When the heart is open and joyful, we are open to our interconnectedness with all beings. And when we understand the truth of no self, the heart can be more responsive to others.
There is a certain aliveness that comes when we speak honestly in a
vulnerable, yet clear communication. It aligns us with our truth and we
become authentic and wisely powerful. But it's often not easy to do that.
I've based this talk on my son Adam's final thesis from Naropa University
where he recently graduated with a B.A. in somatic and contemplative
psychology. I was quite impressed and moved by it. It made me think. I
wanted to share it as we explore Wise Speech together.
We spend much of our life on our way somewhere else, driven by the sense that something is missing or wrong. This talk explores the suffering that arises from our addiction to busyness and "doing," and the healing, loving and wisdom that arise when we take refuge in presence.
The heart and essence of the Dharma is to realize the four noble truths and the characteristics of existence. How we realize this is by walking along the eight fold path.
Starts with one of John's poems describing the currents that push and pull us as we begin this journey -- coupled with one of his India stories from 40 years ago..
This talk is about addressing the first day of a week of intensive meditation practice. Exploration and instructions on working with challenges around gathering inspiration to deepen practice.
Review of the 3 characteristics and 5 precepts. Exploration of faith and refuge as we leave retreat. Explanation of 'karooke' as appreciation practice.
In this telling of the Buddha's story, we find archetypes that reveal a universal path of awakening and freedom. We explore how each of us has the potential to realize the loving and radiant awareness that is our source.
After a review of our first two sessions, we explore, both through an overview and through experiential exercises, bodily-based practices to help cultivate equanimity.
Judgment is seeing the world in quantifiable terms. There a holistic way of seeing that is not partial and comparative but becomes inaccessible when we believe in judgment. Let the presence of judgment remind you that your thinking and emoting is arising from an incomplete perception. Quiet yourself to the inward narrative and allow the whole mind, undivided by judgment, to arise.
All about walking meditation as seen through the lens of the Eightfold Path to Freedom.
NOTE: There are some audio quality issues for the first 18:36 minutes...clean thereafter.
An exploration of the ten most frequently raised questions, concerns and issues of Dharma practitioners, in sustaining and deepening practice in their everyday life.
This talk uses the Buddha's model of the Middle Way to explore our tendencies to get caught either in obsessing about self, others and world, or in trying to reject and deny the same. Martin points to a creative, dynamic engagement with experience which reflects the title of the talk.
Listen deeply to the resonance within where virtue sows fields of goodness, wisdom and compassion, and Death teaches us to let go. At first, we tremble with fear. But out of that fear, we draw strength. Out of anger – a stillness and forgiveness. Out of greed, we draw generosity and gratitude. And from true vulnerability, we awaken to the Deathless.
This talk links the concerns of our life, the tendencies of our minds, and the practice of meditation. Martin explores the way our conditioning and mental attitudes colour all our perceptions, and explores how dharma practice invites us to see through our acquired mental shaping, beyond our ideas, to meet life as directly, as deeply, as freely as possible.
A continued exploration of the nature of equanimity, how we cultivate it in formal practice and in action. with a particular focus in the last part of the talk on "The Eight Worldly Winds"
Mind is not an entity but a network of perception, feeling, and inclinations that affect each other. By directing we can bring around the change of release
This talk introduces a way of participating in a silent retreat that leaves room for all aspects of our life. Martin discusses some orientating reflections that run throughout the retreat, beginning with the ongoing questioning of our experience as we settle more deeply into it; 'what is happening now?'
The Buddha gives us lessons in emptiness. We are compelled to trust so completely to be able to truly receive these teachings, surrendering to the Dhamma, offering everything. We bless each step, harvesting wisdom with a brave heart. And in this remarkable learning, we shall know the unexcelled fragrance of the Dhamma, the island beyond which we cannot go.
The habit of self-judgment not only causes emotional pain, it creates a trance that obscures the purity and vastness of our Being. This talk explores how a wakeful and forgiving heart can heal and free us. (Retreat Talk)
To deepen our meditation practice we need to work skillfully with whatever is a disturbance -- whether it's the gross forms of the hindrances, or the subtlest manifestations of restlessness. This subtle restlessness often comes from a primal anxiety. We need to recognize this and find the stillness in our experience. Then we can truly be with things as they are.
Our energy gets dragged out and fixated by various outflows (asava). Through widening and softening we can stop constructing the alienated "places" of our dukkha
As we grow in wisdom, our fear of death dissolves. The more we purify from within, the more we abide with a clarity of mind that bestows the ultimate seeing, our cosmic ordination, our unburdening from the sufferings of this realm. The veil of delusion collapses in the sacred footprint of the Dhamma. This will be our noble warming.
The practice of samadhi requires commitment to wise effort towards concentration. it requires overcoming resistance to concentration, to be willing to feel intimacy with teh object. The fruit of commitment to concentration is one-pointed equanimity. Concentration can be considered om five different qualities from dedication to steadiness.
Awareness is a wholistic but differentiated into thought, heart and body intelligences. Through accessing the five elements we begin to return to a unified field.
Awareness is a wholistic but differentiated into thought, heart and body intelligences. Through accessing the five elements we begin to return to a unified field. Copy of http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/9/talk/12813 with recovered audio
Deepening concentration moves on two axis - horizontal and vertical. Continuity, or staying over time, is the horizontal axis. Intimacy, or the movement toward dissolving the subject/object, is the vertical axis. Together concentration deepens.
One expression of our suffering is homelessness--feeling cut off from the presence and aliveness that is our source. This talk explores the existential and cultural forces that foster disconnection from our physical and energetic being, the practices that enable us to embrace our unlived life and the gifts of homecoming.
