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Dharma Talks
2025-04-06 Morning instructions: Mindfulness of mind states 56:20
Yuka Nakamura
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-05 Participatory intelligence 34:02
Ajahn Sucitto
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions

2025-04-05 Unpacking Equanimity (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 50:25
Cara Lai
The deepest kind of peace: what it is, what it isn't, how it relates to boundaries and action in the world, and how to find it.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-05 Saddhā - Trust 61:17
Yuka Nakamura
Saddhā - trust or confidence - is a fundamental quality that we need on our path. Why can it be difficult to trust? What is actually trustworthy? How does it manifest in our mind and in our actions?
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-05 Guided Meditation 18:24
Ajahn Sucitto
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions

2025-04-05 Dhamma transmission is based on a mutual openness 38:05
Ajahn Sucitto
A review of the Channa Sutta (S.22:90) in which Bhikkhu Channa receives Dhamma through being open and welcomed - despite his bad reputation. The teaching he receives from Ven. Ananda points to the openness beyond affirmation or denial of conditioned existence. This instructs us to handle our intentions, interpretations and perspectives carefully without fixation.
Cittaviveka

2025-04-05 The Liberating View of Interconnection 1:24:18
Nathan Glyde
A meditation, reflection, and responses to questions on the power of conceiving of ourselves as interconnected. With examples from Palestine, the meditation cushion, and living with illness and loss. In all cases, perhaps this transformative idea is more potent than it is true. Some links from this session: Essential Surgery in Palestine: https://chuffed.org/project/123753-essential-surgery-for-palestinian-medical-student James Skeet, from Just Stop Oil, talking to Scroobius Pip on Distraction Pieces Podcast: https://www.scroobiuspip.co.uk/dp-player/?fl=https://embed.acast.com/$/ad4e2f12-9862-4cf6-b6af-3ae392c45fad/612jso&dl= Sacred Places with SanghaSeva | Meditation in Action: https://www.sanghaseva.org/comingup.html#sacred
Gaia House Online Dharma Hall - April 2025

2025-04-05 Morning reflections – Different tools and practices. Different reasons for sleepiness and lethargy. 50:20
Akincano Marc Weber
Relationship of different instructions to each other. Many spices, but we don't cook with all of them at once. Orientation: how to find out and recognize what's going in your mind. (Using the satipaṭṭhāna map) Relationship: a) getting reliably in touch with and b) learning to relate skillfully to the states. Shifting attention away from habits. Mindfulness does not mean 'no discernment' – it is quite capable on discerning what is wholesome and unwholesome.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-04 The Liberating Power of Compassion (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 52:29
Jessica Morey
In this talk, we explore compassion as a liberating force—one that allows us to stay present with suffering so we can respond with wise action. Drawing on the myth of Avalokiteśvara, the science of empathy, and the felt experience of care, compassion becomes a courageous presence rooted in tenderness and connection. We also reflect on how a deep understanding of dukkha, paired with a direct knowing of freedom, strengthens our compassion and helps us see the wish for liberation as real and available—even in the most difficult places.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-04 Instructions on Metta for the Difficult Person (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 44:51
Cara Lai
Sensing into a field of support and care hat can hold it all, even the enemy.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-04 Introduction and guided meditation on compassion 45:58
Yuka Nakamura
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-04 Metta: The Intention of Turning Toward 23:27
Tim Geil
Metta can be seen as turning toward with friendliness. This talk explores how to turn toward charged experiences.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge April 2025 at IMS - Forest Refuge

2025-04-03 talk: Sīla part 2 - the ethical training of refraining from taking what is not given 26:17
Jill Shepherd
How the practice of dāna, generosity, supports a sense of abundance rather than lack, then looking at the wider societal and environmental benefits of bringing more awareness to not taking what's not freely offered
Auckland Insight Meditation Auckland Insight meetings 2025

2025-04-03 Three Friends: Appamada – Sati – Sampajañña 55:48
Akincano Marc Weber
The interplay of three functions of the mind in helping the contemplative practice. Appamada – an attitude of care Sati - a relationship: mindfulness as creating presence Sampajañña – a value context
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-03 Receiving Care Meditation (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 44:39
Jessica Morey
This guided meditation is inspired by John Makransky's Field of Care meditation where we practice first receiving kindness and care from a benefactor or kind moment and then include others into that field of care.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-03 Walking instructions: Mindfulness as an active and relational act. 6:42
Akincano Marc Weber
The overstretching of the visual metaphor for mindfulness ('observe, witness, get in perspective, look at' can leave us with the (erroneaous) impression that mindfulness can only 'observe' and wait. Let's not turn mindfulness in the John Silver's parrot on our shoulder.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-03 A Gentle Introduction to Metta Practice (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 60:16
Oren Jay Sofer
In this guided meditation with instructions, we begin with connecting with the felt sense of metta, then explore offering phrases for a benefactor, mentor, or good friend.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-03 Morning instructions: Mindful awareness and meeting physical pain in meditation. 41:59
Yuka Nakamura
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-02 The Courage to Love (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 45:24
Oren Jay Sofer
In this talk from the first night of a weeklong silent retreat, Oren Jay Sofer explores mettā (lovingkindness) as both refuge and strength. Framing the Buddhist path as a practice of wise relationship, he offers several ways to cultivate mettā, inviting us to consider what it means to relate to life with warmth, steadiness, and care—even in a world of change and uncertainty.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-02 Awake mind, wise mind. 62:05
Yuka Nakamura
To bring attention to the right things in the right way is crucial for our path. Through the mindful contemplation of our experience we can gain insight and develop liberating wisdom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-02 Small Acts of Generosity 23:26
JD Doyle
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spirit Rock - Rainbow Sangha

2025-04-02 The Wisdom of the 4 Elements 33:39
JD Doyle
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spirit Rock - Rainbow Sangha

2025-04-02 Gentle Mindfulness Instructions (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 42:14
Cara Lai
When we hear the words "be mindful," it often makes us think we have to intensify and be vigilant. But quite the opposite is true. This guided meditation is meant to help us find a softer, more receptive and sustainable way of being present.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States

2025-04-02 Brahmavihāra – Introduction to the four immeasurables. Guided Mettā Exercise. 40:46
Akincano Marc Weber
The Four Immeasurables. Brahmavihāra are not mere emotions but constitute different tones of relational empathetic resonance. They constitute nothing less but our humanity. Brahmavihāras are cultivations not just 'states'. They are more than empathy but intentntional attitudes.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Cultivation – Investigation – Contemplation: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students – 25AMW

2025-04-02 Reflections on Three Themes from a Four-Week Retreat: Listening Deeply, Developing Samadhi (Concentration) through Practicing the Jhanas, and Integrating Retreat Practice with Daily Life 65:04
Donald Rothberg
In the talk, Donald reflects on having just completed, four days before the talk, four weeks of practice at Spirit Rock. He particularly focuses on three themes from the retreat, exploring each theme in terms of both its retreat context and its daily life context. The first is the theme of listening deeply to one's own "intuition" and what "calls." The second is the theme of developing samadhi (usually translated as "concentration"--the unified mind and heart and body) and in particular practicing the eight jhanas as taught by the Buddha. The third is the theme of bringing the retreat learning and explorations into daily life, and how in particular to cultivate the first two themes in the daily life context. The talk is followed by discussion.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

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