After initial instructions in developing stability and concentration, and then mindfulness, there are further instructions, given after 10 and after 20 minutes, on developing more mindfulness of views, stories, and narratives (related to the talk given after the meditation). At the end, there is an invitation to reflect on views or stories that have been prominent in the last few days.

We start with a brief reflection on today's holiday, Juneteenth. Then we review last week's initial exploration of practicing with views, including (1) identifying the main teachings on views given by the Buddha, and (2) three basic ways to practice with views, including developing mindfulness of views, inquiring when there is a charge related to another's view, and developing careful listening. This review is followed by bringing in several further ways to understand and practice with views, including working with a specific teaching and letting the "view [coming from the teaching] be the meditation," exploring how sometimes to rest in a kind of unknowing, and then how awakening lies beyond views and concepts. The talk is followed by discussion.

Dharma Talk (Group Q/A is not included)

A day before the Fourth of July and two days after Canada Day, commemorating establishing Canada, we explore the possibility of connecting the vision of individual awakening and freedom and the vision of social freedom and justice. We look at the "shadows" of these visions, of how greed, hatred, and delusion, whether individual or collective, as well as other factors, stand in the way of realizing these visions. We point to the importance of staying connected to these two visions in difficult and challenging times, and of how they can be brought together. After the talk, we have a group discussion.

A guided meditation connected with the talk on "Living from Our Depths," touching on exploring two of the three areas of liberating insight (impermanence and reactivity--or Dukkha) connected with developing wisdom, and practicing lovingkindness (or another heart practice), connected with developing the "awakened heart."

How do we live from the depths of our being? We explore this question in a number of different ways. We begin by looking at some of the metaphors for "spiritual practice" (itself involving metaphors), including the sense of touching and living from our depths, becoming a "big person" (a Mahaatta in the Buddha's phrasing), awakening, being on a journey, and seeing through our conditioning, delusions, and the 70,000 veils (as is said in Islamic tradition). In Buddhist tradition, we especially connect, as in the image of the bird with two wings, with wisdom and compassion, and with ways to bring these qualities into our actions and interactions. After inviting several people to share experiences of their depths, we then explore a number of different ways to stay connected in daily life with our depths. The talk is followed by discussion.

Sex is an incredibly important topic for many people, but is rarely talked about in the insight meditation lineage. This talk first explores the Theravadin Buddhist teachings on sex as they relate to monastics and lay people and then offers tools for bringing our dharma practice to sexual activity. We start with the “don'ts”, looking back at the canonical teachings on sex, and investigate the third precept— refraining from sexual misconduct—as a foundational for integrity in sexual activity. We then move to the “do’s”: how in these times might the dharma teachings offer wisdom to the realm of sex? The key— mindfulness for embodiment, self-awareness, communication, and presence.

We continue with our exploration of how we contact what is "deep" in our lives and in life, and how we stay connected with our depths in our practice. We initially give a review of some of what we explored last week, recalling some of the many metaphors used for deepening in our lives in spiritual traditions, including awakening, being on a journey, liberation, seeing clearly whereas previously we didn't see clearly, coming to wholeness, among others. We recall the Buddhist emphasis on wisdom (especially the three ways of seeing that liberate--seeing into impermanence, dukkha or reactivity, and not-self; as well as touching nibbana); compassion; and skillful action. We hear also from several people sharing their experiences of their depths. We then explore a number of ways to stay connected in daily life with our depths, including several not mentioned last week. The talk is followed by discussion, including sharing of some ways that people in the group find helpful in terms of staying connected with their depths, including using phrases like "Begin again" and "Keep coming back."

Related to the talk given after the guided meditation on the foundational practices and how we can talk very simply about them, we begin remembering our grounding in ethics, and then develop concentration, then mindfulness and wisdom, and later the kind and compassionate heart.

The Dalai Lama has said, “My religion is kindness," suggesting that the core of spirituality is both beyond any particular religion and does not require religion. We explore, in a similar way, how the basics of Buddhist teachings and practices-- related to ethics, kindness and compassion, wisdom, and touching nibbana--can be understood and expressed in ordinary, everyday language and at its heart is both shared by other spiritual traditions and potentially beyond any particular tradition. The talk is followed by discussion.

In our meditation and our lives, we are often cycling between three states of comfort, discomfort and overwhelm. Learning how to work skillfully with each of these states presents an opportunity for growth.

Inviting a sense of mystery as we practice can bring further aliveness, presence, and openness, and help us go beyond our habitual patterns of thinking and practicing. In the talk, we explore seven ways of practicing with mystery, with the aid of a number of poems. The talk is followed by discussion.

This is a fairly lightly guided meditation on ways to practice with a sense of mystery, linked with the talk on this theme. After grounding in posture and intentions, basic instructions in developing stability and concentration, and then in mindfulness, are given, with later periodic suggestions on ways to practice with a sense of mystery.

In this second talk on practicing with mystery, we begin by talking more generally about the nature of mystery. We then review seven ways of practicing with mystery explored last week, while bringing in further examples of these ways of practicing, and add an additional two further ways of practicing. Reading of poems and excerpts from poems support this sense of multiple ways of practicing with mystery. The talk is followed by discussion.

Includes meditation, dharma talk and group discussion

Includes meditation, dharma talk and group discussion

Includes meditation & dharma talk. Group Q/A has been omitted.

We start with Donald's experience of being at Southern Dharma Retreat Center in North Carolina, north of Asheville, teaching two retreats during Hurricane Helene, some four weeks ago, and how staff and community members have responded during and in the weeks since the hurricane, grounded in community and their inner practices. Such a response, linking inner practice and the outer support and help of others, resonates with the aspiration of the Bodhisattva, one dedicated to awakening and to meeting the needs of others. We explore some of the qualities and capacities of the bodhisattva, including being in touch with freedom and awakening, navigating difficulties and painful experiences skillfully, and following the challenging teaching of acting fully without attachment to the outcome or fruits of one's actions. The talk is followed by discussion.

We begin with a review of last week's talk and exploration, on being a bodhisattva in our times. The theme was inspired by Donald's experience teaching two retreats north of Asheville, NC during Hurricane Helene and being inspired by the response of the retreat center, Southern Dharma, both locally near the center and in Asheville, combining community, inner practices, and helping others. In this session, we look first more at the traditional understanding of the bodhisattva, both in the context of the Buddha's teachings and later Theravada, and then Mahayana. We bring in images of the archetypcal bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara, Tara, Kwan Yin, and Manjushri, as well as examples of the vows of bodhisattvas, and an outline of the training of a bodhisattva in the ten paramitas (or "perfections"). We then ask about the nature of a contemporary bodhisattva, pointing to how connecting inner work and helping others can be a corrective to exclusively outer-oriented forms of activism and exclusively inner-oriented forms of Buddhist practice, in the context of a number of systemic crises that are facing us. After then looking at some of the capacities of a contemporary bodhisattva, we invite bodhisattva vows from those attending and hear from many. Discussion follows.

We gather for two hours together the morning after Election Day, 2024, in large part to ground what we are experiencing in our practice and in community. We begin with short reflections from Sylvia and Donald, followed by short periods of meditation and then sharing from many of those present at the gathering, with intermittent reflections from Sylvia and Donald. We finish with short talks from Sylvia and Donald and then a reading of the intentions of community members going forward in the next period of time.

Using the acronym H.E.A.R.T.H., we’ll explore: Honor Goodness (Internal and External). Embrace Rest, Joy, and Gratitude Awaken Awareness and Embodiment. Release Through Letting Go. Tend Wholesome Habits. Harness Stability for Others.

After setting the posture and tuning into intentions, we have a short period of settling, typically through the breath or some other anchor. Then there is guidance to tune into the feeling-tone, especially when there is a "moderate" level pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tone, noticing tendencies to move to wanting/not-wanting or grasping/pushing away--the two forms of reactivity. We can also, when there is reactivity, tune into the pleasant or unpleasant "beneath" the reactivity, finding, for example, some compassion when there is underlying pain. Near the end, we also explore being with all feeling-tones for a very short period of a few minutes.

It's important for our teachings and practices to help orient us in relationship to all parts of our lives, including the larger social and political dimensions of our lives. In this session, we explore one core teaching and one central practice that together help us to respond skillfully to differences in political views. The teaching is that of dependent origination, particularly the sequence from contact to grasping. We see how the two forms of reactivity, grasping and pushing away (each potentially manifesting in many ways) result from pleasant and unpleasant feeling-tones, when there is a lack of mindfulness and background habitual tendencies. We can see how the underlying pain, for example, of many working-class people (economic pain; and the pain of feeling disregarded, left behind, and/or not respected), or the pain related to anxiety about changing gender roles, can, especially when manipulated by those in power who provide scapegoats, lead to reactivity. After presenting a model of empathy practice as crucial for bringing our practice to interacting with those with different views, we can also, through such practice, tune in with compassion to the underlying pain, and have a sense of the deep genuine needs, in our examples, for economic well-being, respect, and clarity around gender. We explore all of this in an exercise with the "empathy map," which is followed by discussion. (There were several files shared via screen sharing during the talk. These files can be accessed below and potentially downloaded, by clicking on the "Q" under "Documents," and looking for documents 229, 273, 274, and 275.)

Includes meditation & dharma talk. (Group discussion has been removed).

Meditation & Dharma talk Topics: Spiritual power, Community, Belonging, Befriending each moment

We begin with basic instructions on settling, developing concentration, and mindfulness, with a few reminders to be present. Around 2/3 into the 40-minute meditation is a guided exploration of an experience of anger (the theme of the talk that follows is on understanding and practicing with anger).

We continue to explore the intersection of our more inner practice and our practice with the larger world, including the U.S. post-election world. Our starting point is seeing how widespread and predominant the emotions of anger and fear are in our society. We look particularly at the nature of anger and how to practice with it, especially in terms of our own anger but also in terms of the anger of others. Anger, it has been said, is the most confusing emotion in Western civilization, seen often over the last 2500 years sometimes as both entirely as negative and sometimes as a quality that manifests, for example, in the Jewish prophets, Jesus, and God. There's a confusion also among Western Buddhists, who may have conditioning related to aversion to anger combined with following problematic translations of terms like dosa (entirely negative in the Buddhist context) as "anger" (not entirely negative in the contemporary Western context). Based on these explorations of the nature of anger, we look at how to practice with anger individually, especially through mindful investigation of anger and how anger can lead either to reactivity and the formation of reactive views of self and/or other, or to skillful action. We also explore practicing with the anger of others through empathy practice. The talk is followed by discussion and sharing, including of the experiences of practicing with anger from several people. The meditation before the talk includes a guided exploration of an experience of anger in the last third of the meditation period (the meditation is also on Dharma Seed).

At the time of the Winter Solstice, our practice (for the Wednesday morning gathering) connects our usual grounding in concentration, mindfulness, and lovingkindness with themes related to the later talk on the Winter Solstice, particularly opening to the unknown and mysterious, and to what is difficult, through mindfulness and compassion.

The time of the Winter Solstice, leading up to the New Year, can be an important time for practice, as we, like the plants, stop, as we open to not doing as much, to stillness, and to listening. We look at some of the background, across different cultures, for the celebration of the Winter Solstice. We then explore five themes, five metaphors of darkness, that can support our practice at this time: (1) the darkness as related to a stopping and becoming still, like the earth; (2) being able to be with difficulties, the darkness as a metaphor for difficulty or challenge; (3) going into the darkness of not knowing—the unknown, the mystery; (4) the darkness as generative and creative; and (5) the darkness as luminous, generating light, opening us to the light. The talk is followed by discussion.

After some basic instructions in developing concentration and stability, as well as mindfulness, we practice in silence. After about another ten minutes, there are several periodic brief periods of guided practice, in which we are guided to notice our main patterns of thought and perception of objects. In the latter part of the period, we are guided to drop constructions of experience in two ways.

As we begin a new year, it's helpful to remember the deep motivation of our practice--to awaken--and to ask how our intention to awaken manifests in our practice. In this talk, we explore the Buddha's metaphor of "awakening" (from sleep, from dreams) as a metaphor for spiritual practices, and how he also speaks of realizing Nirvana. We unpack how the Buddha understood Nirvana and awakening--both negatively, as the end of ignorance, and dukkha and reactivity--and more positively as going fully beyond the ordinary constructions of experience. We also look at how the Buddha understood the practical path of training to realize awakening and Nirvana, and how this was explicated through different teachings and practices. At the end, we briefly bring up the question of what a contemporary path of awakening looks like. The talk is followed by discussion.

A cross-cultural introduction to the concept of the crossroads in relation to the convergence of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday celebration and the inauguration of the 47th U.S. President on January 20, 2025.