When we experience hostility and ill will, rather than simply acknowledging it, we stick it into ourselves, and begin to assume we’re unwelcome or unworthy. We can use meditation to change the flavor of the heart, steeping it in the qualities of the brahmavihara (goodwill, compassion, gladness, equanimity).

Four channels: a glimpse of the Satipatthana teachings for a change not as meditation exercises but as a model of human experience.

We learn from everyone who comes into our life--those that inspire and those who are challenging. If our intention is to wake up, then everyone can be seen as part of our process. This profoundly changes our relationship to all. Even the difficult ones are no longer the enemy.

Observed changes in the climate system, attribution of climate change, Buddhist perspective, Buddhist response to climate change.

Or -- It is not what we are faced with in life that is really important but how we handle it.

The long and winding road and how the unexpected offers profound teachings...

Knowing your refuge. Cultivating resilience. Alignment with authentic response.

Being well in the midst if change. The practice that offers freedom from fear and oppression. Leaving the ox cart behind.

One of the most inspiring teachings on the potential for each of us to change. Angulimala, a violent killer, encounters the Buddha, wakes up from his confusion and becomes a holy man. No matter how deep our unskillful habits are, we can take comfort and inspiration in the capacity of the heart to awaken and face in the right direction.

During our practice phase of development, we learn to adapt and change. During the abiding phase, we are out of the paradigm of adaption into surrender.

This talk explores insight practice (vipassana) as a profound approach to the unsurpassed happiness of liberation. Awakening (realization of nibbana) arises through the clear seeing of mind and matter as they actually are. Insight into the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty nature of things leads to a profound disenchantment and dispassion toward what was previously clung to. Mind and matter will never the a reliable basis for lasting happiness. Seeing this, the mind releases its habits of craving temporary pleasures, and clinging to things that change. The insight into impermanence is the spark for the most profound state of peace and joy, and creates a pleasant dwelling in this very life, even for the Arahant. The talk is followed by a guided meditation that encourages the observation of changing feelings, formations, mental states and emotions—seeing the impermanent nature of all experiences.

Understanding how applying our mindfulness to these 4 key areas of experience actually completely changes everything, breaks the usual trance.

Guided Meditation

Guest Dharma Talk

The Neurology of Awakening, with Rick Mendius: The latest brain research has begun to confirm the central insights of the Buddha and other great teachers. And it's suggesting ways you can help your brain to enter deeper states of mindfulness and concentration, love, and happiness. Suffering, joy, and freedom all depend on what happens within your nervous system. Skillful practice thus means being skillful with your own brain. This experiential workshop offers user-friendly information with lots of practical methods. No background in neuroscience or mindfulness is needed. We'll cover: --- The relationship between the mind and the brain; --- Strengthening neural factors of mindfulness; --- The role of concentration in Buddhist practice; --- Practical help from brain research for steadying the mind...quieting it... and bringing it to singleness. Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals- This workshop is designed to help you: a) Name two mechanisms of experience-dependent neuroplasticity; b) Give clients two examples of how repeated mental activity changes brain structure; c) Describe temperamental variations in the control of attention; d) Teach clients two ways to practice mindfulness.

The Neurology of Awakening, with Rick Mendius: The latest brain research has begun to confirm the central insights of the Buddha and other great teachers. And it's suggesting ways you can help your brain to enter deeper states of mindfulness and concentration, love, and happiness. Suffering, joy, and freedom all depend on what happens within your nervous system. Skillful practice thus means being skillful with your own brain. This experiential workshop offers user-friendly information with lots of practical methods. No background in neuroscience or mindfulness is needed. We'll cover: --- The relationship between the mind and the brain; --- Strengthening neural factors of mindfulness; --- The role of concentration in Buddhist practice; --- Practical help from brain research for steadying the mind...quieting it... and bringing it to singleness. Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals- This workshop is designed to help you: a) Name two mechanisms of experience-dependent neuroplasticity; b) Give clients two examples of how repeated mental activity changes brain structure; c) Describe temperamental variations in the control of attention; d) Teach clients two ways to practice mindfulness.

The Neurology of Awakening, with Rick Mendius: The latest brain research has begun to confirm the central insights of the Buddha and other great teachers. And it's suggesting ways you can help your brain to enter deeper states of mindfulness and concentration, love, and happiness. Suffering, joy, and freedom all depend on what happens within your nervous system. Skillful practice thus means being skillful with your own brain. This experiential workshop offers user-friendly information with lots of practical methods. No background in neuroscience or mindfulness is needed. We'll cover: --- The relationship between the mind and the brain; --- Strengthening neural factors of mindfulness; --- The role of concentration in Buddhist practice; --- Practical help from brain research for steadying the mind...quieting it... and bringing it to singleness. Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals- This workshop is designed to help you: a) Name two mechanisms of experience-dependent neuroplasticity; b) Give clients two examples of how repeated mental activity changes brain structure; c) Describe temperamental variations in the control of attention; d) Teach clients two ways to practice mindfulness.

Finding compassion & balance amidst the wild & beautiful changes of Life...

If we review where the exploration of Dependent Origination has brought us over the course of this series of talks, we will notice four perceptional shifts that Dependent Origination has encouraged. The first is that through Dependent Origination we perceive there are an infinite number of influences on every event and that existence itself arises from multiple factors, and therefore there is no separate existences. Everything is tied together through the web of relationship. But Dependent Origination moves it even further by its second perceptual shift in which it shows how the web of somethingness was generated by the mind from nothing. Out of nothing, form arises and becomes the world of connected relationships with "me" arising within it. The "how did that happen," is explained by Dependent Origination, as the links build upon themselves to reveal a world of appearances that have no inherent substance. The third perceptual change from Dependent Origination is a variation of the second in which the world arises directly from "my" projections. In essence the world does not have a fundamental existence of its own. It is dependent upon "me" and what I know, for it to be. The fourth shift is the acknowledgment of struggle that is inherent in the arising of form from formlessness. We are birthed from that struggle and ultimately must grow old and die because of it.

Change is the fundamental law of nature. How one learns to skillfully be with unwanted change is the difference between a life of peace and a life of anguish. Mindfulness practice addresses this directly.

An impassioned talk that includes a little known story from the suttas about the dangers of and suffering caused by the notion of private property. During the talk, winds of 45 mph buffeted the monastery, emergency sirens sounded in the distance, and three power outages occurred. Ends with a lively discussion with the sangha.

30 of 43 from Luang Por Sumedho - CD: Talks from Thailand (2008-2014) 00:00 Q1: Have you ever had doubts and considered disrobing?; 03:55 Q2: What do you think of more socially, enviromentally engaged monks? 14:08 Q3 [Some people say] there is a conspiracy of the older monks against women who [they say want to] change the dhamma; 25:42 Q4 What do you think about the future of Buddhism in the west and the different interests of westerners, even some aversion to hearing about the Four Noble Truths?; 50:50 Q5 Is samsara within or also external to the mind of the individual?