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The greatest gift is the
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Dharma Talks
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2020-09-09
Awakening from the Trance of Bad-Othering
46:31
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Tara Brach
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Great spiritual leaders of social movements teach that true transformation arises from realizing our interconnectedness, and the light of the divine in each being. Sadly, through human history, much suffering has come from perceiving others as bad-others, flawed humans who are excluded from our heart.
This talk looks at how our stories and mistrust of others—in personal relationships and in our society—can lead to cycles of violence, harm, and deepening alienation. We then explore the inner process that helps us shift to “bad behavior, not bad human” and allows us to respond to suffering with love-in-action.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2020-09-06
Practicing Dukkha and the End of Dukkha in a Time of Crisis
67:21
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Donald Rothberg
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The Buddha said, “I have taught dukkha [usually translated as “suffering”] and the end of dukkha.” This teaching is the heart of our practice, yet it is often misunderstood or even confusing to people, primarily because there are at least four different understandings of dukkha in the teachings. We’ll explore the nature of the teaching, emphasizing particularly the interpretation of dukkha as "reactivity" (particularly linked to the teaching of the Two Arrows or Two Darts), which comes in two forms--grasping or greed, and compulsive pushing away or aversion. We'll point to how we might practice with the teaching at this time of crisis--in our formal practice, in our practice in daily life, and in our work, service, and/or activism.
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White Heron Sangha
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2020-09-03
The Buddha as a Social Activist.
43:20
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James Baraz
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Sometimes the teachings seem to suggest a life of withdrawing from the world. But the Buddha himself was an example of engagement and could even be called a political revolutionary. As we try to sort out how to apply the teachings, (including duties of a good ruler) to contemporary issues, it can help to see his teachings in that light.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2020-09-02
Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness
21:28
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Tara Brach
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When we are in our daily trance, we are often leaning forward, on our way somewhere else. In this meditation we are guided to relax back into the awareness that is always, already here. We explore relaxing back through a body scan, and then with all our senses wide open. With practice we increasingly find our pathway home by relaxing the clench of doings, and resting in what is.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2020-09-02
Transforming Your Relationship with Anxiety
1:19:29
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Tara Brach
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Strong anxiety frequently triggers fight-flight-freeze, our survival brain’s strategy for dealing with threats. This can become a trance that dominates our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and deepest experience of who we are. This talk explores how we get caught in this reactive trance, and ways of calming anxiety and radically shifting our way of relating to the experience of threat. The gift is discovering an inner freedom in the midst of life, and the capacity to respond to what arises with love-in-action.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2020-08-31
talk: Right Livelihood
36:43
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Jill Shepherd
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Expanding the traditional understanding of Right Livelihood to include all aspects of how we live, including what we produce and what we consume
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Sydney Insight Meditators
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2020-08-27
Keeping Your Heart Open
57:24
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James Baraz
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It seems like we're collectively going through an intense initiation in so many ways--the wildfires, the virus, racial injustice, economic collapse and an election fraught with acrimony. The Buddha taught: "Hatred never ceases from hatred. Hatred only ceases from love." How can the teachings support us to skillfully keep our hearts open not only to those suffering but those who, through ignorance, cause suffering as well?
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2020-08-26
Worrier Pose: Finding Freedom from the Body of Fear
59:27
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Tara Brach
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While fear is a natural part of our make up, many of us suffering when the “on” button gets jammed. This talk looks at how our fears generate habitual patterns of physical tension, anxious thinking, emotions and behaviors; and how this constellation prevents us from inhabiting our full wisdom and love. We then explore two interrelated pathways of healing—unconditional presence, and resourcing, or cultivating access to safety and belonging (from the IMCW Fall 2018 7-Day Silent Retreat).
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2020-08-22
Metta, Mantra, Addiction, Recovery: Three Questions
21:39
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Ayya Medhanandi
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We are braver than we know and can endure more than we realize if there is a readiness to renounce and be creative. Learn to refine, adapt, repeat teachings until they are embodied, and deeply listen to all that life offers. Reaching out to others according to our skills and strength, connect and offer guidance if it is welcome. Compassion born of growing wisdom will be our trustworthy compass.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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Chapin Mill Retreat
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2020-08-21
In the Stream of the Noble Ones
32:00
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Think of yourself as a spiritual warrior. What is the danger at hand? What is our true protection? Where is safety? Be ever aware. Staying close to the Dhamma, we will inevitably grow close to the Buddha. We shall uphold virtue foremost through wholesome friendships, purify intention, action, and speech, at rest or work or during mental cultivation, and embody the noble wisdom and compassion of the Buddha by setting our feet in his very footprints.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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Chapin Mill Retreat
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2020-08-21
Empty the Basket
15:10
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Let us hone our expertise to witness the charade of gain and loss arising each moment. Seeing the eight worldly winds, impermanent, not giving in when the mind perches in 'self', purify wrong view, empty the basket, and begin here where we are, balanced, the Middle Way.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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Chapin Mill Retreat
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2020-08-20
A Safe Domain: How the Quail Escaped a Hawk
27:01
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The contemplative path of purifying the mind is the most important journey of all - inward. Just as the little quail that tricked a hawk, we no longer fall prey to the 'maras' of the world, safe in our proper ancestral domain of virtue. Therein, the heart of generosity is further refined into qualities of joy, selflessness, compassion and wisdom, thus benefiting ourselves and all beings.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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Chapin Mill Retreat
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2020-08-19
The Inner Stopping
26:54
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Wherever we go the mind does not remain happy - unless we fully awaken. How can we end the restless tides and remain inwardly stable, content within ourselves like the well-hewn wheel that stood still when it stopped rolling and did not fall down? Purifying our bodily acts, speech, and mind in the Buddha's gradual training, we go beyond the eight worldly winds, coming to cessation, to the Deathless.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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Chapin Mill Retreat
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2020-08-19
Deepening Our Practice in the Pandemic 4: The Foundations of Wise Speech 1: Cultivating Empathy
66:30
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Donald Rothberg
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We start with a brief review of the three previous talks on deepening practice during the pandemic (and other crises), including clarifying three broad areas of practice: Formal meditation practice, daily life practice, and work, service, and/or activism as practice. In this session, we explore the foundations of Wise Speech as practice, mentioning three foundations. The first two include (1) the ethical guidelines given by the Buddha regarding skillful speech, and (2) developing presence and mindfulness during speech (including listening). We focus most of the time on the third foundation of cultivating empathic connection with another, clarifying the difference between empathy and compassion, giving some of the findings of studies in neuroscience about empathy, and examining what blocks empathy. We then work with a simple (yet powerful) empathy practice of tuning into (1) emotions, and (2) what matters, and move into a period of discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2020-08-19
Into the Quiet
21:28
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Ayya Medhanandi
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We go forth into the quiet of the heart, distant from the world, to glimpse the Unconditioned. We are alone but we are as if with all beings. There is no 'one' who wakes up, there is just awakening. It is freeing and it's free - but it will cost us absolutely everything. We give up everything but there is nothing to give up. And we gain the understanding of the ancients.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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Chapin Mill Retreat
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2020-08-18
Chopping and Burning the Tree of Emptiness
24:41
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Too busy in the world, all entangled, we yearn to be free. So direct the mind to Nibbana - like a tree that leans to the East. And when it falls, it will fall in that direction. We too will arrive if we aim for the far goal but keep attention in the present where we are. Chop wood for a thousand days, but in a single moment, see into the emptiness of it all - burnt in the fire of wisdom.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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Chapin Mill Retreat
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2020-08-16
Impermanence
45:31
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Kate Munding
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Navigating the concept of a "new normal" at this point in the pandemic brings us into contact with impermanence. There isn't suffering with change itself, there is suffering in resistance to change and there is friction between our clinging to a rigid sense of self and our world of "should". We can't hide from change. In our practice and in the triple gem of Buddha, dharma and sangha helps us create refuge when it's not easily found.
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Assaya Sangha
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Assaya Sangha Dharma Talks
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