Some very obvious things need to be looked at with more honest clarity; One of those is our sense of self. It just seems so obvious, practically undeniable, that “I am”. Yet a separate self is impossible to find; what a paradox.

A note on the recording: Approx. 32 minutes into Lama Rod Owens talk, he begun a guided meditation practice. This approx. 36 minutes guided practice was extracted from this recording and was made a stand alone track which you can freely access. Once Lama Rod announces start of guided practice, a bell is heard, which marks the End of extracted guided practice. Insight OUT Refuge welcomes Lama Rod Owens for this special gathering on the 5th Wednesday of October. Our community is open to students of all Buddhist traditions, as well as those who are in the beginning stages of exploring their meditation practice and have an interest in the Dharma. All those who identify as LGBTQI are welcome. We gather to form a multicultural community in which we can support each other in our practice with a commitment toward social change.

A note on the recording: This guided meditation recording took place during Lama Rod talk for Insight OUT sangha. It was extracted from the main reocrindg of this talk to be a stand alone recording. It begun approx. 32 minutes into Lama Rod Owens' talk. Insight OUT Refuge welcomes Lama Rod Owens for this special gathering on the 5th Wednesday of October. Our community is open to students of all Buddhist traditions, as well as those who are in the beginning stages of exploring their meditation practice and have an interest in the Dharma. All those who identify as LGBTQI are welcome. We gather to form a multicultural community in which we can support each other in our practice with a commitment toward social change.

We struggle for certainty and clarity, but the true orientation of Dhamma is disorientation from old maps, thereby allowing forms to arise and change with disengaged attention. Then we’re much more alert and agile. This is wilderness training.

Eight kinds of dukkha. Four reflections in mindfulness of breathing: change, fading, cessation, and letting go (relinquishment).

Life and Death as a process of change and transformation.

James returns from his recent teaching In Europe and Israel. Besides his trip to the West Bank for a glimpse of Palestinian life, he shares a fascinating project: Israelis’ actually changed their attitude about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a marketing experiment called “The Conflict Campaign” based on paradoxical thinking principles.
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The video clip of the campaign in the talk can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZadiztzLt0
To learn more about “The Fund for Reconciliation Tolerance and Peace” go to:
http://www.frtp-arik-peace.org/
Or, “Like” their Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/fund4rtp

Let others know.

Exploring Annicca (change), Dukkha (stress) and Anatta (not self), their relationship to one another, and the role they play in freeing the mind/heart.

On retreat there can be disorientation – new people, place, restrictions that weren’t there before. Disorientation is a tough medicine, but we use it to meet the boundary of the habitual self with its instinct to ‘make things go my way'. Stay with the discomfort, so that the mind changes direction: to the settled ground, through the body.