00:07 Q1 There is body contemplation and contemplation of death. Can I contemplate things such as my work, my relationships with a fear of failing? How do I do it? 20:28 Q2 You mentioned during Qigong making a circle with the arms and concentrating within the ring. I found this very helpful to calm the mind. Is there something similar to help calm the mind during sitting or standing meditation? 29:40 Q3 You said the world begins and ends in the body. I'm rather used to hearing that the mind is the source of everything. Can you clarify this please?

The talk explores the sutta, The Advice to Anathapindika. The sutta reveals how Anathapindika bestowed the teachings of non-clinging and letting to those of us who ar householders. The talk concludes with a current story of a near death experience that embodies the realization of the goodness of the dharma.

Exploring the Normalcy of Death in Buddhism. Looking at the many ways Buddhism understands death: Death of the body; The life and death of each moment; Becoming harmonious with Death as part of Life; Death as a Doorway to the Deathless,

Reflections on our body as nature and subject to the conditions of nature, including change and death. Reflections on the mind as also part of nature. Wishing well for all can come naturally when we recognize we are all in the same fragile situation.

This talk occurs five days after Joanna's death at age 96, and two days after Donald attended a wake for Joanna at her home, saying good-bye to her. Donald first met Joanna Macy in 1977, while still a student. When he moved to Berkeley, California in 1988, he helped start a neighborhood daily meditation group of ten households, including that of Joanna and her husband Fran. So he got to know Joanna and Fran as friends and neighbors. In 1991, he first trained in her approach, later called "The Work That Reconnects" and offered this work in different venues. Over the years, they have stayed friends and colleagues, and sometimes taught together. In this talk, Donald gives a sense of the trajectory of Joanna's life and work, showing photos of Joanna spanning her life-time and interspersing stories of training with Joanna and using her practices and perspectives in his own teaching. He focuses in the second part of the talk on the four aspects of the "spiral" of her teaching: (1) starting with gratitude, (2) honoring our pain for the world, (3) seeing with new eyes, and (4) going forth into the world. We close with a brief account of Joanna's wake from two days before the talk, and a video recording from the wake of group singing about the "Great Turning." The talk is followed by discussion and closing intentions. For the slides shown during the talk, see document 318, below.

Buddha's advice to Ananda after Sariputta's and Maha Moggallana's deaths. (SN.)

Exploring how the Buddha gave up the intoxication with youth, health and life. How mindfulness of death supports opening to our Buddha nature. Includes personal story about the experience of discontinuity in my near death experience.

How Satipatthana directs us to the development of not just being present but presence of Mind. Presence of mind support letting go. Anathapindika faces death directly and is given instructions of not clinging to anything. This Sutta changes the teachings of Buddhism for non-monsastics.

How we understand death dharmically and in our personal lives holds the potential for mindfulness of death in ways that enrich and bring the fruits of the dharma into our lives.

Citta/heart is like a lake with waves rippling through it. The unawakened response is to create walls to resist the unpleasant, and fences to retain the pleasant - and ‘me’ to hold it all. Awakening responses to the waves are the skills of samadhi and brahmavihara. These make the lake vast and able to allow waves to arise and subside. They are doors to the Deathless - the unconstructed that the citta can enter through non-holding.

We are caught up in the world – as if we're in jail. But we are also on the threshold of silence wherein lies the key to pure, infinite, wordless presence. Isn't that love – timeless, universal, here and now? Sustain that purity of heart and abide in pure presence, aware of awareness itself. There is no 'one' there, no solid being, and no experience is refused. Why is that? Because we cease to live in fear. The Buddha guides us to witness this process – not as a person identified with self or ego but just letting the world go. For we are not what we know, and that consciousness is the Deathless.

We first review of some of the themes explored last week. We look at the appropriateness of understanding and responding to social and political concerns, in the context of non-profit organizations and then in the context of the Buddha's teachings (which involved commentary on the caste system, on the origins of wars and poverty) and later Buddhist traditions (for example, King Ashoka, a practitioner in what is now India in 250 B.C.E. eliminated the death penalty, renounced war, and set up medical facilities for non-human animals). We then identify four foundations for bringing our attention to social and political concerns, including staying connected to the vision and practice of awakening and grounding ethically. This is followed by identifying, through the lens of teachings, six contemporary systems and ideologies (strengthened in the current U.S.) that manifest greed, aversion, and delusion and violate core ethical teachings. Then we look briefly at ways of practicing and responding individually, in connection with community. The talk is followed by discussion.

The Four Heavenly Messengers and the Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection, with a focus on practicing with aging, illness. and death.

Explores the Buddha’s teachings on aging, illness, death, loss, and karma—brought to life through Dharma reflections and evocative stories, inviting us to meet impermanence with wisdom, presence, and the freedom to love fully.

Meeting Ageing, Sickness, Death, Loss, & Action, Well

In an old Zen story, a student comes to see his beloved teacher who is on his death bed and asks: Tell me, what is the teaching of your entire lifetime? And the teacher replies: An appropriate response. Tonight's talk will explore what it means to respond appropriately to a world on fire. To support San Francisco Insight Meditation Community, please go here: sfinsight.org/donate

This guided meditation centers on the nine contemplations of death.

This talk centers around the mindfulness of death.

Morning reflection and contemplating death as a way to bring bring the mind back into presence.

Reflection and practice around the sky-like mind. Radical reflection, returning to the root, turning the mind to the deathless. Contemplating "what remains."

Contemplating the five subjects for frequent recollection: aging, sickness, death, loss, and karma

Homage to the beauty of love in all its forms. Reflections on life-and-death, wonder, and the gift of the dhamma.

Moving aside from the notions of a good death or a bad death, we consider an exquisite death. The power of an encounter with mortality can set our lives in motion. How would we like to be companions for ourselves? In this talk we hear stories that changed Kodo's understanding of mortality, and how the Buddha accompanied the ill and dying.

Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight. She helps us to discover what matters most. We don’t have to wait until the end of our lives to realize the wisdom that death has to offer.

Mindfulness of Death practice supports us facing fear of death, living with intention and aligned with our values, avoiding common regrets at the end of life.

This dhamma talk and Q&A was offered on September 28, 2024 for “How do I apply the Dhamma to THIS!?!” 00:00 - DHAMMA TALK 18:25 - Q&A Article Mentioned: https://www.buddhisma2z.com/content.php?id=223

How can we rescue ourselves from the obstacles to our happiness? We must not disregard the power of awareness in the present moment to vanquish suffering. For in this very moment is everything we need to know. All moments, whether tainted or blessed, are conditioned by their predecessor. Without care and discernment, vigilance and integrity, we could easily fall into states of decline. Ill-will begets enmity, while joy begets ease and serenity, and each moment is the mother of the next. So too, stepping into the joys of life as it unfolds, we live by the best qualities we can reap. One bare insight into truth and we know what we truly are. Then we open the gates to the Deathless.

An intimate sharing of over two decades of courtship with "the deathless."

Contemplating our mortality personally as well as learning how Buddhism utilizes Mindfulness of Death as a gateway to Awakening. The Advice to Anathapindika gifts us with the deeper teachings on letting go of attachment; letting go of our identity; letting go of life!

Originally recorded on 10.23.97 and replayed for this retreat.

We humans share this journey of birth, old age, sickness and death. Sometimes we succumb to fear or sorrow; sometimes we are exhausted or disoriented as if lost on a perilous path. Seeing this universality of suffering and knowing its causes, we ask: "What will set us free?" With the lens of refined moral aptitude, in silent witness, we stop to listen and directly know for ourselves the inner joy and peace of true harmlessness. Patiently, our noble guides of benevolent compassion and wise reflection steer the heart to its liberation – awakening to Unconditional Love.

00:08 Q1 You mentioned we should all contemplate/ meditate on death every day. How does one do that? 21:10 Q2 What to do when the ease of well-being and kindness of metta morph into profound awareness of suffering in the world and the lives of loved ones? 37:34 Q3 You wrote in ‘Breathing like a Buddha’ that “Full liberation therefore is equated with breaking the compulsive link between name and form". You mentioned this here as well. Can you re-explain please?

This talk is about a recent near death experience and the choice to live, exploring how and why dharma practice is essential to facing death without fear.

What makes humans precious? The magic, mystery & wonder embodied consciousness that is characterized by the Oneness of Birth-and-Death, & the paradox of unity of suffering and awakening being in Precious Human Birth

Offered May 23, 2024 Gregory Kramer invites the Insight Dialogue Community to celebrate Vesak together. Vesak day is a celebration and recognition of the Buddha’s birth, awakening and death. It usually occurs on the first full moon of May. A common intention set on this day is a recommitment to Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. This is a day to remember the Buddha's legacy and celebrate our potential for progress on the path to liberation, just as Gotama did before his awakening. In this talk, Gregory offers the following contemplations: Do you sense your own humanity? your own potential our own vulnerability? Does your own humanity connect you to the Buddha? and inspire you?

Bhavana, cultivation, is associated with bringing into being fruitful states and dwelling in them. Without this ground, citta- heart - goes out, focuses on conditioned phenomena. The natural result will be uncertainty, anxiety, fear. Practices for clearing fear at its root are described: contemplation of death, mindfulness of body and breathing, generosity, virtue.

The gift of practice, trusting the Dharma, reflecting upon birth, death, and finding our way