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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2026-01-01
Q&A
52:36
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Ajahn Sucitto
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00:34 Q1 I've recently run across "meditation teachers" who claim that some other creative activities that they're involved in are better than meditation. What can you say about this? 20:56 Q2 I'm not good with emotional language like spiritual poetry but have a longing for the divine. What can you say about this? 22:54 Q3 I'm already seeking some professional help for trauma but I'd like to hear your thoughts on the Buddhist way to heal trauma. 26:22 Q4 How can you not make letting go into another sankara project? How can we let go of concepts like achieving stream entry? 35:42 Q5 I've heard a teacher say when the mind is quiet and we experience things as they are, the self and the observing or knowing mind will distinctly be two separate entities. Can you speak to this please? 44:06 Q6 I find myself alone and isolated. There are no Buddhist centres near me nor do I have a group of family or friends I can share with. I meditate and go for long walks but the need to be a part of the community is a longing and I feel sometimes I have no meaning in my life and I panic. What is your advice?
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Dhamma Stream Online Sessions
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2026-01-01
Welcoming in the New Year Together!
38:18
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James Baraz
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This talk will
1. Look back at 2025 reviewing what we've learned
2. Open to where we are in the present
3. Get in touch with our intention for the 2026 envisioning the qualities that will be most needed for us to deepen our understanding and inner peace
We will also share a New Year's ritual of letting go and cultivation. If you're at home bring a candle.
Please pause the audio to perform the exercises.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2025-12-30
Treasures in the Dark: Death as a Teacher of Life (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
49:29
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Devon Hase
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What if aging, illness, and death aren't enemies to avoid, but teachers bowing at our feet? This talk explores the Buddha's radical invitation to turn toward life's inevitable difficulties—not with morbidity, but with the clear-eyed realism that sets us free. Through poetry, contemporary dharma voices, and the ancient practice of death awareness, we discover how contemplating our mortality doesn't diminish joy—it ignites it. When we stop living heedlessly and wake up to the preciousness of this breath, this moment, this life, we find the courage to love completely and let go gracefully. A New Year's reflection on endings, beginnings, and the alchemy that transforms suffering into compassion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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New Year's Insight Meditation Retreat
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2025-12-18
Q&A
29:48
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Q1 How can we reconcile joy and dispassion? How are nipita and virago supposed to feel? 11:55 Q2 Are the 16 steps of vipassana meditation the result of calmness meditation, or is it a wise directing of attention as a goal? 17:59 Q3 You mentioned to notice the space between the in and out breath and the out and in breath. When I do that my breath seems to get more shallow and I feel a threat and start coughing. 22:32 Q4 Something seems to keep kicking in the breathing process. What should I do? 23:18 Q5 How to be less demanding, to maintain the highest quality to do well, but less demanding, e.g of expectations of others?
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Bandar Utama Buddhist Society
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BUBS Silent Retreat
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2025-12-17
Skillful Desire, Skillful Aversion, and the Winter Solstice
61:55
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Donald Rothberg
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We continue with the exploration opened up last week in our examination of "skillful desire," starting again with the common misunderstanding of the Buddha's teachings as suggesting giving up all wanting of the pleasant and all not wanting of the unpleasant. There are, to be sure, some passages in the teachings which seem to suggest this approach; here is one example, from the Sallatha Sutta about the results of practice: “Desirable things don't charm the mind, undesirable ones bring no resistance."
In the talk, we first review the nature of skillful desire and the distinction between skillful and unskillful desire. A starting reference point is the understanding of the sequence from contact to grasping in the teaching on Dependent Origination and. We look again at the Buddha's teachings on chanda or "skillful desire" and the importance of experiences of pleasure, joy, and happiness in different practice contexts. We then look in a similar way at skillful aversion, asking about the distinction between skillful and unskillful aversion, and pointing especially to the importance of inquiry into the experience of aversion; we look with some detail into the experience of anger. Finally, we connect our explorations with the experience of darkness and light at the time of the Winter Solstice, four days from now.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2025-12-16
Q&A
33:15
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Ajahn Sucitto
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00:10 Q1 Can you say something about handling concerns about people quarreling, people sick, family members? 08:40 Q2 I get a vibration in my body that progresses up through the body. It produces a peaceful and equanimous feeling. Why is this happening and what should I do next? 13:27 Q3 I get warmed when I engage in standing meditation. What's happening? 13:43 Q4 During one meditation when one attains full concentration and calmness, how does one feel in mind? What does one hear? What is the colour when one closes one's eyes? Do we still feel breathing? What's happening? 16:16 Q5 When I sit I get a sudden jolt. Is this sloth and torpor. 16:41 Q6 Why does thinking about revenge although unwholesome, feel good?
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Bandar Utama Buddhist Society
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BUBS Silent Retreat
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2025-12-15
Q&A
38:46
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Q1 In the case of someone who doesn't take the three refugees or five precepts but is a good person and does no harm, can they become an arahant? 02:35 Q2 Can you elaborate on your comment 'pain is impersonal'? 23:43 Q3 It's said it's needed to straighten one's view and establish one's virtue before cultivating santipatthana what are the signposts to look after? 30:47 Q4 when doing walking meditation my eyes tend to lock on to visual objects in front of me. And when sitting, even with the eyes closed, my eyes seem to strain and look internally and I feel tired and tense how do I de-focus my eyes? 34:54 Q5 during city meditation my body moves forwards and backwards. What should I do? 36:55 Q6 I've been going through my diaries in order to discard them. Some entries bring up things I forgot and some are strongly disturbing. I meditate on these but is it wise to carry on this process? I'm not ready to throw the diaries without going through them.
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Bandar Utama Buddhist Society
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BUBS Silent Retreat
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