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Retreat Dharma Talks

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2015-09-05 The “Thinning” of the Self: Exploring and Practicing Anattā (“Not-Self”) 4: Guided Meditation on the Five Skandhas 41:10
Donald Rothberg
2015-09-05 The “Thinning” of the Self: Exploring and Practicing Anattā (“Not-Self”) 5: Not-Self & The Five Skandhas 13:28
Donald Rothberg
2015-09-05 The “Thinning” of the Self: Exploring and Practicing Anattā (“Not-Self”) 1: Introduction and Overview 45:58
Donald Rothberg
The teaching of anattā (“not-self”) points to one of the three fundamental areas of liberating insight taught by the Buddha (along with the teachings on impermanence and on suffering or dukkha). Yet anattā can very challenging and confusing for contemporary practitioners. Is there “no self” (as anattā is sometimes translated)? How do we make sense of our feelings of individuality, identity, ancestry, and vocation? How do we address our own personal experiences of woundedness, trauma, and oppression? Are these all simply to be “transcended”? How is a sense of self actually in many ways important for contemporary spiritual development, and how is working with our own individual conditioning, whether psychological or social in origin, central to our liberation? How do we integrate attending to such conditioning with opening as well to the power and energy of experiences beyond the habitual sense of self? In this daylong, we will explore these vital questions primarily in a practical way. Using the metaphors of “thinning the self” and working with a “thick” sense of self, we will cover three aspects of practice: (1) cultivating, in several ways, the “thinning” of the self, both in meditation and in everyday life, including working with the Five Skandhas or “aggregates” of experience; (2) tracking and working with different manifestations of a “thick” sense of self, both as appearing in experience and as hidden to awareness; and (3) opening to experiencing beyond a fixed sense of self, as awareness, compassion, and responsiveness deepen.
2015-09-05 The “Thinning” of the Self: Exploring and Practicing Anattā (“Not-Self”) 2: Guided Meditation Studying the Thick Self 11:43
Donald Rothberg
2015-09-05 The “Thinning” of the Self: Exploring and Practicing Anattā (“Not-Self”) 3: Varieties of the Self 44:49
Donald Rothberg
2015-09-05 Live Lightly 39:06
Ayya Anandabodhi
2015-09-09 Equanimity: Equally Close To All Things 48:22
Shaila Catherine
Equanimity allows us to remain present and awake with the fact of things—equally close to the things we like and the things we dislike. Shaila Catherine describes the importance of developing equanimity in two arenas: 1) in response to pleasant and painful feelings, and 2) regarding the future results of our actions. Equanimity develops in meditation and in life. We can use unexpected events that we cannot control to develop equanimity. Our job is not to judge our experiences, but to be present and respond wisely. Equanimity is a beautiful mental factor that can feel like freedom, but if "I" and "mine" still operate, there is still work to be done. This talk includes many practical suggestions for cultivating equanimity.
2015-09-09 The Story of Bahiya Part 2 55:24
Pamela Weiss
2015-09-09 Dharma Talk 1:31:50
Larry Rosenberg
2015-09-12 Reflections on Sujātā 22:23
Ayya Tathaloka
It was Sujata who offered rice milk to the Buddha after his extreme austerities which included living on one grain of rice a day. Sujata, a laywoman, is remembered and commemorated in the Theravada tradition as ‘The First Disciple of the Buddha,’ there even directly before his awakening. Talk given at Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery’s International Bhikkhuni Day celebration in 2015.
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