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Dharma Talks
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2022-07-08
Simple Mettā Meditation (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
61:08
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Tempel Smith
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Setting up and devoting ourselves to a steady mettā (loving kindness) meditation practice, we start where it is easiest and where we can keep it simple. With a basis of blending a sense of ease and relaxation with patient steady attentiveness, we invite mettā to arise in our hearts supported internally by images and phrases. Though it takes some experimenting to find balance with these tools, the repetition of mettā phrases keeps directing our attention to the purpose of mettā practice. These phrases are so very helpful when we live into more complex or challenging situations.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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July Lovingkindness Retreat
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2022-07-08
Simple Mettā Meditation
25:00
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Tempel Smith
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Setting up and devoting ourselves to a steady mettā (loving kindness) meditation practice, we start where it is easiest and where we can keep it simple. With a basis of blending a sense of ease and relaxation with patient steady attentiveness, we invite mettā to arise in our hearts supported internally by images and phrases. Though it takes some experimenting to find balance with these tools, the repetition of mettā phrases keeps directing our attention to the purpose of mettā practice. These phrases are so very helpful when we live into more complex or challenging situations.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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July Lovingkindness Retreat
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2022-07-07
Working with Hindrances to Mettā Meditation (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
49:25
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Tempel Smith
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As we practice mettā meditation we will have waves where the practice feels easy, intuitive and validating; and we will all have waves where we struggle. There are five very common states which visit us in meditation practice called the "five hindrances". These are commonly named in English as craving, aversion, dullness, restlessness, and doubt. For steady mettā practice our first response to these challenges is to practice more carefully with patience determination. The second response is to offer ourselves kindness and compassion during challenging times. For mettā meditation and for the other three brahmaviharas, our third response to challenging times is to turn wakefully towards the qualities of the challenge and see them as only temporary conditions. We can greatly reduce the experience of suffering in the hindrances when we have mindful experience of them.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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July Lovingkindness Retreat
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2022-07-04
Dharma and Democracy: A Talk on the Fourth of July
67:15
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Donald Rothberg
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On the Fourth of July, we look at the relationship between the freedoms opened up by the dharma, the teachings and practices of awakening, and by the promise and actuality of democracy, at this time of peril for democracy in the U.S. and elsewhere. Can we imagine a spiritually-grounded democracy? To respond to this question, we examine the vision of democracy, remembering both some of the words of the founders and the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "America is essentially a dream, a dream as yet unfulfilled. It is a dream of a land where people of all races, all nationalities and all creeds can live together as brothers and sisters." We also explore the vision of dharma and awakening, including the Buddha's creation of a community separate from the prevailing caste system of his time. Yet we also need to look at the many "shadows" of both democracy and dharma, which obscure the vision and prevent its full realization. We end by pointing to a number of ways to renew, develop, and practice our visions of "spiritual democracy" in the different parts of our lives.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-07-03
Q&A - How to get out of your head and why
33:05
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Questions are précised
00:00 Q1 When the body or place doesn’t seem like a safe place to be, how can we take refuge in the heart? 04:01 Q2 I have been experiencing a flight – fight response recently, triggered perhaps by the pandemic. Everything seems to get trapped in the brain although I have been meditating for years. It seems to be a bit of a fight. Do you have any advice please? 12:39 Q3 The pandemic mode seems to continue and these small text messages are very quick and short and I feel lost, not catching up to the mind states of others. How can we do body practices in this situation? 18:39 Q4 There is so much to worry about these days and it seems almost hopeless sometimes. My meditation helps, but how can I be more consistent with the practice please? 23:31 Q5 I’m a psychologist working with people who have experienced severe trauma. Do you have one or two suggestions as to how I can help other people to clear energies that affect the heart and body? 28:54 Q6 I have relationship issues with my sister over how she treats our mother. I have spoken rather harshly to her about this and she has stopped talking to me. How can I deal with this please?
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Cittaviveka
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2022-07-02
Undivided Attention
1:26:47
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Nathan Glyde
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How much of our lives do we live distracted and dispersed? Diverted away from being gathered, sensitive, and present. When we divide our attention, we move away from wholesomeness and fulfilment. We drift from freedom into dukkha. Guided meditation and talk with questions and responses in the Online Dharma Hall of Gaia House.
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Gaia House
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Online Dharma Hall - Jul 2022
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2022-06-29
Meditation: Letting Go
20:53
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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.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-06-29
The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 2
49:03
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Tara Brach
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Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone injustice) and the practices that create the grounds for surrender, emotional healing, transformational activism and spiritual freedom.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-06-29
Practicing with Polarization, Differences, and Conflict 2
65:26
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Donald Rothberg
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We explore further a number of skillful practices and dharma resources for situations involving polarization, differences, and conflict, whether internal, relational, or collective that were identified in the previous week. Two days after last week's talk, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade; we start by examining the nature of polarization at the social level. We look also at the possibility of belonging, community, non-polarization, and moving toward Dr. King's "beloved community," in the midst of differences. Then we focus further on the centrality of empathy and listening to those with different perspectives, offering empathy practices that complement the other practices identified in the talk. The talk is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-06-27
Mindful Respect | Monday Night Talk
54:10
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Jack Kornfield
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In India, when people greet one another they put their palms together and bow, saying namaste, “I honor the divine within you.” It is a way of acknowledging your Buddha nature, who you really are.
When I was training as a Buddhist monk, I witnessed an aura of straightforwardness, graciousness, and trust around my teacher Ajahn Chah. Here was a community dedicated to treating each person with respect and dignity. In the monastery, the walking paths were swept daily, the robes and bowls of the monks were tended with care. We learned to value ourselves and others equally.
Whether practiced in a forest monastery or anywhere else, mindfulness practice begins by deliberately cultivating respect, starting with ourselves. When we learn to rest in our own goodness, we can see the goodness more clearly in others.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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