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Retreat Dharma Talks
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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| Regular weekly talks given at the lower Spirit Rock meditation hall |
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2018-10-24
Cultivating Wise Speech 2
2:06:45
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Donald Rothberg
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Description:We review first why speech practice is so important and how it connects with the Noble Eightfold Path, and then two of the foundations of skillful or wise (or right) speech. We cover: (1) working with the four guidelines from the Buddha for wise speech, and how we can use the guidelines both to guide our speech and as spurs for mindfulness, when we find ourselves going against the guidelines; and (2) developing a sense of presence during speaking and listening. We then explore some general ways to strengthen our speech practice, as well as begin to bring it into challenging or difficult situations involving speech and interaction. We end with a speech exercise involving dyads, and discussion of the exercise and our practice generally.
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2019-01-16
Dharma Practice and the Life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Part 1
67:13
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Donald Rothberg
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On the day after Dr. King's birthday, we explore three themes that are central both to dharma practice and to the life and work of Dr. King, and that are interpreted in strikingly similar ways. The three themes are (1) the core of wisdom as an understanding of non-reactivity, the end of dukkha, nonviolence; (2) the centrality of love/metta or lovingkindness/compassion; and (3) integrity--the wholeness and coherence of one's life guided by these core principles and spiritual qualities.
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2019-01-23
Dharma Practice and the Life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Part 2
64:30
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Donald Rothberg
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We review and deepen the exploration of three core themes that are the shared heart of the approaches of the Buddha and Dr. King: (1) the wisdom and understanding of the nature of dukkha and the aim of ending of dukkha - understood in this context as reactivity and violence in their different forms; (2) the centrality of the wise heart- understood as love, metta, compassion, etc and the importance of acting from this wise heart; and (3) integrity - the coherence, consistency, and authenticity of one's life, especially in relationship to the first two themes. We then begin an imagined "dialogue" between the Buddha and Dr. King that might point to an integration of deep inner and outer practice based on these principles.
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2019-01-30
Dharma Practice and the Life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Part 3
65:47
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Donald Rothberg
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We first review the three themes identified as the "shared heart" of Buddhist practice and the life and work of Dr. King: (1) non-reactivity (the end of dukkha) and nonviolence; (2) love, metta, and compassion; and (3) the integrity and coherence of one's life, such that this "shared heart" appears increasingly in all parts of one's life. Then we imagine a kind of dialogue between Western Buddhists and Dr. King, identifying both the great jewels and some of the blind spots or underdeveloped areas of each. This points toward the aspiration to bring together the best of both approaches, to bring together deep inner and outer transformative practice; we make use of a number of resources, including the figure of the bodhisattva, in clarifying this aspiration.
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2019-02-20
Seven Stages of the Spiritual Journey
1:16:50
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Donald Rothberg
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Partly in honor of the recently deceased poet, Mary Oliver, we use her poem, "the Journey", as a reference point for understanding the nature of the spiritual journey. Two other reference points are the life of the Buddha, and then the experiences of our own lives. After an exploration of the very nature of the journey, and how a journey may take years, or two weeks, or an hour, we explore seven stages of the spiritual journey, starting with taking life for granted, being caught up in habitual and conditioned mind and behavior, and ending with some degree of awakening and then re-entering the "ordinary" world, often bringing gifts from the journey. In between is the heart of the journey. [The talk ends at 1.06.23.]
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2019-02-27
Practices for the Seven Stages of the Spiritual Journey
1:19:05
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Donald Rothberg
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After a review of the seven stages of the spiritual journey presented the week before (originally with reference to Mary Oliver’s “The Journey,” the life of the Buddha, and our own journeys), we explore how for each stage, there are particular practices and intentions that are central. As we explore the practices, we get a better sense of the variety of practices that we may work with at different points in our own journeys, and which are most appropriate at which times.
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2019-04-10
From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha-Mind 3: Practicing with the Body 1.”
1:26:32
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Donald Rothberg
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After an overview of ten aspects of the transformation of the ordinary habitual mind, and a review of the first, examining how thinking is transformed, we look at (1) the nature of contemporary habitual experience of the body, (2) the nature of the awakened experience of the body, and (3) how we practice to enact this transformation, particularly focusing on various aspects of mindfulness of the body.
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2019-05-01
From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha-Mind 4: Practicing with the Body 2
66:25
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Donald Rothberg
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We contextualize our conditioning in relationship to the different “parts” of our experience—related to our thinking, emotions, and body—by examining some the social and cultural history of the last few hundred years, in which thinking has been increasingly differentiated from emotions and the body. We then examine further the nature of our ordinary, habitual experience of the body. The main focus is on a number of “body practices,” including mindfulness of the body in both formal meditation and daily life, ways to self-regulate when there is high activation, using the body in investigation of experience, and the body as a key to presence in speech and interaction.
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2019-05-22
From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha-Mind 5: Opening to the Awakened Heart
57:02
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Donald Rothberg
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After a brief account of the ten parameters of transformation that we’re considering in this series, we look at one of them--the ordinary habitual “heart,” our emotions and our access (or not) to kindness and care. We examine many factors that block or limit the awakened heart of kindness and love, including greed, hatred, and delusion; several dimensions of social and historical conditioning; the split between mind, body, and emotions; unhealed wounds; emotions like fear and anger; and attachment to views. We point to some of the ways, including in meditation practice, to access the awakened heart.
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