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The greatest gift is the gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
2019-08-15
Dwell in Intrinsic Emptiness – The Liberating Quality of Loving-kindness
37:52
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Ayya Medhanandi
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What are the prerequisites and supports for walking such a path of awakening? Kindness and a loving forgiveness rank with those qualities that are foremost. They allow us to repair the seemingly unforgivable, to heal what we could not see or wish to see, to dwell in the real not in our concepts, and so to ascend with the strength gained from that groundwork. Try forgiveness first. Recovery opens the way home to healing, to Truth.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-15
Don't Be Afraid, Mahanama – Lean Towards Nibbana
32:54
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Buddha told Mahanama not to be afraid of the muddled mind, just to keep developing the qualities which incline the mind to Nibbana. This Dhamma is for one who is content. A mind unburdened can pacify itself and be calmed. A mind fortified by faith, virtue – in particular, the virtues dear to the noble ones – learning, generosity and wisdom, will go to distinction. But for mental peace we have to consider how to seclude the mind and what we are giving our consent to in daily life.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-14
Part 2 – The Answer is Love: Evolving out of “Bad Other”
45:37
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Tara Brach
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These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we’ve locked into external “bad othering.” These times need our deepened dedication to love: By intentionally arousing compassion for ourselves and others, we directly contribute to the evolution of consciousness in our world.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-08-14
Repair What Feels Broken – The Hardest Walk of All
37:45
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The path is a gradual one. Don’t go to the depths immediately. First develop the strength. Going slowly but deeply. Forgiveness, supported by patience endurance, acknowledging and seeing the breakage and repairing it regularly, repairing what has been broken or harmed, and freeing ourselves from the prison of our anger. How can we creatively counter the current of our addictions instead of gratifying it. If we do, we tap into the joy of the heart.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-14
Right Intention
59:36
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Yuka Nakamura
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The Buddha emphasized intention as the key to happiness and peace. However, often we are not aware of the intentions behind our choices and actions. Based on the Dvedhāvitakka Sutta the talks discusses the unwholesome intentions of sensual desire, ill will and cruelty and the wholesome intentions of renunciation, lovingkindness and compassion. It also discusses central aspects of mental cultivation.
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Meditationszentrum Beatenberg
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14 day Karuna and Vipassana Meditation Retreat
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2019-08-14
Practicing with Conflict 1
67:15
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Donald Rothberg
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The world deeply needs a culture of skillful conflict transformation, informed by dharma practice. In such a culture, we would have individuals who combine inner capacities such as mindfulness, skill with difficult emotions, empathy and compassion, and equanimity, with perspectives on how to work with conflicts, whether inner, interpersonal, or social. In this talk, we look at some of the prevalent social conditioning around being with conflict, including tendencies to avoid conflict or act out when there are conflicts, and widespread tendencies to see conflicts dualistically and to project negative aspects onto “opponents.” In this context, Donald presents some images and reflections from his just-completed time of teaching and traveling for 3 1/2 weeks in Israel and the West Bank. He then focuses on some of the inner capacities important for being skillful with conflict, next time examining some of the perspectives on conflict that have come out of the fields of mediation, negotiation, and conflict transformation. There is also a time of discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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Attached Files:
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Photos (from a PowerPoint presentation) connected with the talk, Practicing with Conflict 1
by Donald Rothberg
(PDF)
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2019-08-13
A Mystical Ladder - Patience, the Incinerator of Defilements
39:26
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Ayya Medhanandi
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We are ascending a mystical ladder which must be done so carefully and gradually. For a spiritual warrior, the path of practice is a gradual one. We are in a cloud of unknowing but patiently the cloud is emptied and we begin to see everything as impermanent. We know what is the path and what is not. This clarity will be for us a refuge. It is a natural unfolding through purification.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-13
Breaking the Cycle of Harm – Patience and Friendship With the Lovely
35:38
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The insight into not-self requires a deeper seeing and understanding of reality. Virtue is our saving grace. It gives us the energy for enlightenment which we transform into right effort. Thus we are guided through the wilderness of the world to develop and sustain the heart like an ocean of peace. Patience works with Restraint, Renunciation and Resolve, and with a host of other wholesome qualities to take us beyond the cycle of harm; but we must also keep practising kindness and forgiveness.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-13
What is Killing You - Thorns, Barnacles, and Buoys on the Middle Way
30:32
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Ayya Medhanandi
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When you know what is killing you then you will know what will save you. Right effort protects us and offers safety and seclusion. We find saving grace within if we can navigate through the wilderness of the mind assisted by a host of special qualities. It’s like being at sea. Through the thorns, barnacles and buoys on the Middle Way, learn and understand how to let go – be free. Nothing remains hidden to a true seeker.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-12
The Body
49:09
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Bhante Bodhidhamma
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A talk given by Bhante Bodhidhamma at the Golden Buddha Centre in May 2019, entitled The Body. Bhante Bodhidhamma explains how the Buddha taught that awareness is the way of seeing the reality of what we are and finding liberation from suffering. First, through the contemplation of the body, then the contemplation of thoughts, feelings, and concepts, step by step he takes us through the process of realising intuitively that we are more than mind and body.
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Satipanya Retreat Centre
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2019-08-12
A Swallowtail Butterfly at the Hummingbird Feeder
30:58
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The quality of energy manifest as courage, commitment and compassion is the way forward. We have to be brave – like a lion. Brave warriors face the powerful maras, monsters of the mind, to overcome them. They train the mind to gain its freedom by developing heroic energy and superpower wisdom. These qualities are further ennobled with forgiveness and association with true spiritual friends.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-12
A Matter of Death, Life, Truth and Recovery
24:13
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Call suffering by its true name and the face of the Dhamma will emerge from within us. We meet the truth of impermanence, of death, and the universality of pain as we carve out the understanding of who we are and why we are here. Nourish the mind with virtue and shine the light to our true home, to insights that repair what has been broken and free us from fear, anxiety, and the many sufferings we have endured.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-11
Death - Portal of Deliverance
38:50
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Contemplating the 4 elements, the 32 parts of the living body, and the remains of the body in a charnel ground, we gain a deeper understanding of impermanence and the intrinsic impersonal and empty nature of the body. Seeing it for what it truly is can free us from fear of death. We study it and gradually unveil the true gift of death as a portal to our liberation.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-11
Masquerade of the Hindrances - A Blameless Life
26:25
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Clearly see the danger of the hindrances in the mind and stop killing goodness. The story of Angulimala's life reveals the power of moral rehabilitation to end our harmful ways and urgently revert to the path of goodness, wholeness and purification. There’s no one to blame for our suffering. Instead, as spiritual warriors, we reset our moral compass, cross the floods of existence, and live blamelessly.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-11
Beautiful Qualities - Five of the Ten Perfections
20:15
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Buddha taught about ten perfections or beautiful qualities of mind that are needed to help us cross the flood of samsara, the cycles of existence. The first five of these are generosity, virtue, energy, wisdom and renunciation. When embodied, these qualities help to lead us out of the prison of impermanence. Overcoming ignorance and responding to life with greater joy, we live compassionate and harmless.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-10
How To Cross the Flood - Seven Enlightenment Practices
37:34
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Buddha answers a deva who wants to know how to cross the flood of sensuality, the flood of existence, and all its dangers. Walk the Middle Way, he taught, not stopping and not over-struggling with obstacles. Use the seven enlightenment practices to train our minds so that we can make this dangerous and urgent crossing. No matter how long it takes, never give up.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-10
I Will Not Be Angry – How Ajahn Gunhah Won the Hearts of Outlaws
12:33
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Laying down weaponry, giving up hostility, we can abandon negativity and establish sanctuary within us. We hear the inspirational tale of how Ajahn Gunhah transformed his kidnappers in northern Thailand. Through his embodiment of mettā they became his disciples, just as the Buddha had done with his adversaries 2600 years ago. Such is the power of pure mettā - good will or loving kindness. It is our true protection from harm. We too can rescue ourselves by developing it with great inner vigilance, wisdom, compassion and courage.
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Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)
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For Our Long Lasting Benefit
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2019-08-07
Part 1 – The Answer is Love: Evolving out of “Bad Other”
51:08
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Tara Brach
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These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we’ve locked into external “bad othering.” These times need our deepened dedication to love: By intentionally arousing compassion for ourselves and others, we directly contribute to the evolution of consciousness in our world.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-07-29
Transmission of Dhamma to Cittaviveka
43:40
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Reflecting on the beginnings of Cittaviveka, there’s something to recognize beyond just the history. There’s the transmission, what’s happened in mind, heart and spirit. It can be tracked all the way to the Buddha and the first Noble Truth – a sign of inadequacy, suffering, stress and the wish to realize something further than that. A certain nobility of intention came out of that, and is the same thread of continuity that runs through the monastery today.
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Cittaviveka
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Cittaviveka Vassa 2019, Opening Group Practice Retreat
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2019-07-24
Meditation: Letting Go
20:22
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Tara Brach
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One way of understanding meditation is a letting go of the habitual clenching of thoughts, the clenching that resists emotions and pulls away from aliveness itself.
This meditation guides us in letting go, first through the body, and then practicing letting go of thoughts and relaxing and resting in the changing flow of experience. The blessing of letting go is a homecoming into the truth and wholeness of what we are, a realization of reality, and freedom.
NOTE: Listen to the rain, too…
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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