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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2025-08-09
Holding Fast and Staying True
33:35
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Devin Berry
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A dharma talk exploring adhitthana (resolve) as a spiritual practice rooted in ancestral wisdom and lived experience. Devin shares personal stories and examples of how resolve manifests not as willpower or force, but as a quiet, steady commitment to returning again and again to what matters most - whether in meditation practice or in responding to the world's suffering with fierce compassion.
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Refuge of Belonging
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2025-08-02
7 Reasons to Choose Love over Hate (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
69:45
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Diana Winston
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Given at the Spirit Rock Family Retreat, this talk addresses the importance of love in a world filled with hatred. We explore how choosing love over hate directly relates to our parenting as well as to the larger suffering in the world. Some of the points include: hatred hurts, love feels great; hatred is uncurious, love seeks to understand; hatred clouds the mind, love brings wisdom. A helpful talk for any of us struggling to bring our practice to these current times.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Family Retreat 2025
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2025-07-30
Non-Harming: Core Teachings and How to Practice
64:42
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Donald Rothberg
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We begin by remembering the three core methods of training given by the Buddha (wisdom, meditation, and "ethics"), and their interrelationship. We reflect on how ethics has often been marginalized in Western Buddhism (and at times in Asian Buddhism). We then look in depth at the first lay ethical precept, non-harming, first in terms of the core teachings of the Buddha, and its centrality in the earlier Indian traditions of the Vedas. We examine some of the more "outer" dimensions of practicing non-harming, seeing how, with mindfulness and strong intentions, we can bring non-harming into our daily lives, including in our speech and communication. We then look at the more "inner" dimensions of practicing non-harming, looking in particular at how harming ourselves or others typically comes out of our own pain, so that practicing with pain (and the teaching of the Two Arrows) is central. 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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2025-07-28
Danger of Fixation: Right View As The Path
22:17
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Shaila Catherine
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In this talk, Shaila Catherine explores right view and addresses the danger of attaching to a position, philosophy, belief, or opinion. Primary sources that inspired this talk include suttas numbered 72 and 74 the Middle Length discourses. By recognizing the problems created by clinging to beliefs and opinions, we choose instead to bring mindfulness to our direct experience and investigate what is actually happening in this present encounter with mind and body. This pragmatic path of mindful investigation leads to liberation.
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Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge
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Forest Refuge - Shaila's talks
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2025-07-25
Morning Instructions: Mindfulness of Self'ing
48:08
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Tempel Smith
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Once we have a base of simple connection to breath, body, and our immediate senses, we can explore our driven habits of adding a sense of self to these very simple experiences. As stated in the Bahiya Sutta, in the seeing just let there being the seen, with out adding a sense of "you" to what is being seen. We can compare moments of the day where the the mind isn't entangled in concocting a sense of self versus the mind which is adding a very thick sense of self.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Summer Insight Meditation Retreat
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2025-07-24
Patience
13:24
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Shaila Catherine
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In this brief reflection, Shaila Catherine speaks about the role of patience in meditation practice. We need patience to endure conditions that we cannot control, such as heat and cold, mosquito bites, and unpleasant or wanted perceptions. We need patience to continue to cultivate mindfulness without judging our degree of success. We need patience to trust the spiritual faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom to gradually mature. We need patience to observe the flow of lived experiences, simply meeting each moment with the interest to know what is being known, and the quality of mind that is knowing it. Patience is worth developing.
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Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge
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Forest Refuge - Shaila's talks
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