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Dharma Talks
2025-04-06 Appreciative Joy - Meditation 30:54
Mark Nunberg
The weekly practice groups are designed to be a cornerstone for one's practice by providing ongoing instruction and teachings that will help illuminate the simple but challenging practice of mindfulness. The Buddha taught that mindfulness is the way to go beyond habits of distraction and grasping. To walk this path of wisdom and compassion, we need the support of a community that shares this intention. Each session includes a guided meditation, dharma talk, and discussion. Both experienced and beginning meditators are welcome. No registration necessary. Led by Mark Nunberg and guest teachers. Mark Nunberg began his practice in 1982 and has been teaching meditation since 1990. He co-founded Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis in 1993 with Wynn Fricke and continues to serve as the center’s Guiding Teacher. Mark has studied with both Asian and Western teachers and finds deep inspiration in the teachings of the Buddha. Mark practiced as a monk for five months in Burma and completed four three-month retreats at Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center, as well as many months of intensive retreat practice at The Forest Refuge. Mark continues to be a grateful student of Buddhist practice.
Common Ground Meditation Center Weekly Dharma Series

2025-04-06 Appreciative Joy - Talk 36:42
Mark Nunberg
The weekly practice groups are designed to be a cornerstone for one's practice by providing ongoing instruction and teachings that will help illuminate the simple but challenging practice of mindfulness. The Buddha taught that mindfulness is the way to go beyond habits of distraction and grasping. To walk this path of wisdom and compassion, we need the support of a community that shares this intention. Each session includes a guided meditation, dharma talk, and discussion. Both experienced and beginning meditators are welcome. No registration necessary. Led by Mark Nunberg and guest teachers. Mark Nunberg began his practice in 1982 and has been teaching meditation since 1990. He co-founded Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis in 1993 with Wynn Fricke and continues to serve as the center’s Guiding Teacher. Mark has studied with both Asian and Western teachers and finds deep inspiration in the teachings of the Buddha. Mark practiced as a monk for five months in Burma and completed four three-month retreats at Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center, as well as many months of intensive retreat practice at The Forest Refuge. Mark continues to be a grateful student of Buddhist practice.
Common Ground Meditation Center Weekly Dharma Series

2025-04-06 Morning instructions: Mindfulness of mind states 56:20
Yuka Nakamura
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-05 Morning reflections – Different tools and practices. Different reasons for sleepiness and lethargy. 50:20
Akincano Marc Weber
Relationship of different instructions to each other. Many spices, but we don't cook with all of them at once. Orientation: how to find out and recognize what's going in your mind. (Using the satipaṭṭhāna map) Relationship: a) getting reliably in touch with and b) learning to relate skillfully to the states. Shifting attention away from habits. Mindfulness does not mean 'no discernment' – it is quite capable on discerning what is wholesome and unwholesome.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-03 Three Friends: Appamada – Sati – Sampajañña 55:48
Akincano Marc Weber
The interplay of three functions of the mind in helping the contemplative practice. Appamada – an attitude of care Sati - a relationship: mindfulness as creating presence Sampajañña – a value context
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-03 Walking instructions: Mindfulness as an active and relational act. 6:42
Akincano Marc Weber
The overstretching of the visual metaphor for mindfulness ('observe, witness, get in perspective, look at' can leave us with the (erroneaous) impression that mindfulness can only 'observe' and wait. Let's not turn mindfulness in the John Silver's parrot on our shoulder.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-03 Morning instructions: Mindful awareness and meeting physical pain in meditation. 41:59
Yuka Nakamura
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-02 Awake mind, wise mind. 62:05
Yuka Nakamura
To bring attention to the right things in the right way is crucial for our path. Through the mindful contemplation of our experience we can gain insight and develop liberating wisdom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-02 Gentle Mindfulness Instructions (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 42:14
Cara Lai
When we hear the words "be mindful," it often makes us think we have to intensify and be vigilant. But quite the opposite is true. This guided meditation is meant to help us find a softer, more receptive and sustainable way of being present.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-02 Guided Meditation: Developing Samadhi (Concentration) 41:31
Donald Rothberg
We begin with a brief account of the nature of samadhi (usually translated as "concentration"), and then give instructions for developing samadhi in formal meditation. (We'll come back to discuss samadhi in more depth in the talk.) There are several reminders during the meditation to return to the focus on cultivating samadhi. In the last part of the meditation, we connect the greater stability that's developed in the practice of cultivating samadhi with cultivating mindfulness.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

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