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Dharma Talks
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2025-04-17
Gratitude Practice: "It Would Have Been Enough"
48:01
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James Baraz
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This talk takes a dive into Gratitude as a way to hold suffering. The Jewish holiday of Passover began on Saturday. Passover is a holiday of liberation. One of the most joyous parts of the holiday is singing the song Dayenu, which translates as "It would have been enough." The song's lyrics list one blessing after another, 15 in all. After each verse the refrain is "if that was all, it would have been enough. But then there was this (next blessing)."
When we look at our lives through this lens it gives us inspiration to see and appreciate all the good in our lives as we process all that is challenging.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2024-11-27
Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship
52:35
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Tara Brach
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Gratitude arises when we are in sacred relationship with life—present, open and receptive. This talk explores how central gratitude is to our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and then looks at the ways we can directly gladden our minds with gratitude. We end with a guided meditation that includes sharings from the group. The audio includes a poem of blessing by John O’Donohue with a brief cut from Robert Gass – Om Namaha Shivaya (from the archives).
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-10-19
Anger, Forgiveness, and Gratitude
18:00
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Ayyā Anuruddhā
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How can we remain calm and inwardly strong when we feel anger or fear, greed or grief? Meditate with new eyes – keen, open, attentive, and dare to forgive even difficult feelings or troubling conditions. Stay present, stop and witness fear's end, because stopping to see is just like turning on a light. There is more clarity to know fear as impermanent, and to observe the nuance of the fear of fear itself. It's not my fear or my anger but unpleasant sensation. So we depersonalize and pour gratitude into the new moment with the quintessential balm of peace – forgiveness.
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Madison Insight Meditation Group
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Noble Mind, Fearless Heart
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2024-06-03
How to Meditate--The 4 Practices Rooted in Tradition and Confirmed by Neuroscience
56:20
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Tina Rasmussen
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How to Meditate--The 4 Practices Rooted in Tradition and Confirmed by Neuroscience.
In this talk, Tina gives concise overview instructions and guidance on how to begin meditating, suitable for beginners and experienced meditators alike. She talks about general guidelines that apply to every type of meditation. Then she gives an overview of the 4 practice categories being studied in neuroscience, which are also reflected in the Buddhist tradion. Then she gives instructions on how to practice each type of meditation, with a short period of practice. To go directly to those sections, please see the following time markers:
-Heart Practices--Bodhicitta and the Bramaviharas (lovingkindness, compassion, joy/gratitude, and equanimity): 15:45
-Focused Attention--Samatha (concentration and serenity), Anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing): 31:03
-Open Monitoring--Vipassana (insight meditation): 39:26
-Self-Transcending--Dzogchen (Rigpa): 49:37
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Luminous Mind Sangha
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2024-01-07
What is Refuge in Buddha Anyway?
29:24
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Stay true to seeing with wisdom and be compassionate to yourself – then, gradually to all beings. Preserve, treasure, grow and rejoice in the moral fabric of your true nature and know its incomparable radiant light. But first, we must have complete trust in the Buddha as our guide. Then we set our compass to the heart's journey of transcendence on the Noble Eightfold Path. Reflecting on the benevolence of the Buddha's awakening, we walk in gratitude, courage, joy and empowerment.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2023-06-25
Q&A
48:35
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Questions are précised - 00:15 Q1 What’s the difference between QiGong and standing meditation? 02:34 Q2 Is there a specific QiGong for meditation? 03:00 Q3 What is the proper balance between sitting, standing and walking? 04:49 Q4 Can you speak more about the forms of knowing described in the satipatanna sutta? 20:38 Q5 What’s a helpful sequence of steps to take in a meditation?28:16 Q6 I find a lot of energy goes into the head when I meditate. What do you suggest? 30:20 Q7 Normally I find in my meditation there is a subtle feeling of pushing or trying. If that is acknowledged there is more of a sense of flowing and playfulness. How can I cultivate this more consistently? 33:36 Q8 I had a very nice walking meditation experience with gratitude and opening. Then there were feelings of fragility and vulnerability. What can you advise? 36:01 Q9 I find myself getting very frozen or locked when I go into my job responsibilities. What’s happening here? 39:19 Q10 We talk about safety and feeling secure. I think this attachment is not the same as the attachment we talks about in Buddhism. What do you think?
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Moulin de Chaves
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Regaining the Centre
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2023-06-22
Q&A
41:36
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Questions précised - 00:16 Q1 Is it possible to start waking up and still have a mind that is clinging or fixating at times? What are the characteristics of awakening? 14:27 Q2 Sometimes there are moments where everything is gone or stops, with no thoughts or awareness f an outside world. Time seems to be gone as well. Can you say something about this?16:21 Q3 It seems the heart needs to be allowed to know itself. When with family and partner there seems to be no possibility for this. This is desperately uncomfortable which doesn’t resolve and is filled with fear. Can you offer some guidance. 22:54 Q4(a) I feel parts of the body frozen in anxiety. Spacious awareness and reclining help. What else would help? Patience? (b) I get feelings of joy, gratitude then contentment. When contentment arises I feel the desire to move on rather than stay with it. What can I do about this? (c) What can I do if the energy flow gets overwhelming say with sickness? 34:46 Q5 What would you say to a teenager who seems to have ill will in the family? 36:44 Q6 No matter how good meditation is in the previous evening, there will come sleep and with it the end of awareness. Next morning we have to start again.
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Moulin de Chaves
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Regaining the Centre
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2022-12-31
Fertile Ground for Liberation
23:22
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Ayya Medhanandi
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To escape clinging to the world and the creations of thought, we purify and tame the restless mind until we directly know the impermanence, unsatisfactory and selfless nature of all conditioned things. No matter what comes, we endure. A diet of discernment, gratitude, and the heart's unconditional compassion rescue us from the swamp of fear and unwholesomeness. Seeing the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we walk with the Buddha, a true spiritual friend to ourselves and to all the world.
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Portland Friends of the Dhamma
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2022-12-17
Taste the Mountain
28:08
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Rather than running away from suffering, we use it as the way to deliverance. Out of suffering, we draw beneficial mind states, especially compassion – not blaming our dukkha on any external or internal conditions but letting them go. If we are content with simple blessings, our gratitude consecrates the breath that we are breathing right now. We rest in awareness and experience the truth of the present moment – fleeting, flawed, formless and empty. In the stillness of now, we taste the mountain.
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Ottawa Buddhist Society
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2022-11-23
A Grateful, Giving, Happy Heart
51:46
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Tara Brach
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Gratitude is like breathing in – letting ourselves be touched by the goodness in others and in our world. Generosity is like breathing out – sensing our mutual belonging and offering our care. When we are awake and whole, breathing in and out happens naturally. But these beautiful expressions of our heart become blocked when we are dominated by the fear and grasping of our survival brain. This talk explores how we can facilitate the evolution of consciousness with the deliberate cultivation of generosity, and ends with a guided meditation on gratitude and generosity.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-06-23
Heart energies
67:56
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Ajahn Sucitto
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The subtle energies of practicing generosity include feelings of gratitude or respect, avoiding the pitfalls (e.g.) of a sense of obligation or comparison with others. This is right motivation. We note the beauty of our own heart, steady and receptive, void of ill will. (Les énergies subtiles de la pratique de la générosité incluent des sentiments de gratitude ou de respect, évitant les pièges (par exemple) d'un sentiment d'obligation ou de comparaison avec les autres. C'est la bonne motivation. Nous notons la beauté de notre propre cœur, stable et réceptif, dépourvu de mauvaise volonté.)
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Terre d'Éveil Vipassana
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Energy as a means of liberation and well-being
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2022-04-21
Gratitude for Our Home: Celebrating Earth Day
51:34
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James Baraz
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This Earth Day week we share an evening of gratitude and celebration for our natural world. When we get in touch with our love for something we are more motivated to care for it. Rather than going into the dire situation that most of us are all too familiar with, we can get connected with the beauty of the world that is our home We share a clip on the natural world and the experience of gratitude, which starts with an adorable little girl talking about the wonder of exploring nature instead of watching a screen followed by Brother David Steindl-Rast on gratitude. Although it is audio only you can still here the magic in the words. To see the video here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkEvBtyL7M
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2022-03-18
Sīla, Mettā meditation, Q+A
1:22:34
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Bhante Sujato
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From Harris Park. Sīla - a life in the Dhamma as foundation for meditation. Mettā meditation guided by Bhante Sujato. Q+A: gratitude as an aspect of mudita. The role of mettā when dealing with trauma.
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Lokanta Vihara
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2021-12-17
The Ocean Cares for Each Wave
24:01
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Though we may feel lost in the world, on the path of purification we find secure refuge and blessings shower down upon us. It is by the power of our own mind that we bring forth what is resplendent in this world. We use suffering as our teacher and live in forgiveness, gratitude, and clear seeing – grounded in the treasures of Truth. Doesn't the ocean care for each wave until it reaches the farther shore? Just so, we entrust our aspiration to liberate the heart in the care and protection of the Dhamma.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2021-11-30
Patience is Love
25:50
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Patience is love, a faith both fearless and true. How can we know and embody that? How can we value each moment and care for it, patiently turning the mind away from the world to the peace within us – to that raw dimension of a subtle and stunning silence? The less we cling, the deeper we enter it. Emboldened by formidable spiritual tests, as we abandon and purify the mind, the Path unfolds beneath our feet. With joy, wisdom, and gratitude, we persevere to the heart’s freedom – the Deathless.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2021-11-24
Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship
52:25
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Tara Brach
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Gratitude arises when we are in sacred relationship with life—present, open and receptive. This talk explores how central gratitude is to our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and then looks at the ways we can directly gladden our minds with gratitude. We end with a guided meditation that includes sharings from the group. The audio includes a poem of blessing by John O’Donohue with a brief cut from Robert Gass – Om Namaha Shivaya (from the archives).
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2021-11-22
Gratitude and Generosity Meditation | Monday Night
27:23
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Jack Kornfield
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Like the waves of the ocean, the breath rises and falls. Bring loving awareness to the breath.
Shift your attention from the breath to all the sensations in your body. With mindful loving awareness, notice the whole field of sensations. If there are areas of pain or stiffness, bow to them and hold them with kindness. Hold them as you would a child who is going through a hard time. Notice how this kind loving awareness allows for the tension and knots to soften in their own way.
Now as an expression of gratitude, say thank you to your own body for caring so much, for holding so much as you move through the days and nights. Tell your body, “I’m ok just now—you can relax. You can rest.”
Now bring your attention to your heart that carries so much. Notice all that your heart has been holding: longings, fear, love, worry, frustration, excitement, sadness, appreciation, doubt, deep love. Say thank you to your heart for caring so much, for trying to help and protect you. Tell your heart, “I’m ok just now—you can relax. You can rest.” Let your heart be at ease.
Now bring your attention to your mind that produces a stream of thoughts, images, pictures, plans, memories, ideas. Feel the energy of the mind, creative, sometimes obsessed, analyzing, exploring, opening. Say thank you for working so hard to take care of you, to protect you. Tell your mind, “I’m ok just now—you can relax. You can rest.”
Notice that you’re not your body, feelings, thoughts. You are the loving witness, you are consciousness itself. You are the loving awareness that acknowledges the body, heart and mind. Relax into loving awareness. You are the silent, vast witness to it all.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2021-07-12
Tuning the Heart with Gratitude
54:53
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Tempel Smith
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Close to the four Brahma viharas lives the heart warm with gratitude. Blending intentional gratitude into our dharma paths and to the practices which open the heart, counting our blessing of a human body, simple resources around us, and gratitude for our planet helps dispel any sense of scarcity and an over-focus on what we feel is lacking. Feeling gratitude allows us to discern if and what is truly lacking, and to be free at times to be bathed in countless miracles.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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"July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP
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2021-06-14
Summer Solstice | Monday Night Talk
55:50
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Jack Kornfield
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Here we are in the change of seasons—the great turning. The sun is something for us to pay attention to, something we often take for granted. Notice the way the gift of sunlight streams behind everything—it feeds the plants we eat. We can be grateful for sunlight and trees, for people we love, for moments of goodness, and for the breath within our breast. And as our gratitude grows, we may discover a happiness without cause.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2021-02-25
Gratitude
52:46
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James Baraz
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In the Mangala Sutta, the Discourse on Blessings, the Buddha teaches: "To be content and grateful is a blessing supreme." Gratitude is a particularly potent ally in awakening true happiness because it helps expand the mind as well as the heart. With a grateful heart we have a larger container and more space to hold the difficulties we encounter. When we pause to notice what we usually take for granted a new world of possibilities opens up. It's as if we've changed the station instead of being stuck on our own little "drama channel."
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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