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The greatest gift is the
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Dharma Talks
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2017-01-05
What Channel Are You Tuned To?
50:52
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James Baraz
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(Note: This talk has some occasional sound distortion but it's worth it.)
As the Buddha said, "We are what we think. With our thoughts we make the world." Our minds can go to the the greatest places of fear, anxiety and ill will or understanding, compassion and peace. When we're lost in confusion we have in us the capacity to remember the goodness and wisdom that our hearts long to connect with. This talk is about remembering that possibility and cultivating access to that Buddha right inside, especially when the outside world is giving us very different messages.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2016-12-14
The Revolution of Tenderness - Part 1
1:15:33
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Tara Brach
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These two talks explore our capacity to be tender - sensitive and responsive to ourselves and others. This capacity marks a radical evolutionary shift from a self-centered existence shaped by fear, to a life lived from the realization of our collective belonging and the preciousness of all life. The talks examine the conditioning that inclines us toward dissociation and emotional reactivity, and the practices of presence that evolve our heart and awareness.
from Tara’s talk: Pope Francis invites us to “live the revolution of tenderness,” which is expressed through closeness, compassion and service...
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2016-11-20
Redemption
30:51
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Ayya Medhanandi
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How can we be free of anger? To cross a river, walk over it. From a burning house, escape. So too, when your heart is on fire, stay present, forgiving and compassionate. Balance and cleanse the mind to stop it from spinning with fear, to see deeply, to heal. We direct the mind to what is great – the very source of unsurpassed joy arising as we awaken to the blessed Dhamma.
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Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto
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2016-11-13
Saving Grace
23:04
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Buddha offers us an extraordinary medicine – the medicine of Truth. No one can take it for us nor can we take it for anyone else. And we discover it through our own wisdom, love, and compassion. We are the surgeon and the Dhamma is our saving grace. Even in the midst of the raging fires of the world or the fires of greed, hatred and delusion within us, we gain a foothold to the heart's peace.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2016-11-03
"The Big Shift: Learning to Open to Experience"
65:49
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James Baraz
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Our typical response to very negative or positive experiences is to contract in relation to them--either with aversion or attachment. The practice helps us cultivate a radical and much more skillful and profound relationship to them--having the courage and compassion to meet and learn from the negative as well as the wisdom to enjoy the positive while realizing its impermanence. This talk explores different qualities of heart and mind that help us do just that.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2016-10-06
Finding Freedom Through Grief
48:53
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James Baraz
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How can we process deep pain and turn it into deepening compassion and understanding? Kaye Cleave shares her moving story with James and the community about losing her 18-year old daughter and finding a way to transform her grief into meaningful beneficial action. The talk begins with this video about her trip to Nepal to build a school in honor of her daughter.
To view the video: Catherine's Gift, go to Youtube.com at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HILTuvNRXrg
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2016-09-28
Spiritual Empowerment
1:17:16
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Tara Brach
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When we are trying to control life, we are removed from presence, and act in ways that separate us from others and solidify the experience of being a insecure self. This talk explores our often unconscious strategies of seeking power, and the ways that mindful and compassionate awareness reconnects us to the source of true empowerment. When empowered we tap into the universal flow of love, wisdom and creativity. We are free to respond to life with “a heart that is ready for anything.”
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2016-09-20
Course - Introduction to Mindfulness - Week 1
1:27:18
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Mark Nunberg
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What is Mindfulness Practice?
Mindfulness is the practice of opening to and accepting life just as it is - a constantly changing, conditioned process. To begin, we must make the necessary effort to calm the mind and body. Without this first step our intention to be present is often overwhelmed by our habits of reactivity and struggle - trying to fix or control the conditions of the moment. To calm the mind and body we practice connecting and sustaining our attention to ordinary experience in each moment; for example, the sensations of the breath coming and going or the sensations of lifting and placing each foot as we walk. This simple and clear patient knowing is at the heart of mindfulness practice.
Tranquility arises by training the attention to return to the present moment experience over and over again. This training is directed by an understanding heart that appreciates that no matter how difficult it appears to be, our practice is to recognize what is happening and to gently return the attention to the conditions as they are in the moment. It is our persistent effort that calms the mind, energizes our practice and leads to insight. We can use ordinary experience, such as the breath, as a refuge - a place to keep coming back to. Over time, this capacity to be present becomes a great friend and allows us to relate to all experience with greater clarity, trust and acceptance. The ability to abide with the flow of experience creates the context for insight to arise. Wisdom, compassion and peace of equanimity are the fruit of these deepening insights.
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Common Ground Meditation Center
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Course - Introduction to Mindfulness
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Attached Files:
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One Approach to Mindfulness Meditation
by Mark Nunberg
(Google Doc)
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Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation, Week One: Why Meditate?
by Mark Nunberg
(Google Doc)
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The Practice of Generosity at Common Ground Meditation Center
(Google Doc)
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2016-09-17
No Part Left Out
21:47
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Amita Schmidt
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This talk looks at how all parts of your psychology can lead to wholeness. Meeting all of yourself with compassion and connection creates awakening. When Nun Izuimi Shikibu (974-0134 AD) became enlightened she reflected on this experience; "I knew myself completely; no part left out."
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Dharma Zephyr Insight Meditation Community
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No Part Left Out
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2016-08-16
Under the Canopy of Dhamma
17:16
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Where is safety in a world burning with greed, hatred, fear and violence? It is within us. Under the protective canopy of Dhamma, with unshakeable faith in the Buddha's awakening, we purify the heart – emulating his tactical strategies for training the mind to abandon unskillful physical and mental habits. We look for 'nothing' apart from how to wisely observe and truly see with penetrating discernment, and how to let go the delusion of self-identity. Secluded from the world, awareness knows imperturbable peace. This is the path of selflessness, of generosity, of great compassion, of harmlessness.
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Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto
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2016-07-22
The Middle Way: Climate Change & The Sacred Economy with Charles Eisenstein, Colin Beavan, Lou Leonard, Sebene Selassie
1:37:43
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Sebene Selassie
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In cooperation with the New York Buddhist Climate Action Network (NYBCAN), please join us for an evening discussion with thought leaders Charles Eisenstein, Lou Leonard and Colin Beavan, moderated by NYI Teacher Sebene Selassie.
While we are always living in times of uncertainty, the current state of the human endeavor holds wildly varied possibilities for rejuvenation or peril. The imperatives of a financial construct based on a model of infinite growth are coming up against the very real constraints offered by a finite planet. Interestingly, at the same time as we are seeing heightened political tensions and violence, we are also seeing an out-pouring of compassion and organization to steer the human ship toward a more loving and sustainable way.
This discussion will explore the teachings of The Middle Way, our current growth oriented economic structure and that structure's effect on our spiritual and physical environment.
This evening kicks off weekend events in partnership with NY BCAN, including a daylong seminar with Charles Eisenstein on Saturday and culminating in the March for a Clean Energy Solution in Philadelphia on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2016-07-19
Monthly Sitting & Inquiry - July 2016
65:37
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Gina Sharpe
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Many of us are still processing the events of earlier this month and perhaps also a multitude of emotions. A number of practitioners are asking how to practice internally and externally, as directed by the Buddha, with the events of our contemporary lives. We are once again asked to investigate a most poignant aspect of practice — how external events can be met internally with the wisdom of interconnectedness, compassion and integrity; and externally without duality.
On July 19, as part of our Monthly Sitting & Inquiry, NYI will offer the opportunity to come together and mindfully listen to, share with, and support one another as we bring our practice to all that is occurring within and around us.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2016-07-16
Across the River of Pain
28:03
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Ayya Medhanandi
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We long to be free from this wandering, to go beyond all suffering. The body is our raft to cross from one side of the river of pain to the other. And there we leave the raft. But we don’t leave it until we cross, until we realize the Deathless – when no one ‘dies’ but we know the death of greed, of anger, of delusion. As we cross, we end the pain, grief, rage, vulnerability, fear – every form of distress. And where we were once inflamed by these troubles, they give way to the infinitudes of love and compassion.
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Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community
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2016-07-07
Ethics, Action and the Five Precepts
4:55:25
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Angie Boissevain,
Ayya Santussika,
Drew Oman,
Shaila Catherine
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This series will explore virtue as the indispensable foundation of Buddhist practice. The series will emphasize the five training precepts, and explore action, ethics, kamma, and cause-effect dynamics. The precepts are not rules to be obediently followed; they serve as guidelines for the intentional development of compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom. These five precepts offer us a joyful method to cultivate the heart, nurture harmony in relationships, and free the mind from inner forces of greed and anger that if unrestrained may cause suffering to ourselves and others.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2016-05-08
Reclamation of the Sacred Through Insight & Devotion - Sunday Morning
2:28:19
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Kittisaro,
Thanissara
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Our environmental crisis is generated by an obsession with ownership and individualism that obscures the truth of our inter-dependence within a web of life. In a world divided by inequity, racism, and wars, Dharma practice shatters the illusion of dualistic consciousness, offering a new paradigm. This mini-retreat explores the process which generates divisiveness: papanca or conceptual proliferation in service of delusion. The ending of papanca reveals the unshakeable depth and the undivided nature of reality at the heart of all circumstances, revolutionizing our way of being and living — both personally and globally.
The retreat, for contemplatives and activists, is framed within depth teachings of emptiness and merciful compassion embodied by Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, who is a metaphor for our deepest, mysterious heart. It includes Dharma teachings, meditation and inquiry sessions, qi-gong, group process, psycho-spiritual exploration, and the cultivation of inner skills for activists. Besides applying the liberating practices and teaching of mindfulness and insight meditation, we will use chanting and ceremony.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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Reclamation of the Sacred Through Insight & Devotion
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2016-05-07
Reclamation of the Sacred Through Insight & Devotion - Saturday Afternoon
1:14:05
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Kittisaro,
Thanissara
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Our environmental crisis is generated by an obsession with ownership and individualism that obscures the truth of our inter-dependence within a web of life. In a world divided by inequity, racism, and wars, Dharma practice shatters the illusion of dualistic consciousness, offering a new paradigm. This mini-retreat explores the process which generates divisiveness: papanca or conceptual proliferation in service of delusion. The ending of papanca reveals the unshakeable depth and the undivided nature of reality at the heart of all circumstances, revolutionizing our way of being and living — both personally and globally.
The retreat, for contemplatives and activists, is framed within depth teachings of emptiness and merciful compassion embodied by Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, who is a metaphor for our deepest, mysterious heart. It includes Dharma teachings, meditation and inquiry sessions, qi-gong, group process, psycho-spiritual exploration, and the cultivation of inner skills for activists. Besides applying the liberating practices and teaching of mindfulness and insight meditation, we will use chanting and ceremony.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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Reclamation of the Sacred Through Insight & Devotion
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2016-05-07
Reclamation of the Sacred Through Insight & Devotion - Saturday Morning
1:42:54
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Kittisaro,
Thanissara
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Our environmental crisis is generated by an obsession with ownership and individualism that obscures the truth of our inter-dependence within a web of life. In a world divided by inequity, racism, and wars, Dharma practice shatters the illusion of dualistic consciousness, offering a new paradigm. This mini-retreat explores the process which generates divisiveness: papanca or conceptual proliferation in service of delusion. The ending of papanca reveals the unshakeable depth and the undivided nature of reality at the heart of all circumstances, revolutionizing our way of being and living — both personally and globally.
The retreat, for contemplatives and activists, is framed within depth teachings of emptiness and merciful compassion embodied by Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, who is a metaphor for our deepest, mysterious heart. It includes Dharma teachings, meditation and inquiry sessions, qi-gong, group process, psycho-spiritual exploration, and the cultivation of inner skills for activists. Besides applying the liberating practices and teaching of mindfulness and insight meditation, we will use chanting and ceremony.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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Reclamation of the Sacred Through Insight & Devotion
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2016-03-30
The Power of Loving-Kindness
37:16
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Ayya Medhanandi
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When universal love leading to liberation of the heart is ardently developed, unrelentingly resorted to, it becomes the foundation of our life. We travel in a divine vehicle, our inheritance from the Buddha, the sublime abiding of mettā, loving kindness. This is our shelter from unwholesome states, a true salve for impure and damaging mental afflictions. More and more as we purify the mind, it triumphs over hateful feelings and forgiveness and compassion are perfected. Indeed, by the power of loving kindness, we are crossing the stream to the farther shore, awakening to the Deathless.
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Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
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Finding Inner Peace: Monastic Retreat
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2016-03-29
Mindfulness Internally: Insight and Freedom
39:56
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Jenny Wilks
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This is the first talk of a two-part talk titled "Mindfulness, Insight, and Compassion." According to Jenny Wilkes, "mindfulness" is becoming such a commonly used term that its depth and liberating potential may be underestimated or misunderstood. The Buddha's teaching on establishing mindfulness (the Satipatthana Sutta) invites us to cultivate mindfulness both "internally" i.e., a deep awareness of our inner experience in order to cultivate liberating insight; and "externally" i.e., an open-hearted awareness of others in order to cultivate an ethical and compassionate response. The two-part talk explores how together these can support our mindfulness practice so that it becomes, as the Buddha described, a "direct path to awakening."
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2016-03-24
"Sacred Activism Part. 2: We Don't Know What We Don't Know"
59:04
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James Baraz
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In our response to unsettling news we can easily react with self-righteousness, sure that our "dharmic" view is the "right one" and feeling superior to those who act in ways we don't understand. But the Buddha asked us to put aside any such arrogance. Through genuinely trying to understand another's perspective, we can cultivate true humility for our ignorance of their reality and greater understanding about the thinking behind their actions. Then our response, which might be one of fierce compassion, is not coming from hatred and ill will but from compassion and wisdom.
This talk includes some thoughts on white privilege as well as Andrew Harvey's brilliant audio clip on Sacred Activism.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2016-03-12
Boundless compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity
61:42
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Gregory Kramer
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Receiving with compassion what is difficult / receiving joy / experiencing mutual equanimity. Guided meditation on the boundless with Open for the first 14:15 minutes. " there is an aspect of Open that is establishing the field of awareness that is the atmosophere in which Metta arises."
Four part contemplation, first two separate speaker, last one the entire group
1. "Observe the opening of awareness to every cell of the vody, naming what it is like. This awareness is inclusive and spacious."
Contemplate something in your life that is difficult, feeling your heart vibrating with the pain". " Be present to the pain waith compassion for this being, the compassionate response".
"Listener, how was it like to receive this?"
2. Now the gift of our practice is to touch joy, something positive, wholesome, uplifting. Let it infuse you, vibrate within you."
Listener, touch the experience of hearing about joy.
3." Whatever experience that might be present of mutual or sympathetic equanimity,where the heart balances together."
4. "What is manifesting now? Resting perhaps in the shared human experience of the whole of it; the hurt, the joy the boundless."
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Insight Dialogue Community (SatiSphere)
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Insight Dialogue Retreat
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2016-02-25
Mindfulness and Compassion: Protecting Oneself and Others
41:53
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Shaila Catherine
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This is the 4th talk in a 5-part speaker series titled "Balanced Practice." Shaila Catherine explores the compassion of protecting others and the wisdom of protecting oneself through the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness guards the mind and protects the mind from sliding into actions based upon unwholesome tendencies. Mindfulness also protects us from the unmindful actions that could easily cause harm. Mindfulness has a capacity of naturally drawing everything into balance, so the mind progresses with a balance of effort and ease, of tranquility and investigation, and of calm concentrated state and engaged state.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Balanced Practice
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2016-02-02
Recollection of Generosity
32:29
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Dawn Neal
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This is the third talk is a speaker series titled "Recollective Meditations." Dawn Neal discussed the roles of compassion and intention in giving gifts. Recollecting generosity closely relates to the practice of recollecting the Buddha, because it is out of compassion that the Buddha shared his Path of awakening. There are various forms of generosity, including sharing the Dhamma, sharing material things, renunciation, generous attitude (i.e., giving oneself completely to the service of others), and charity (i.e., giving without expecting reciprocity).
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Recollective Meditations
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