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Dharma Talks
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2006-06-12
It Will Never Happen To Me
40:26
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Shrouded in the cloud of ignorance, we believe that suffering will never happen to us. But when we emerge from that fog into a radical simplicity of heart, suffering becomes our teacher. Our eyes are opened thanks to Right View and direct experience of the Four Noble Truths. At last we transcend the tyranny of fear.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2005-09-14
Even As A Mother
43:16
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Can we fearlessly accept all that life gives with a wise and compassionate heart? We see how the sun shines unilaterally on all beings giving life and nourishment. But we must use sharp wisdom to discern what is harmful and abandon that; and to know what is wholesome and cultivate that. Even as a mother, may we emulate the Buddha's compassion that flows without bias in all directions across millenia.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2005-08-07
Suffering
1:20:17
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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The mind is always creating thought worlds that make us suffer. To get beyond this suffering, you have to confront the fears that force the mind to keep creating these worlds.
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Metta Forest Monastery
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2005-04-14
The Guests Come and Go
23:11
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Ayya Medhanandi
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“Being human is a guest house” wrote Rumi. Every day we greet new arrivals – joys, sorrows, hostilities and more; and moments of awareness too. We bow to the present moment and greet them all, be they thorns or unruly monsters like malice, shame, fear, anger or greed. Can we see them all just as they are, painful or pleasant – impermanent, not ours, not who we are? Can we let them come and go, and be grateful? Treat whatever passes through the heart as empty. After all, these are karmic messengers from beyond bearing unique spiritual gifts. For in their presence, we strengthen our practice. Wisely attentive, reflective, and aware, we are on the magnificent path of waking up.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2005-03-31
Self and the Plane of Becoming
59:11
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Ajahn Sucitto
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The larger plane of becoming is potent with tendencies that give rise to the person. This person becomes formed from our worries, fears, compulsions – it’s a restricted self. We practice widening into that larger citta realm and cultivating enlightenment factors to form around instead. This is how we take responsibility for what we put out into the world, and to change our kamma.
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Cittaviveka
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Winter Retreat
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2004-01-08
Metta: Purity And Purification
61:55
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Guy Armstrong
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When we engage with metta practice we receive either metta (purity) or the inner obstacles to metta, which provide the material for the purification of heart. This talk describes how to relate with self-judgement and fear through metta, as well as the supportive factor of concentration, another aspect of innate purity.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2003-12-13
I Just Wanted Some Toothpaste
35:17
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The way out of pain is not in sense pleasure. But suffering can be a ticket to Nibbana – maybe not the one we asked for, but it's in our hands. So we try. Taste the moment just as it is. Choose love when there is every reason to hate. Trust when there is every reason to despair. Be patient when anger is burning within. Faced with terror or far from peace, let go. Being still in the very midst of fear, we can know non-fear. All is fleeting, not what we are, and nothing to hold onto. There, in the silent flow of the breath, the heart will soften in a tender wave of unconditional love.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2003-12-10
Those Who Rightly Love Wisdom
28:03
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Ayya Medhanandi
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In a psychic feat for his sister, Sundari Nanda, the Buddha creates a vision of a beautiful lady who transforms into an old woman. Through this direct experience of impermanence, her mind is liberated. Likewise, those who rightly love wisdom and contemplate death without fear see the emptiness and impermanence of all conditioned things. Realizing the futility of all clinging and the inevitability of death, our wisdom and faith in the Dhamma ripen and reveal the doors to the Deathless. This is the path of awakening.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2002-12-22
Desire for Enlightenment
53:00
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Shaila Catherine
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Desire is usually described as a hindrance to meditation, but to realize deathless liberation we must want to be free. A burning desire to awaken opens the heart and mind to a possibility of freedom otherwise not known. This talk examines the force of desire as both a form of craving that perpetuates suffering, and as a necessary and wholesome factor that supports the realization of nibbana (nirvana) and the end of suffering. We examine hindrances, pain, and obstacles from which we want to be free in order to realize unconditioned awakening. Working with desire has some risks, but it is a powerful force that encourages curiosity, investigation, and openness to possibility—the possibility of discovering a profound fearlessness, and enduring happiness, the possibility of enlightenment.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks
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2002-12-10
A Mind Empowered 5 Ways
34:01
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Learn how we can refine our mental skills of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. Enhanced by right view and a deepened understanding of the Four Noble Truths, these spiritual powers vanquish hatred and fear, nurturing our readiness to forgive, and the blessed qualities of universal loving-kindness and compassion. A talk given during a 10-day retreat at Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand in 2002.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2002-11-05
The Judging Mind
42:26
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Rodney Smith
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Judgement is a defense against feeling inadequate. The belief in inadequacy is a defense against the fear of being nothing. The fear of being nothing is a defense against silence, in which our nothingness is confirmed.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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