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Dharma Talks
2023-01-29 Vertical Dharma and The Four Reflections 42:33
Amita Schmidt
This talk explains the difference between horizontal verses vertical dharma practice. The talk also explores "The Four Reflections," or lojong teachings to inspire your sitting and daily life practice. These include reflections on precious human birth, impermanence/death, suffering, and karma.
Clintonville Sangha Ohio

2022-12-12 Q&A 65:06
Ajahn Sucitto
00:25 Regarding rebirth or further birth, Therevadans and Tibetans seems to have very different things to say about this. Is it useless speculation to consider what happens after death? 13:17 Can you please distinguish between kilesa, asava and anutsara? 17:41 Why is consciousness likened to an illusion? 31:22 Could you please speak about the external and internal aspect of the sense fields mentioned in the satipatthanna? 36:03 I get very stirred up when I received kindness from others. What do you suggest? 41:35 You mentioned a tendency to look for open space as related to an experience as an infant of being confined in a cradle. How did that memory and understanding come up for you? 46:09 Can you remind us about mano sancetana – what it is and how it works? 53:57 Is nibanna a description of a mind in which the defilements are uprooted or is it that which does the uprooting? 55:21 Can you speak about the significance of noticing neutral sensations? Why is this useful? 56:51 Vicara and dhamma vijaya both explore an object. How are they different or similar? 1:00:18 I’d appreciate some more specific instructions about the movements and placements of hands during the bowing ritual.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge ORIGINAL RECORDINGS, TO BE EDITED - Ajahn Sucitto at IMS-FR

2022-12-09 Reflections on Death 23:39
Ajahn Amaro
Deer Park Institute :  Sakkāydițțhi — ‘Self-View’, the First Obstacle to Enlightenment

2022-12-09 Q&A 56:52
Ajahn Amaro
Questions are précised - 00:12 Q1 My practice of forgiveness turns into shame when I consider how I ever did that to that person. 08:58 Q2 I have had a health ailment for about a decade and there are moments of deep pain. I’ve gone past “Why me?” but I find I am very angry. I also find I easily dismiss other people’s pain. 20:51 Q3 Can you explain more about the difference between Dhammaniyāmatā and the Idappaccayatā? 29:27 Q4 What’s your view on euthanasia? Also – how can we plan to live in a commune rather than a hospice as we age? 40:05 Q5 What about organ donation? 43:40 Q6 What is euthanasia and what is taking active steps to expedite death? And what about people who decide not to continue treatment that prolongs life? 47:28 Q7 What about palliative care? 49:00 Q8 Are there any residential retreat places for parents with their children? I struggle with leaving my child alone and the problem of child care. 50:34 Q9 Regarding the old lady who came to Ajahn Chah for advice, [it seems like she was advised to practice] anatta. 55:34 Q10 That which is observing the five khandas, is that called dhamma itself?
Deer Park Institute :  Sakkāydițțhi — ‘Self-View’, the First Obstacle to Enlightenment

2022-12-09 Aspects of Death Contemplation 40:18
Ajahn Amaro
Deer Park Institute :  Sakkāydițțhi — ‘Self-View’, the First Obstacle to Enlightenment

2022-12-09 Guided Meditation - Death Contemplation (Ajahn Jivako) 26:59
Ajahn Amaro
Led by Ajahn Jivako
Deer Park Institute :  Sakkāydițțhi — ‘Self-View’, the First Obstacle to Enlightenment

2022-12-08 Mindfulness of Death Q/A Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 1:10:49
Nikki Mirghafori, Beth Sternlieb, Kodo Conlin, Sayadaw U Jagara
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Befriending Mortality: Living an Awakened Life through Mindfulness of Death (Maranasati)

2022-12-08 How Do I Want to Have Lived? Deathbed Visualization 34:05
Nikki Mirghafori
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Befriending Mortality: Living an Awakened Life through Mindfulness of Death (Maranasati)

2022-12-07 Q&A 58:20
Ajahn Amaro
Questions are précised - 00:24 Q1 In the enquiry we’ve are doing there are moments of recognition - let’s say, out of our usual conditioned responses, but then always a tendency to identify what that moment is. That attempt doesn’t go anywhere. Is it because that moment of recognition is not recognizable through the five sense? 9:32 Q2 If I summarize my enquiry for myself: “What am I at this present time?”, is this a good instruction to carry with me? 14:08 Q3 Working through the understanding of not me, not my body, etc there is still this feeling that “I know”. In terms of stream entry, is that “I know” still possible? 23:03 Q4 I would like to know more about what the Buddha said about the liberation of the heart as well as the process of liberation from passion. Can you say more about this process? What about the process between death and the next birth? 34:57 Q5 How does our investigation of non-self relate to such issues in conventional reality, such as the problem of climate change? 41:57 Q6 I meet a lot of Buddhists who seem to focus exclusively inwards. Is there a reason for that and is there something we should do to guard against it? 44:55 Q7 You wrote: “That which is threatening to the ego is liberating to the heart.” Can you elaborate on that? 54:23 Q8 Can fear be a catalyst for liberation?
Deer Park Institute :  Sakkāydițțhi — ‘Self-View’, the First Obstacle to Enlightenment

2022-12-06 Q&A 57:57
Ajahn Amaro
Questions are précised - 00:15 Q1 How do we dislodge the idea of a self. Also you say there is an experience without an experiencer. Can you elaborate? 14:34 Q2 You spoke of Ajahn Mun’s teaching on the deathless dhamma. Could you speak to the idea of the subjectivity of the Buddha or even a “de-centered” subjectivity? 27:04 Q3 Could you say more about what stream entry is and its importance. 33:55 Q4 When sitting, how do we know we are anchored in our breath and when we can then shift and broaden our attention to other things? 35:15 Q5 I find walking meditation easier than sitting. Is this OK? 36:36 Q6 Has Buddha offered any view on the purpose of my life especially given its suffering? 42:00 Q7 How can we tell if our meditation tool is working and that we are progressing on the path? 52:22 Q8 Regarding concentration in meditation, is this the same thing that creative people use in their work?
Deer Park Institute :  Sakkāydițțhi — ‘Self-View’, the First Obstacle to Enlightenment

2022-12-05 Wise Attention, Mindfulness, And Eight Ways to Reflect on Death (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 67:25
Sayadaw U Jagara, Nikki Mirghafori
Difference between attention and mindfulness. Visuddhi Magga 8 ways of reflecting on death. Five hindrances, briefly touched.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Befriending Mortality: Living an Awakened Life through Mindfulness of Death (Maranasati)

2022-12-04 Why Practice Mindfulness of Death? 58:58
Nikki Mirghafori
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Befriending Mortality: Living an Awakened Life through Mindfulness of Death (Maranasati)

2022-11-30 Tara and Mingyur Rinpoche in Conversation: Embracing Life and Realizing the Nature of Awareness 55:21
Tara Brach, Mingyur Rinpoche
In this interview, Mingyur Rinpoche shares about his 4 1/2 years on a wandering retreat and the lessons he learned from a near-death experience. The two then talk about what it means to befriend panic as well as other strong emotions, and the qualities that express our intrinsic awareness. They also talk about compassion for our world, the evolution of consciousness, and the value of hope.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2022-11-27 Contemplation of impermanence and death 54:24
Jill Shepherd
Exploring practices from the first establishment of mindfulness that support insight into impermanence of the body, and some of the benefits that come from prractising maranasati, contemplation of our own mortality
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three-Month Retreat - Part 2

2022-11-22 Reverence: Opening the Door to the Deathless (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 31:19
Kittisaro, Dawn Mauricio, Djuna Devereaux, Gullu Singh, Thanissara
Reflections around Dukkha and its cause, the two fundamental roots, and the importance of contemplating change. Guest/dust simile and noticing that which never changes.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Journey Into Refuge, Presence, and Love

2022-11-22 Advice to the Dying: Don’t Cling to Anything 22:04
Shaila Catherine
This guided meditation offers a comprehensive training in non-attachment and letting go. The instructions list various objects and perceptions that one might be attached to, and recommend that we train ourselves to not cling to each item. Shaila Catherine shares the advice that Venerable Sariputta offered to the lay disciple Anathapindika on his deathbed. It is essentially a reading of the discourse of Advice to Anathapindika (Middle Length Discourses 143) with some comments.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley

2022-10-26 Cultivating Inner Strength – A Conversation with Tara Brach and Lori Deschene 59:43
Tara Brach
What gives us the inner strength to meet life’s challenges with resilience, heart and wisdom? Drawing on themes in Lori’s new book, “The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal,” Tara and Lori explore the mindset that is conducive to growth, working with negative beliefs, ways of transforming fear, and what it means to have inner strength in facing loss and death. We also talk about what can most empower and energize us in responding to a world struggling with multiple crises. NOTE: Find Lori Deschene’s “The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal” here: tinybuddha.com/strong. Lori also created several free companion resources, available at tinybuddha.com/strength-tools.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2022-10-20 Q & A 66:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Q1 OO:04 Does kamma in its wider implication presume the concept of rebirth? Q2 17:09 Doesn’t the need for goal orientedness in life work against practice? Q3 21:34 During meditation can I approach a personal issue that requires attention? Q4 26:17 Is it possible to be fully present with an open heart? Could you explain that please? Q5 29:35 Does slow mean mindful? Isn’t it intention that’s important? Q6 33:58 Could you talk more about annata and self please? Q7 20:14 Q8 Why does standing meditation seem more effective than sitting? Is there a time or situation where standing is recommended over other postures? Q9 43:58 How can I give back living more than I take living in Switzerland? Q10 45:22 In developing samadhi, is it possible to have periods where we have to refocus more on bodily sensations and drop the external? Q11 48:19 How can we reflect on God and Christ in dhamma practice? Q12 51:09 Restlessness is my most frequent hindrance. How do I deal with it? Q13 52:19 I contemplate death daily and often get a heavy heart about being separated from my two children. How can I come to peace with that? Q14 57:38 Could you do a brief summary of your top five wisdoms? Q15 1:03:52 If QiGong is so relaxing and low energy why do I sweat?
Meditationszentrum Beatenberg Love is the Breath of Life

2022-10-17 Heart-Body-Mental Energies-Purifying-Merging 61:53
Ajahn Sucitto
The ever-changing nature of experience is fundamental to Buddhist understanding. Learning how to directly apprehend these dynamic energies reveals the deathless.
Meditationszentrum Beatenberg Love is the Breath of Life

2022-10-06 From Heartbreak to Compassionate Action 55:06
James Baraz
Kaye Cleave is a sangha member and film producer of the award-winning movie Catherine's Kindergarten. Catherine’s Kindergarten is the story of Kaye's emotional journey to confront her grief after the death of her only child, juxtaposed with her physical journey to a Nepalese mountain village to open a school in memory of her daughter. It is a truly moving experience. I'm proud to be part of Kaye's journey and in the film. Kaye will share some of her story of how the practice helped her process her grief and transform it into compassionate action. We share a clip of the movie and discuss the process of how we can turn heartbreak into meaning.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2022-10-02 Exploring Sense Of Self 50:49
Carol Wilson
De-mystifying the felt sense of self with steady awareness noticing birth and death of self many times per day
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three-Month Retreat - Part 1

2022-10-02 Inviting the Wisdom of Death into Life 36:58
Frank Ostaseski
London Insight Meditation

2022-08-28 Reflection on Death as a Protection from Ignorance 28:14
Ayya Santacitta
Sacramento Insight Meditation

2022-08-22 Mindfulness is the heart of awakening 52:34
Matthew Hepburn
Mindfulness of death, mosquitoes, and descriptions of the enlightened mind. How to make humble moments of simple presence the direct path to Nirvana
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Your Life Is Your Practice: Insight Meditation Retreat

2022-08-19 Guided meditation on death, Dhamma talk on death 1:30:46
Bhante Sujato
Guided meditation on death: 'Life is uncertain, death is certain'. Dhamma talk on death; how the Buddha talked about death as something knowable, and what happens after death.
Lokanta Vihara

2022-08-12 Guided meditation on the five khandas, Dhamma talk on the five khandas 1:32:48
Bhante Sujato
Guided meditation on the five khandas (constituents / groups). Dhamma talk on the five khandas: rupa (body / appearance), vedana (feeling / experience), saññā (perception), saṅkhāra (choices), citta (consciousness). Discussion of how in the EBTs, the 5 khandas were often what people already identified with, and their impermanence was what the Buddha emphasized. Discussion of how other disciplines and near-death-experiences implicitly invoke the five khandas.
Lokanta Vihara

2022-08-10 Beyond Death Meditation 14:18
Amita Schmidt
This meditation will help you connect with what is here now that outlasts death. Once you know and feel this, you can use it as an orienting principle to feel more calm and relaxed no matter what happens in your life.
Clintonville Sangha Ohio

2022-07-15 Dhamma Streams Q&A 32:28
Ajahn Sucitto
04:57 Q1 How to work with jealousy at others’ good fortune. 21:15 Q2 Living through old age, sickness and death is really highlighting my dread of being unreasonable and fitting in with familyWhat to do? 23:33 Q3 How can we use grief after the loss of a loved one? 27:36 Q4 Two similar questions: (a) I have experienced a loss of direction and feel no zest for living and insecurity overwhelms me. (b) Angry thoughts / emotional intensity lead to self admonishment. What can I do?
Cittaviveka 2022 Online Teaching

2022-07-15 Q&A 50:04
Ajahn Sucitto
04:57 Q1 How to work with jealousy at others’ good fortune. 21:15 Q2 Living through old age, sickness and death is really highlighting my dread of being unreasonable and fitting in with family. What to do? 23:33 Q3 How can we use grief after the loss of a loved one? 27:36 Q4 Two similar questions: (a) I have experienced a loss of direction and feel no zest for living and insecurity overwhelms me. (b) Angry thoughts / emotional intensity lead to self admonishment. What can I do? 32:25 Q5 Can you expand your ideas about the connections between citta and cetena. 37:37 Q6 What is meant by the unconditioned? 42:56 Q7 What are the kasinas? 46:24 Q8 Can you speak about hiriottappa?
Cittaviveka 2022 Online Teaching

2022-07-15 Far From the Madding Crowd 21:11
Ayya Medhanandi
How well are we spending our time? Do we endlessly cling to all that perpetuates suffering? Death will have no holiday. So what will free us from the tyranny of death? Be courageous enough to see what gives us true happiness and what brings misery; what is harmful and what is beneficial. Keep the company of those who support our virtues and our best qualities. Stay ‘far from the madding crowd’ and walk the way from blindness to bliss. Reference verse 174 Dhammapada
Sati Saraniya Hermitage

2022-06-12 The Five Daily Reflections 52:53
James Baraz
A follow up to a recent talk that focused on death and dying. This talk explores the other four of the Five Daily Reflections (also known as the Five Remembrances): aging, illness, loss and karma. It includes practices and discussion on how we can include them regularly in our Dharma practice, which the Buddha highly recommended.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2022-05-29 Opening and Closing in Goodwill 52:29
Ajahn Sucitto
Opening and closing happens everywhere, even with breathing. Discharging creates space for enjoyment, spontaneity and flexibility. Eventually even energy must be relinquished, so we practice recollection of death using the brahma viharas to expand awareness, closure with no regret, the deathless.
Gaia House The Indriya: Allies for Liberation

2022-05-20 Guided death contemplation, Dhamma talk on Carrion sutta – Amaganda 1:40:22
Bhante Sujato, Bhante Akāliko
From Harris Park. Death contemplation guided by Bhante Akāliko. Dhamma talk by Bhante Sujato: Carrion sutta (Snp 2.2) Amaganda: literally "raw stench". A (presumably) hard-core vegan ascetic challenges the Buddha about his eating a cooked meal with meat. The Buddha's response: a conduct of practicing the four Brahma Viharas is what a monastic / ascetic lifestyle is about.
Lokanta Vihara
Attached Files:
  • Carrion sutta (Snp 2.2) by suttacentral.net (Link)

2022-05-17 What Color is the Buddha? 42:51
Dhammadīpā
A talk on Vesak, celebrating the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death, and what it means to take refuge in Buddha. Part of the Tuesday Tune In series at Dassanāya Buddhist Community.
Dassanāya Buddhist Community

2022-04-24 The One Unchanging Thing 46:28
Amita Schmidt
In times of difficulty and change, it is important to orient to what doesn't change, what is deathless. This talk gives you some tools/reminders on how to access the one unchanging thing. The talk also offers ways to unhook from your story and the mind's constant narrative.
Clintonville Sangha Ohio

2022-04-24 A path to the deathless 54:41
Ajahn Sucitto
Who or what you think you are is not your fundamental home. Learning to contemplate the citta/ mind/ heart and the five aggregates (form, consciousness, perceptions, feelings and mental formations) reveals a way to dismantle the driven ego and liberate the citta from aging, sickness and death.
London Insight Meditation Relaxing self-boundaries into Dhamma fields

2022-04-20 Awakening and Liberation: Buddhist Practice, Passover, Easter, and Ramadan 67:08
Donald Rothberg
At this time of the confluence of Passover, Eastern, and Ramadan, we look at their core messages of liberation, going beyond death, and spiritual purification, and the links of such messages to Buddhist practice, with the aid of images and music.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
Attached Files:
  • Awakening and Liberation: Buddhist Practice, Passover, Easter, and Ramadan by Donald Rothberg (PDF)

2022-04-14 Maranasati: Practice with Death and Dying 50:31
James Baraz
The Buddha suggested reflecting regularly on five aspects of life called the Five Reflections (also called the Five Remembrances). This talk focuses on what he called "the most supreme of all meditations": mindfulness of death or maranasati. Although contemplation of one's death might seem unsettling or scary, when undertaken as a conscious practice it can be extremely enlivening and even liberating.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2022-02-24 Reflection - Reading "Stopping the War" chapter 27 from Steven Levine's book "Healing Into Life and Death" 56:32
Marcia Rose
Mountain Hermitage 2 Week ONLINE Samatha-Vipassana Retreat for Experienced Students

2022-01-17 11 talk: three characteristics and contemplation of death 37:56
Jill Shepherd
Exploring the universal characteristics of impermanence and not-self, and how these can come together in the contemplation of death to support living with more ease, happiness and peace
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre Deepening into stillness, opening to peace

2022-01-17 Q&A 57:31
Ajahn Sucitto
00:30 Questions about meditation; 16:01 What is awareness of awareness? Difference in mano, manas, citta and viññāṇa; 26:00 How to deal with impatience and restlessness; 30:27 How to know if I’m cultivating well; 31:37 Obsessive compulsive disorder; 36:47 Meditation on the 32 parts of the body; 39:54 When thoughts stop and fade away; 41:10 How to deal with death and loss; 43:20 Standing meditation; 45:02 Easier to recognize some feelings but not others; 48:42 Conditionality, saṇkhāra and the aggregates.
Bandar Utama Buddhist Society :  Well-being Is the Shape of the Heart

2021-12-11 Q&A 51:20
Ajahn Sucitto
00:12 Being at ease with suffering; 08:55 Time and space; 16:09 How to sit with constant pain; 20:23 Energy is blocked in the throat; 24:42 How to fully realize and penetrate suffering; 29:50 Hyper-tension; 36:44 Not taking things personally; 42:08 How to truly forgive; 44:31 Clearing ill-will; 46:10 Liberation through the deathless.
London Insight Meditation Feel It, Breathe It, Clear It - A Guide to Emotional Management

2021-11-30 Patience is Love 25:50
Ayya Medhanandi
Patience is love, a faith both fearless and true. How can we know and embody that? How can we value each moment and care for it, patiently turning the mind away from the world to the peace within us – to that raw dimension of a subtle and stunning silence? The less we cling, the deeper we enter it. Emboldened by formidable spiritual tests, as we abandon and purify the mind, the Path unfolds beneath our feet. With joy, wisdom, and gratitude, we persevere to the heart’s freedom – the Deathless.
Sati Saraniya Hermitage

2021-11-26 Q&A 31:20
Ajahn Sucitto
00:13 Working with tinnitus; 03:06 ‘sensing a way home to what I am’; 04:42 Becoming more comfortable with non-doing; 06:57 Mention not-self/anattā in the suttas; 11:26 Focusing on one point with breathing; 14:45 Feeling I should be doing something; 16:12 Building more energy in the practice as one ages; 22:32 Feeling angst about ending of the retreat; 23:15 Recollecting one’s virtues as preparation for death; 25:01 Having lost our ability to express open steady presence; 26:13 Refusing to identify with someone or some movement; 27:10 Aches in my shoulder in long sits; 29:06 Arūpa jhānas.
Bodhi College Breathing to Liberation (Ānāpāṇasati)

2021-11-25 Q&A 33:13
Ajahn Sucitto
00:12 Dispassion; 03:45 How do dispassion, disengagement and relinquishment reconcile with activism; 12:39 Body time versus clock time; 15:23 How should I teach mindfulness of breathing; 17:42 Joy and poignant sadness; 19:38 What is one then to be sensitive to in the third stage of the feeling tetrad; 25:55 Could you say that the citta is the deathless?
Bodhi College Breathing to Liberation (Ānāpāṇasati)

2021-11-25 Q&A 23:17
Ajahn Sucitto
00: How to suffuse; 04:40 Placing and sensing the thinking mind; 07:14 Does Ānāpānasati help prepare us for end of civilization; 08:42 Nimittas; 10:01 When one area of body is not suffused; 11:25 How can we suffuse pīti/sukha? 13:00 Softening the process of enquiring; 15:26 Generating joy with chronic pain and vicious personal circumstances; 18:17 Blockages make nostril breathing difficult; 21:24 Can you speak about death?
Bodhi College Breathing to Liberation (Ānāpāṇasati)

2021-11-14 Reflections On Death And Birth That Support Presense 47:59
Brian Lesage
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Second 3-Week Insight Meditation Retreat

2021-11-04 Showing Up for Reality with Humility and Grace: Terry Patten's Last Teaching 50:16
James Baraz
Beloved Philosopher, Teacher and Sacred Activist Terry Patten sadly passed away a few days before this talk. His last book, A New Republic of the Heart, is an inspiring teaching on how to face the global crises we are in. As he went through his own final journey he shared how one can face death with courage, wonder, grace and trust. It was a blueprint for how to meet the pain and sorrow of the world with those same qualities. This talk includes a powerful, clear, deeply moving clip excerpt of Terry's last teaching a week before he passed plus some of his teachings that have touched so many.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2021-10-29 A fruitful merging 59:24
Ajahn Sucitto
Structures can be helpful, but they only get you so far and then you have to trust something more deeply felt – mindfulness internally and externally, conscience and concern. That’s the ultimate system. The qualities of this spiritual intelligence then blend into something affirmative and potent. We can begin to relax who we think we are, focus instead on these spiritual qualities that merge into the deathless, and allow the unbinding of that fixation of self.
Cittaviveka

2021-10-23 Death/Letting Go Meditation 28:47
Amita Schmidt
A progressive meditation on letting go that simulates the death process. Letting go of the senses, emotions, thoughts, and perception. See what remains.
Tri State Dharma

2021-10-11 On Death | Monday Night Talk 58:46
Jack Kornfield
We live in a culture of denial and youth. How can we find a freedom of heart in this world of birth and death? We can start by acknowledging that everything is subject to change. Death is an advisor that can give us clarity about what really matters. We can be the loving witness of this life, yet not cling to it. We can cherish life, yet in the end we will have to let go. As Mary Oliver writes: To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2021-09-08 A Conversation Between Tara and Mark Nepo 1:16:49
Tara Brach
Mark is a spiritual teacher, wonderful poet, and author of many books including best selling The Book of Awakening. In this wide-ranging and rich conversation, Tara and Mark explore shedding our defenses, faith, compassion for ourselves and others, spiritual practice, and facing illness, aging and death.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2021-08-28 Who Do You Think You Are? 21:45
Ayya Medhanandi
Not-clinging spreads very fast, very far. Its fuel power is letting go attachment to ‘self’; to selfishness and the inversion of the mind into a cocoon of self-concern – which is spiritual death. There’s no truth in that. Aren’t we all drowning – metaphorically? Not thinking of ourselves, the moment we jump into the river to rescue someone, we begin to wake up. Who can do that? We must help each other. But first we practice and gain strength to traverse the rapids and the mire of this conflicted, misguided world. Destination – directly knowing what we truly are – and are not.
Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)

2021-07-18 To Die With A Peaceful Heart 8:46
Ayya Medhanandi
Develop health of the mind. Many who face dire illness and many at the cusp of death overcome their fear or face death fearlessly. How is that possible? Caring for the mind can bring it to peace whereas the health of the body will never free the heart from the pain of losing what is most precious to us.
Ottawa Buddhist Society

2021-06-19 Maranasati ~ Recollection of Death 55:30
Ayya Santacitta
Talk & Guided Meditation | Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community
Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery

2021-06-19 Rebirth and Death 22:34
Ayya Santussika
Karuna Buddhist Vihara

2021-06-13 Death 32:11
Anushka Fernandopulle
True North Insight Body as Nature, Nature in the Body: Dharma and Our Connection to the Earth

2021-06-03 Day 5 Q&A2 54:25
Ajahn Sucitto
Working at our levels but there’s nothing to attain/is citta is inherently pure; how to think about kamma after death; how does being enveloped in compassion feel; after moving energy down into belly deciding to move from samatha to vipassanā; the knower merges with the known and there’s no object left; when beginning to become concentrated I get hijacked into numbness/feeling lost in brahmaviharā; relationship between awareness, citta, mindfulness and the mind.
Cittaviveka Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload

2021-06-02 Day 4 Q&A2 50:15
Ajahn Sucitto
Shifts of energy and bodily effects: verbal vs. non-verbal insights; distinction between flood (ogha) and outflow (āsava); how to prepare for aging and death; with things that matter when and how to speak up and when to refrain from speech and actions; self and other/regret/family.
Cittaviveka Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload

2021-06-02 Day 4 Q&A2 50:15
Ajahn Sucitto
Shifts of energy and bodily effects: verbal vs. non-verbal insights; distinction between flood (ogha) and outflow (āsava); how to prepare for aging and death; with things that matter when and how to speak up and when to refrain from speech and actions; self and other/regret/family.
Cittaviveka Clearing the Floods - Dealing with Internal and External Overload

2021-05-14 Death contemplation, Dhamma talk 1:36:46
Bhante Sujato, Bhante Akāliko
At Harris Park – no chanting due to Covid restrictions. Death contemplation led by Bhante Akāliko, Dhamma talk by Bhante Sujato: Vesak series, "What did the Buddha get wrong?"
Lokanta Vihara

2021-05-08 Unshakable Deliverance of Mind 31:41
Ajahn Sucitto
Mind always has some purpose to it. The aim is to keep refining that, keep it from becoming corrupted. Sustain inner awareness and disengagement. The unshakable deliverance of mind is the ultimate goal, not shaken by the circumstances of life, aging, sickness and death. (Sutta reference: MN 29)
Cittaviveka At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down

2021-05-06 Saying Goodbye: When a Friend Dies 60:25
James Baraz
This past week James felt very fortunate to be with one of his dearest friends in his final days died. This talk explores that life passage. How can we say goodbye to a loved one and grieve fully with the understanding that death is a natural part of the life cycle? How can practice help us through that process?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2021-05-05 If You Were to Die Tonight... 65:14
Ayya Anandabodhi
The Buddha encouraged us to reflect on the fact that death could come at any time. This sobering reflection, when used in the right way, brings sharpness and clarity as to what is important in our lives
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Four Protective Meditations: Developing Courage to Meet the Way Things Truly Are

2021-05-05 The Next Breath is Not Guaranteed 43:49
Dhammadīpā
Mindfulness of the breath, endings, and the nearness of death
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Four Protective Meditations: Developing Courage to Meet the Way Things Truly Are

2021-05-05 Where Does It Come From ~ Where Does It All Go? 29:46
Ayya Santacitta
A talk on Maranasati ~ Recollection of Death
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Four Protective Meditations: Developing Courage to Meet the Way Things Truly Are

2021-05-05 Maranasati: Returning to the Mystery We Came From 44:00
Ayya Santacitta
A guided meditation on death & dying
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Four Protective Meditations: Developing Courage to Meet the Way Things Truly Are

2021-05-02 Q&A2 45:41
Ajahn Sucitto
Where is the experience of bodily energies found in the suttas; what is the source of Ajahn’s ‘forensic precision’; how to us somatic presence with the 3rd and 4th foundations of mindfulness; please help with insomnia; experiencing resistance to standing meditation; grief and pain experienced with ‘Future and Past’ exercise; how to deepen into the ‘neither/nor’ space; is samādhi developed by sustaining sati; how to deal with overactive citta; how did you deal with the fear of death when being robbed in India?
London Insight Meditation Clearing the Floods

2021-04-08 Death and Dying 57:42
Sylvia Boorstein, James Baraz
Sylvia and James will have a conversation about death and dying something they have both been recently practicing with in their personal lives.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2021-04-01 The Buddha Was Right 18:13
Ayya Medhanandi
As seekers of truth, we turn the wheel of Dhamma inwardly. There alone can we understand the mind’s purity and directly know the true rhythm of the heart, undiluted by worldly refrains. The sounds of the world can turn coarse and invasive until we listen to the silence in our interior depths. Secluded from life's relentless currents, we traverse the ‘cloud of unknowing’ with the riches of our virtue. Then we shall dis-cover and gain strength enough to fulfill the way of the Buddha, a transcendent going forth through the gates of the Deathless.
Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT)

2021-03-27 Deathbed Goal Challenge 13:51
Amita Schmidt
The deathbed goal is a practice that reminds you to cultivate, in the here and now, qualities which you most want to manifest in this human life.
Dharma Zephyr Insight Meditation Community

2021-03-20 The Truth of Impermanence and Death as Transformation 48:10
Alisa Dennis
Impermanence can be found all around us in Nature. Our bodies exist in Nature and so we are impermanent too. This is an exploration of mindfulness of death and dying as an opportunity to practice letting go while we are living, as preparation for focusing our attention with ease and alertness as we take our last breath in these bodies. Maranasati supports present moment awareness and the deepening of appreciation for life. The deathbed can provide an extraordinary opportunity to cultivate embodied awareness and compassion for self and others. An exploration of death not as the end of life, but as transportation into another realm of consciousness.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Maranasati: Contemplating Death, Awakening to Life with Eugene Cash, Victoria Cary, Alisa Dennis, PhD and Hakim Tafari

2021-03-20 Inquiry: Repeating Questions 10minutes each way each question 8:33
Eugene Cash
Tell me something you know about death. Tell me something you don’t know about death.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Maranasati: Contemplating Death, Awakening to Life with Eugene Cash, Victoria Cary, Alisa Dennis, PhD and Hakim Tafari

2021-03-19 Normalizing Death 47:51
Eugene Cash
Exploring our understanding of death conventionally and from a Buddhist perspective
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Maranasati: Contemplating Death, Awakening to Life with Eugene Cash, Victoria Cary, Alisa Dennis, PhD and Hakim Tafari

2021-03-19 Inquiry: Monologue 10minutes per person 33:45
Eugene Cash
What is your personal relationship with Death?
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Maranasati: Contemplating Death, Awakening to Life with Eugene Cash, Victoria Cary, Alisa Dennis, PhD and Hakim Tafari

2021-03-16 One Year Hence day 2 -- Impermanence, Death, and Equanimity 39:39
Kim Allen
Second of 5
Insight Santa Cruz

2021-03-15 24 talk: impermanence 33:23
Jill Shepherd
An introduction to the three universal characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self, focusing on impermanence then briefly touching into death contemplation
Te Moata Retreat Center :  Finding the heart of freedom

2021-01-27 Maranasati: Normalizing Death 58:38
Eugene Cash
Buddhist myth includes an alternative version of the Buddha's path in alignment with the Heavenly Messengers. Gotama Siddhartha wakes up to his 'intoxication' with youth, health, and life. He lets go of being intoxicated and seeks awakening.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Heavenly Messengers: Awakening through Illness, Aging, and Death with Debra Chamberlin-Taylor, Bonnie Duran, PhD, Leslie Booker and Eugene Cash

2021-01-03 The Value of Death 25:53
Ayya Medhanandi
This path takes us to our true home through cultivating sanctity, and understanding the value of death: the death of greed, hatred and delusion. When we see all things as impermanent, death gives definition to our life. It delimits our experience. That’s how we learn how to love – because if things were permanent, we wouldn’t know the meaning of love. We would not know how to love. And that would be a terrible loss – not to know, not to learn, how to love.
Portland Friends of the Dhamma :  Ever Present Refuge

2020-12-13 Love Everyone Or Die 24:23
Ayya Medhanandi
We may speak of or feel that we know about death but until we truly contemplate, approach and move into death, what do we know? This is a tale about looking into the eye of a tortoise shell butterfly while it lay dying on the shrine. Straining as it reached up towards us waving its frail antennae when it heard our chanting, we felt at one even with this tiniest of creatures - who also wanted only to be loved.
Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC)

2020-12-11 'Unestablished' Citta 40:55
Ajahn Sucitto
Citta can have sore spots, particularly volatile reactions that spin it out into planning. There’s the possibility of not being in that compulsive grip, of turning to the deathless element. Citta can be trained to withdraw into its own stillness, its own knowing.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-10 Q&A 2 52:56
Ajahn Sucitto
Relationship between citta, mano and viññāna; why doesn’t citta appear in the chain of dependent co-arising; what is samudayo; the nature of contact and perception conditioning feeling; how can one prepare for death; skills and developments of the mano function and how that mixes in with citta; helping other people; bubbling energy in meditation; limiting external impingements on citta in householder life.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-09-16 The Four Remembrances 50:42
Tara Brach
When we attune to the reality of impermanence and death, we remember what most matters to us. But in daily life we can lose precious swaths of time in a reactive trance, on our way somewhere else, and lost in problem solving, judgment and worry. This talk reflects on four remembrances or practices—Pausing, Yes to life, Turning toward love, and Resting in awareness—that help us awaken from trance and live true to the loving presence that is our essence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2020-09-06 Q&A – Desire, Hatred, Deathless and Boundaries 44:45
Ajahn Sucitto
How to manage inconvenient feelings of attraction; reacting impulsively towards sexual desire and hatred; working with boredom and drowsiness; how does one turn towards the deathless; is nibbana “a ground of being”; what does the use of “internal and external” mean?
Cittaviveka At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down

2020-08-19 The Inner Stopping 26:54
Ayya Medhanandi
Wherever we go the mind does not remain happy - unless we fully awaken. How can we end the restless tides and remain inwardly stable, content within ourselves like the well-hewn wheel that stood still when it stopped rolling and did not fall down? Purifying our bodily acts, speech, and mind in the Buddha's gradual training, we go beyond the eight worldly winds, coming to cessation, to the Deathless.
Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) :  Chapin Mill Retreat

2020-07-15 Meditation: Listening to Life 48:41
Tara Brach
The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence. This meditation ends with a tribute to Thich Nhat Hanh’s life and a reading from his writings on death and life.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2020-06-20 Mantra of Compassion 14:15
Ayya Medhanandi
Fear is the absence of love. Our inner purification is a movement away from fear to the embodiment of pure love - even to love the dying moment. We grow in stillness and peace as if sailing an ocean of joy, in the peace of the mind's deepest waters where we can touch the Deathless. A guided meditation and reflections offered during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Madison Insight Meditation Group

2020-06-10 Exploring Aging, Sickness and Death as Transformative Practices 39:13
Matthew Daniell
Cambridge Insight Meditation Center

2020-05-24 The Quail's Tale: A Path to Harmlessness 41:38
Ayya Medhanandi
Praising Truth for its own sake, we lean in the direction of Truth. We make our intention not to harm by body, speech, or thought. Harmlessness leads to selflessness. Selflessness leads to the Deathless. To boundless compassion. It will save us from the flames of greed, violence, and delusion raging around us. Like the baby quail. What saved it from the forest fire was the purity of its own truth developed over lifetimes. A talk given in a Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toronto Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC)

2020-05-12 31b The Body 22:03
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Unfortunately the laptop stopped! Luckily, I was coming to an end. Death contemplation is taught by the Buddha, see my Talk 03,04,45. I would simply have said that body as subjective experience is to be investigated and is a path itself to liberation from suffering.
Satipanya Retreat Centre

2020-05-09 Loss, Grief and Death: Impermanence in Pandemic Times 56:25
James Baraz
The Buddha said to reflect each day on the facts of old age, sickness and death. He also said to to come to terms with the fact that everything and everyone near and dear to us will be separated from us. In these Covid-19 days our practice becomes letting go of what was and adjust to a new way of being. This practice of impermanence includes opening to loss, grief and death which is explored in this talk.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks

2020-05-05 31 Body as Meditation Object 22:01
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Unfortunately the laptop stopped! Luckily, I was coming to an end. Death contemplation is taught by the Buddha, see my Talk 03,04,45. I would simply have said that body as subjective experience is to be investigated and is a path itself to liberation from suffering.
Satipanya Retreat Centre Talks on the Middle Length Discourses

2020-05-03 Dhamma Stream Online Puja: The Gift of Vulnerability 32:03
Ajahn Sucitto
It’s possible to meet suffering with an open heart. If the heart can open to grief, pain and vulnerability, a new view is possible – one beyond the cycle of birth and death. Keep the heart open to Dhamma, rooted in faith and goodwill. This is the Path to the deathless. *Sutta References: Therīgatha 6:2; Samyutta Nikaya 12:23; Samyutta Nikaya 1:10
Cittaviveka At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down

2020-05-01 On the Cross of Our Illusions: A Guided Dying Meditation and Reflections 42:36
Ayya Medhanandi
To simulate the natural process of death is to experience the impermanence of the five aggregates and a pure awareness that knows the inherent emptiness of things as they truly are. Dying is a potent doorway for liberation of mind and the best death we can die is shattering the ego. Then we can let go of fear once and for all. This guided meditation was given during a death and dying retreat in an Australian church in 2004.
Australian Insight Meditation Network

2020-04-16 talk: hope, hopelessness and equanimity 26:29
Jill Shepherd
Exploring ways to open more fully to the truth of impermanence and death, then looking at equanimity as an antidote to any tendency to swing between hope and hopelessness
Auckland Insight Meditation

2020-04-05 05 Contemplation of Death again! 32:01
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Satipanya Retreat Centre Talks on the Middle Length Discourses

2020-04-05 04 Contemplation of Death - Living more awake 21:41
Bhante Bodhidhamma
This is the Buddha's advice on how we should contemplate death in order to over come our fear. The outcome, paradoxically, is to live a fuller life.
Satipanya Retreat Centre Talks on the Middle Length Discourses

2020-04-03 03 Coronavirus and the Contemplation of Death 18:19
Bhante Bodhidhamma
What different positions people take re Lockdown. Importance of coming terms with death.
Satipanya Retreat Centre Talks on the Middle Length Discourses

2020-03-11 Letting Go - Release - Freedom (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 60:35
Eugene Cash
Satipatthana - Four Foundations of Mindfulness offers us specific meditation practices with the body, breath, in four postures, in all activities, with the elements, with death, vedana, the heart/mind and the dharmas including hindrances and the seven factors of awakenings. Each of these practices includes a through line: One abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. The not clinging to body, heart, mind or any experience is both the foundation of the Buddha's teaching and the doorway to freedom. It's the experience of coming into alignment with ' he way things are.'
Spirit Rock Meditation Center March Monthlong

2020-03-04 From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha Mind 16: Working with Our Psychological Conditioning 3 62:28
Donald Rothberg
We begin by pointing to how combining traditional Buddhist training with transforming psychological and social conditioning and unresolved material suggests the contours of a contemporary path of awakening. We then identify some of the main areas of the contemporary “shadow,” of unconscious, unresolved conditioning and developmental wounds, such as anger, fear, death, shame, conflict, trauma, grief, sexuality, and so on. We then give a “map” of four stages in the transformation of the shadow (particularly in a meditative context), starting with finding ways to access the shadow, then learning to be with and explore the shadow, then transforming the shadow, and then integrating the shadow work with daily life.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

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