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Retreat Dharma Talks

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General area for talks without a retreat

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2020-09-01 Life as Practice and Path 17:53
Kim Allen
Three qualities of a practitioner, three realms of practice -- for those who see their life as a path.
2020-09-02 Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness 21:28
Tara Brach
When we are in our daily trance, we are often leaning forward, on our way somewhere else. In this meditation we are guided to relax back into the awareness that is always, already here. We explore relaxing back through a body scan, and then with all our senses wide open. With practice we increasingly find our pathway home by relaxing the clench of doings, and resting in what is.
2020-09-02 Transforming Your Relationship with Anxiety 1:19:29
Tara Brach
Strong anxiety frequently triggers fight-flight-freeze, our survival brain’s strategy for dealing with threats. This can become a trance that dominates our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and deepest experience of who we are. This talk explores how we get caught in this reactive trance, and ways of calming anxiety and radically shifting our way of relating to the experience of threat. The gift is discovering an inner freedom in the midst of life, and the capacity to respond to what arises with love-in-action.
2020-09-03 The Buddha as a Social Activist. 43:20
James Baraz
Sometimes the teachings seem to suggest a life of withdrawing from the world. But the Buddha himself was an example of engagement and could even be called a political revolutionary. As we try to sort out how to apply the teachings, (including duties of a good ruler) to contemporary issues, it can help to see his teachings in that light.
2020-09-06 Practicing Dukkha and the End of Dukkha in a Time of Crisis 67:21
Donald Rothberg
The Buddha said, “I have taught dukkha [usually translated as “suffering”] and the end of dukkha.” This teaching is the heart of our practice, yet it is often misunderstood or even confusing to people, primarily because there are at least four different understandings of dukkha in the teachings. We’ll explore the nature of the teaching, emphasizing particularly the interpretation of dukkha as "reactivity" (particularly linked to the teaching of the Two Arrows or Two Darts), which comes in two forms--grasping or greed, and compulsive pushing away or aversion. We'll point to how we might practice with the teaching at this time of crisis--in our formal practice, in our practice in daily life, and in our work, service, and/or activism.
2020-09-06 The First Noble Truth: Dukkha 1:27:22
Eugene Cash
2020-09-07 The Immeasurable Mind of Metta 56:54
Dhammadīpā
A talk given as part of the Sunday program at Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group (SBMG)
2020-09-07 Manifesting Metta in All Directions 27:19
Dhammadīpā
A guided meditation offered as part of the Sunday evening program of Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group (SBMG)
2020-09-09 Awakening from the Trance of Bad-Othering 46:31
Tara Brach
Great spiritual leaders of social movements teach that true transformation arises from realizing our interconnectedness, and the light of the divine in each being. Sadly, through human history, much suffering has come from perceiving others as bad-others, flawed humans who are excluded from our heart. This talk looks at how our stories and mistrust of others—in personal relationships and in our society—can lead to cycles of violence, harm, and deepening alienation. We then explore the inner process that helps us shift to “bad behavior, not bad human” and allows us to respond to suffering with love-in-action.
2020-09-09 Meditation: Meeting Life with a Spacious Heart 22:00
Tara Brach
Especially when we’re stressed, we need pathways to an allowing, kind presence. This meditation guides us to relax and open through our bodies, and then meet changing waves of experience with a sea of awareness that is intrinsically allowing and tender.
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