A welcoming talk for retreatants joining an on-going long retreat. Description of the process of forming community, and entering silence. An exploration of the power of motivation as retreatants turn to the Great Task.

How the practice of loving awareness allows a profound shift of identity from a small limited sense of self to spacious wisdom.

Practicing the first 3 Paramitas: Giving loving attention, Discipline of being present, Renunciation of loving the life you have.

First of 2 talks about the five precepts as instruction for meditation practice; as both path to and expression of our pabhassara citta, radiant clear mind.

Poem and then explore aspect of not-self and relative self

Understanding Saddha (faith) the first of the 5 Spiritual Faculties. How this Buddhist version of faith is different from naive faith, authoritarian faith and consumer faith. What is called faith when we practice this capacity of mind.

How to hold the whole path of awakening with the great heart of compassion.

Deeply conditioned clinging to self does not survive investigation

An exploration of the fifth and third precepts from a contemplative perspective: what intoxicates? What nourishes and sustains our practice?

Working with the wheel of Dependent Origination

An examination of wise effort, and how it gets mixed up with our habitual personal and cultural approaches to things. Why surrender is needed and what that might look like.

Spring equinox and seeing all things in an unbiased way.

This talk is based on the seven factors of enlightenment; mindfulness, investigation of the truth of Dharma, joy, calm, and concentration.

Poem and journey of awakening through vision of story telling.

We all have had experiences of impermanence, suffering, and not-self, but we haven't been able to generalize these as universal characteristics of conditioned things. Meditation instructions guide us to do so, allowing insight to arise. Examples of naturally arising "insights" which occur on retreat.

Weaving the themes of joy, emptiness, awakening and a long voyage of practice.

Love for self and other as a door to the Deathless.

Last night talk of the one month/two month. Exploring humility, humor, holding this simple trust through the Dharma.