earth. We then look at the pathways of awakening to the truth of “interbeing” and responding to our precious world with love.
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2022-02-11
Opening Our Hearts to Love—For Ourselves and For Others
51:11
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Donald Rothberg,
Fresh Lev White
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Just before this Valentine’s Day, we’ll explore, in meditation and a talk and discussion, what helps us to open our hearts to our deep loving nature, and what gets in the way of such opening. We’ll focus on how central it is, and often how hard it is, to be able to develop and express self-love and self-compassion. Yet these qualities are necessary for bringing love into our relationships and into our world, which deeply needs love and heart connections. We’ll identify perspectives and practices which help us to open our hearts to love!
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2022-02-16
Heart Meditation: Loving Kindness – Befriending our Lives
27:21
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Tara Brach
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This heart meditation guides us in how to cultivate a deep quality of friendliness in relating to our inner life and each other. The gift of this practice is a direct sense of belonging – knowing that we can never be alone (given at the Fall 2019 IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat).
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2022-02-16
Cultivating Loving Kindness - Seeing the Goodness
56:46
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Tara Brach
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The ground of loving kindness is seeing the basic goodness in ourselves, each other and our world. This is what gives rise to pure appreciation, friendliness, love and the felt-sense of belonging. In this talk we explore what obscures and contracts our perceptual field, and the pathway of purposefully awakening this transformational capacity of cherishing all life.
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2022-02-17
Einführung in die Leerheit
60:49
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Yuka Nakamura
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Einsicht in die Leerheit aller Phänomene zu entwickeln ist zentral in der Dharmapraxis. Sie bedeutet, die Täuschung einer festen, unabhängigen Selbstexistenz zu durchschauen. Im Vortrag werden Beispiele von Leerheit besprochen, die aufzeigen, dass damit die Abhängigkeit von Bedingungen, von Teilen oder vom wahrnehmenden Geist gemeint ist. Die Einsicht ermöglicht einen mittleren Weg zwischen Nihilismus und Eternalismus und eine freiere, spielerischere Haltung zum Leben.
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2022-02-18
Die Khandhas und Nicht-Selbst
62:14
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Yuka Nakamura
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Obwohl wir normalerweise von der Existenz eines festen, unabhängigen Selbst ausgehen, lässt sich ein solches nicht finden. Diese Illusion entsteht durch das Anhaften an den fünf Khandhas (Daseinsgruppen), die Identifikation mit dem Körper, den Gefühlstönungen, der Wahrnehmung, den Willensregungen und dem Bewusstsein als 'ich', 'mein' oder 'mein Selbst'. Indem wir erkennen, wie das Selbst geschaffen wird, werden wir frei von einer fixierten Identität.
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2022-02-19
Verbundenheit
52:36
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Yuka Nakamura
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Eine Sichtweise des Selbst, die von einem unabhängig existierenden Selbst ausgeht, führt zu viel Leiden, individuell und kollektiv. Wir können aufwachen zu einer Sichtweise der Verbundenheit und Bezogenheit und erkennen, wie wir durch unsere Gedanken, Worte und Taten an der Ganzheit des Lebens teilhaben und mitgestalten.
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2022-02-23
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 7 Tears, Grease, Saliva, Mucus, Oil of the Joints, Urine
43:58
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Bob Stahl
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Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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2022-02-23
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 7 Anatomy Presentation
1:15:50
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Bob Stahl
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Guest teachers Robin MacFarland and Tufumoena’i Lesu’i from the Cabrillo College Anatomy lab taught today’s class. They offered an anatomy presentation.
Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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2022-02-23
Meditation: Embodying Acceptance and Care
15:52
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Tara Brach
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This guided meditation helps us cultivate a friendly relationship with our experience. Using the image of a smile, we bring a gentle presence alive in our bodies, and then open to the heartspace that includes all facets of life. The meditation closes with a verse from poet, Dorothy Hunt, “Peace is this Moment Without Judgment.”
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2022-02-23
Radical Acceptance – Gateway to Love, Wisdom and Peace
49:17
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Tara Brach
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Acceptance is radical because it undoes our resistance to reality. This talk explores how our meditation practice can cultivate a liberating acceptance, a heartspace that includes all of life and enables us to respond to our world with deep intelligence and compassion. all life.
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2022-02-25
Mettā meditation, Dhamma talk on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
1:43:18
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Bhante Sujato
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Mettā meditation guided by Bhante Sujato. Dhamma talk by Bhante Sujato on the Russian invasion of Ukraine: how to find truth in a sea of disinformation (five guidelines). Thoughts on the concept of "Just War": its ancient philosophical origins and the Buddhist perspective. Black / white / black and white / neither black nor white kamma.
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2022-03-02
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 8 Closing of Class
32:56
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Bob Stahl
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Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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2022-03-02
Meditation: Being a Kind Witness
18:46
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Tara Brach
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Learning to witness what is going on inside us is the gateway to inner freedom and deep realization. This meditation guides us in witnessing our experience with a non-judging and kind awareness.
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2022-03-02
Equanimity: The Gifts of Non-Reactive Mindful Presence
41:58
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Tara Brach
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If we want to bring our intelligence, creativity and love into our relationships and world, we need to be able to access an inner refuge of presence. This talk explores how, when we’re reacting from anger, clinging or fear, to pause, reconnect to the immediate experience of “just this” and remember the love and awareness that has room for the changing waves of life.
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2022-03-03
Sad Heart, Breaking Heart:
Working with the Invasion of Ukraine
58:10
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James Baraz
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The news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is particularly sad and disturbing Although there are conflicts like this happening around the world, an unprovoked invasion from one of the strongest military countries in the world into a European country that could feasibly escalate into another world war is deeply unsettling. We explore as a community how our practice can help us hold all the feelings that may be arising. Includes a 7 minute clip of Joanna Macy explaining her Spiral from her "Work that Reconnects."
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2022-03-08
Finding Love, Balance and Courage in a Time of War
13:27
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Betsy Rose
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As we witness and are deeply impacted by the eruption of a war of aggression in the Ukraine, we will reflect tonight on how these three paramis -- compassion, courageous energy and equanimity -- are visible both on the world stage and in our own lives and hearts.
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2022-03-09
Meditation: Compassion Practice – Tonglen
23:39
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Tara Brach
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Our deepest wisdom and purest actions arise out of open-hearted presence. This meditation, a compassion practice or tonglen, is drawn from the Tibetan tradition and carries us home to the vastness of loving presence (re-mastered from the 2013 IMCW fall 7-day silent retreat).
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2022-03-09
Engaged Spirituality during Times of Upheaval
45:21
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Tara Brach
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Engaged spirituality means responding to our world’s suffering with wisdom and deep care. This talk looks at three blocks to aligning our actions with our heart – “bad othering,” dissociation and overwhelm. We explore how we can awaken from each reaction to suffering by drawing on our practices of presence and remembering our larger belonging.
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2022-03-10
The Dharma of Good Leadership
57:27
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James Baraz
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When a leader has the welfare of the people as a priority the country prospers. When a leader cares only for themselves the country declines. This talk explores the Buddha's teaching on the qualities that make a good leader, the influence a leader has on the people and the story of an actual leader who underwent a transformation from a feared merciless ruler to one of great wisdom and compassion. We discuss how these teachings apply to our contemporary world.
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2022-03-11
Mettā, Brāhmā vihārā, Guided mettā meditation, Dhamma talk on mettā meditation method
1:31:10
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Bhante Sujato
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From Harris Park. Bhante Sujato: Mettā as an experience vs. a philosophical idea; found inside rather than outside, independent rather than grasping. Brāhmā vihārā. Guided mettā meditation. Dhamma talk: background on the mettā meditation method as taught by Ajahn Mahā Chatchai. Patience as a warm-up. Grounding the experience of mettā firmly in the body. Explanantion of "nimittā".
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Attached Files:
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A Flower Called Mettā
by Ajahn Chatchai
(Link)
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