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Dharma Talks
2020-12-11 Boundless Mettā Shaped by Insight 45:31
Nathan Glyde
Gaia House Mettā and Insight

2020-12-11 Q&A 15:10
Ajahn Sucitto
Is citta/mindfulness always present; who is attending to the citta; where does citta’s luminosity land; eyes opened or closed in meditation; thinking during discernment; use of cooling and warming in relation to what’s arising.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-11 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 11 2020 21:42
Chas DiCapua
Discovering the Dharma in Nature
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

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

2020-12-11 Guided Meditation – Calm and Withdrawal 30:18
Ajahn Sucitto
Begin by remembering the value of calm and insight. Place attention carefully at the point of contact impression. Softening and widening so the impressions don’t stick. Let them roll off like beads of water.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-11 Unwrapping Citta from the Khandha 27:46
Ajahn Sucitto
Citta is the still point in all the movement, tangle and impact. It’s hard to recognize, but body offers a reference point – the sense of presence. Yoniso manasikara, careful attention, trims the flood of experience to a summary message of what’s contacting you. Body can then be used to discharge the push of the aggregates.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-10 Gregory Kramer on his book “A Whole Life Path" a fresh exploration of the 8-Fold Path. 63:42
James Baraz, Gregory Kramer
Many lay Buddhists struggle to carry the benefits of their studies and meditation practice into their twenty-first-century lives. How might our daily experience of both life and the Buddha’s teachings shift if there were no separation between them? Gregory speaks about the realistic and comprehensive vision that arises when we ask this question: If every moment of my life is Path, then what does each path factor need to cover for this to be true in a grounded, practical way?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2020-12-10 Embodying Intention 59:53
Zohar Lavie
Guided meditation and talk
Gaia House Online Dharma Hall - Dec 2020

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

2020-12-10 Q&A 1 22:18
Ajahn Sucitto
Equanimity as a brahmavihara and equanimity as a factor of awakening; latent tendencies (anusaya); uprooting hindrances; role of the formless realms in developing insight and freedom;; when is the mind is ready to go to the formless realm; where does vedanā fit in with manas/ mano; quality of self-respect in removing the need to prove oneself.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-10 Using Citta to Clear Obstacles and Conventions 34:07
Ajahn Sucitto
In the process of body meditation, the notional conventional body drops away and we find the citta body. With the cultivation of appamano states, it is nourished and strengthened to meet our negative afflictive states and heal them.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-10 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 10 2020 20:53
Chas DiCapua
Discovering the Dharma in Nature
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-10 Boundariless Citta 26:41
Ajahn Sucitto
The boundless nature of citta can make us feel too vulnerable, so we put up boundaries that end up constricting us. Cultivation of the brahmaviharā, the measureless states, is a removal of those boundaries. An abiding place results that can act as a foundation for complete liberation.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 Guided Meditation – Brahmaviharā 30:11
Ajahn Sucitto
If we keep picking up and resonating the brahmaviharā heart tones, citta will naturally open and move in that direction. These are natural expressions of citta – it feels rewarded with these expressions and is energized.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 Q&A 2 47:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Questions about involuntary movements in practice; please you comment on the third tetrad of ānāpānasati; please review the potential value of jhāna experiences; say more about how ignorance sucks energy from citta; deep fears and primal memories.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 Practicing with Views 3 1:11:29
Donald Rothberg
We review some of what we've covered in previous sessions, including the Buddha's teachings on views, the core of the problem being reactivity (grasping and pushing away) in relationship to views--not views themselves, and three ways of practicing with views. We then introduce one of the three forms of deeper inquiry into views mentioned, the approach of Nagjarjuna (c. 150-250 C.E.), the "second Buddha." Nagarjuna demonstrated a method of showing how any reactively-held views, including Buddhist views, leads to contradictions and absurdity.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
Attached Files:
  • Nagarjuna Slides Draft 3 by Donald Rothberg (PDF)

2020-12-09 Q&A 1 16:13
Ajahn Sucitto
Misguided jhāna; how to practice with the three characteristics (anicca, dukkha, anatta); is ānāpānasati enough for liberation?
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 The Absorption Process 50:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Meditation is a whole life process. Proper cultivation of citta – diligence, vigilance, careful attention in our attitudes and actions – can lead to degrees of liberation. Topics of samadhi, jhāna, wisdom are addressed.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-09 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 9 2020 21:26
Chas DiCapua
Discovering the Dharma in Nature
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-09 Guided Meditation – Handling the Citta towards Jhāna 38:51
Ajahn Sucitto
Lingering is part of the process of absorbing. It takes time to learn. Establish reference points to return to, lingering with no particular agenda. Keep widening and softening attention over the whole body.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Q&A 52:23
Ajahn Sucitto
Please expand on terms kusala and akusala; right effort when working with body tension; is thought consciousness the same as anusaya (latent tendencies); please describe Thai Forest’s particular way of teaching dhamma; does stepping back out of the conditioned into the unconditioned refer to the unrestricted unbounded citta; how is yoniso manasikara different from mindfulness; comments on Venerable Paññavaddho’s view on citta.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Guided Meditation – Responsive Intelligence 25:20
Ajahn Sucitto
Meditation is a process repeatedly placing attention. Keep touching references of comfort and steadiness, listen and linger until citta picks up the sign. We begin to learn what is suitable, what is working to gladden citta. It then has the strength to break down the afflictions of heart and body.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Q&A 26:16
Ajahn Sucitto
Please explain Ajahn Maha Boowa’s comment that citta ‘does not die’; is the experience of something that sees and receives experience citta; is citta what Tibetans call ‘mind itself’; is pure citta synonymous with pure knowing; please clarify comment about ‘storms passing through’ in relation to suicide; do we know when we are experiencing citta; how to rest in citta, the place of no ‘I’?
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 8 2020 22:16
Chas DiCapua
Discovering the Dharma in Nature
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-08 Citta as Luminous Awareness 45:20
Ajahn Sucitto
Reading from several sources, the unrestricted citta is described. Beyond the world of phenomena, its baseline is open luminosity. The encouragement is to get in touch with its knowingness – jhāna is how we deepen into mind’s nature.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Guided Meditation On Primary Citta 31:51
Ajahn Sucitto
The baseline of citta is openness, but it’s forgotten, mesmerized by its constrictions. Return to this primary citta, beneath the external and internal concerns. Take as support breathing out and breathing in.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-08 Guided Meditation – Opening out of Circumstance 24:42
Ajahn Sucitto
Meditation offers an important reference point out of the world of circumstances. Mindfulness of body and breathing offer rest and replenishment, giving citta access to its life force energy. Ends with walking meditation instructions.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Evening Q&A 42:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Meaning of ‘The citta goes to distinction’; search for security externally and internally; the wrapping and unwrapping of citta; manas and its relationship to citta; practicing with grief; is citta the unconditioned; please clarify comment about vipassana practice; when is observing bodily/somatic states dissociation and cutting off from them?
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Recollecting and Appreciating Citta as Heart 31:35
Ajahn Sucitto
The affective heart aspect of citta is absolutely essential for cultivation. Instead of contracting in the face of dukkha, it can open – rise up to it – with compassion, gladness, equanimity. This is what makes a human magnificent.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Summary – Checking Perception 10:09
Ajahn Sucitto
The perceptions that cause contraction can be shifted and changed. Going to the root of where the perceptions arise, pause – don’t follow the immediate reflex. Ask – what’s helpful now? Let the unrestricted citta respond.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 IMS Daily Dharma, Dec 7 2020 22:50
Chas DiCapua
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center IMS Daily Dharma 2020

2020-12-07 Afternoon Q&A 27:29
Ajahn Sucitto
Meaning of ‘concocted’; upward movement of energy; difference between manas and mano; meaning of ‘pure mind’; development of ‘wise discernment’; citta as process rather than thing; can yoga help unbind citta; difference in Vedic meaning of ‘chitta’ and Buddha’s use of ‘citta’; where duality comes in; meaning of ‘unwrapped citta’; Ajahn Maha Boowa’s characterization of citta.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Citta Wrapped in Khanda = Contraction 48:03
Ajahn Sucitto
We rarely experience pure citta. What we experience are its wrappings – its conditioned programs. Our aim is to first make the wrapping as good and beneficial as possible, and second, to release citta from all conditions.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Guided Meditation – Intentional Aspect of Citta 29:13
Ajahn Sucitto
Beginning with citta’s ability to intend and attend, steer away from distractions and compulsions. Establish mindfulness (sati ) using body as a mooring post. Guidance around breathing and body follow.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-07 Guided Meditation – Centring and Stabillizing Citta 39:11
Ajahn Sucitto
Citta is our center, but it’s conditioned to allowing itself to be occupied with transient phenomena. In meditation we can shift back to citta as the center, thereby weakening the habits of running out and trying to control circumstances.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-06 How to Let Go? 28:52
Ayya Santacitta
San Francisco Insight
Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery

2020-12-06 The Fork Story & Other Meal Reflections 25:58
Ayya Santacitta
Guided Meditation | San Francisco Insight
Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery

2020-12-06 Reach Out a Gentle Hand to Your Mind 27:55
Ayya Santacitta
Guided Meditation | San Francisco Insight
Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery

2020-12-06 The Eightfold Noble Path: Right Effort 1:29:40
Eugene Cash
San Francisco Insight Meditation Community

2020-12-06 Guided Meditation – Training the Mind with Light Touch and Listening 25:36
Ajahn Sucitto
Citta is energetic, its energies habituated to going out. Settle and calm it through the body, and sustain attention with light touch and listening, vitaka-vicara. Listen for a long time to what you place your attention on. Mind becomes calm and receptive.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-06 Méditation guidée : Compassion 36:58
Pascal Auclair
True North Insight Le coeur en équilibre

2020-12-06 L’alchimie de la pleine conscience 46:42
Pascal Auclair
True North Insight Le coeur en équilibre

2020-12-06 Sunday Afternoon Session 43:55
Thanissara, Kittisaro
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "Essence: Accessing Peace Within Uncertain Times" with Kittisaro and Thanissara

2020-12-06 Reflections for the Closing of the Retreat from 46:26
Gavin Milne
This recording also includes Laura Bridgman
Gaia House Waking Up Everywhere

2020-12-06 Sunday Morning Session 2:39:59
Thanissara, Kittisaro
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "Essence: Accessing Peace Within Uncertain Times" with Kittisaro and Thanissara

2020-12-06 Further Reflections on the Seven Factors of Awakening 22:52
Laura Bridgman
Gaia House Waking Up Everywhere

2020-12-06 Instructions : Papancha, ou la prolifération mentale 62:28
Pascal Auclair
True North Insight Le coeur en équilibre

2020-12-06 Overview of Citta 50:18
Ajahn Sucitto
Referring to various Dhammapada passages, we come to understand that citta is stuck, grasped, bound up. But it can be released with wisdom. In meditation we practice calming and steadying. Citta can bond to body or breathing rather than running out.
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-12-05 Living the 'Means' for Liberation 56:16
Gavin Milne
Gaia House Waking Up Everywhere

2020-12-05 Cultivating Calm and Alive Awareness 1:14:07
Nathan Glyde
A guided meditation and talk exploring a way of practice developed from and inspired by Rob Burbea's Counting Within the Breath (see Practicing the Jhanas retreat) to steady the mind & heart, develop a whole body sensitivity, brighten awareness, and overcome the common hindrances to feeling free.
Gaia House Online Dharma Hall - Dec 2020

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