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Retreat Dharma Talks

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2022-10-19 Beyond the Controlling Self – Part 2 51:00
Tara Brach
It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies – such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending – have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the over-controller, and the profound awakening of our hearts and minds that is possible in the shift from doing to being.
2022-10-20 Anything Can Happen at Anytime: Holding Loss with a Tender Heart 53:46
James Baraz
Our Dharma community is processing sad news this week that has sent a shock wave through the sangha. One of our respected teachers who led movement at many Spirit Rock retreats and mentored many students in the practice took her life after a long bout with health issues that affected her mental well-being. A truism of the law of impermanence is that "anything can happen at any time." I want to use this event as an opportunity to explore how the practice can help support us when a sudden major loss happens.
2022-10-21 Guided mettā meditation, Dhamma talk on dependent origination 1:21:42
Bhante Sujato
Guided mettā meditation to develop positive emotions, directed towards self and all beings. Dhamma talk on dependent origination in simple terms. Dependent origination answers the question: How does rebirth happen without a soul? We are neither completely fixed or completely fluid in how we are - we are conditioned; a continuity that connects past, present, and future. The Buddha’s great insight was that everything is conditioned. Daily life, high states of meditation, rebirth, and all kinds of experiences all follow the same processes. Ignorance and craving are the drivers of these processes.
2022-10-21 We Have Nothing to Fear 25:20
Ayya Medhanandi
Emptying the mind of fearful thoughts, we stop clinging to anything of the world – one moment at a time. And we come to know a liberating joy. It's a way to enter a dimension of transcendence and to be uplifted beyond the prison of grasping a self with all its adornments and entanglements. As we let go identification with the self, there arises the peace of selfless awareness and waking up to the ultimate truth that is the end of suffering.
2022-10-22 And Then Your Heart Will Shine 19:02
Ayya Medhanandi
How can we tread the path of nonviolence that rises above anger, blame, and mistrust? Try choosing compassion, kindness and forgiveness. For inner peace is nowhere to be found if not within your own heart. Even in the throes of tempestuous life situations, draw out courage from that as water from a deep well within. By the power of refuge in what upholds Truth, you navigate through the most fearsome obstacle even if it seems impossible. And then your heart will truly shine.
2022-10-22 Our Dhamma Compass 23:09
Ayya Medhanandi
Strong in restraint, courageous in wisdom, we use the compass of right view to steer us on the Noble Eightfold Path, while right intention sustains the healing actions of mind that let go unwholesome thoughts and endless fabrications. We learn to live and respond to life compassionately, responsibly, mindfully, with integrity and noble presence of mind. Healing from above and below, from the outside and internally, we listen to the unspoken silence of the heart that resounds in the galaxies. Keenly aware, supremely blessed, we rejoice in the totality of unbounded compassion.
2022-10-26 Meditation: At Home in the Moment 20:33
Tara Brach
This meditation cultivates a gentle, wakeful presence in the body, with the “smile down” and then guides us to resting in a home base of sensations or the breath. We then open to whatever arises with a clear and inclusive attention, saying “Yes” to the life that is here.
2022-10-26 Cultivating Inner Strength – A Conversation with Tara Brach and Lori Deschene 59:43
Tara Brach
What gives us the inner strength to meet life’s challenges with resilience, heart and wisdom? Drawing on themes in Lori’s new book, “The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal,” Tara and Lori explore the mindset that is conducive to growth, working with negative beliefs, ways of transforming fear, and what it means to have inner strength in facing loss and death. We also talk about what can most empower and energize us in responding to a world struggling with multiple crises. NOTE: Find Lori Deschene’s “The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal” here: tinybuddha.com/strong. Lori also created several free companion resources, available at tinybuddha.com/strength-tools.
2022-10-26 The Importance of Cultivating Stillness 45:29
Tuere Sala
Stillness is an ever present phenomenon and yet it seems so elusive in urban (also referred to as householder or lay) practice. Within the context of contemporary society, cultivating stillness can seem self-indulgent. Our demanding can sometimes make it harder to recognize it, but stillness is part of the unconditional and thus, a necessary aspect of awakening. This talk will explore how urban practitioners can learn to cultivate stillness in the midst of movement and chaos.
2022-10-28 Muditā - Wertschätzende Freude 62:31
Yuka Nakamura
Muditā ist das dritte der vier Brahmavihāras, der himmlischen Verweilzustände. Sie ist die Fähigkeit, sich über das, was heilsam und gut ist zu freuen und es wertzuschätzen - bei sich selbst und bei anderen. Muditā hilft dem Geist, angesichts von Leiden und Herausforderungen im Gleichgewicht zu bleiben. Welche Faktoren stehen der Freude im Weg und wie können wir sie bewusst kultivieren?
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