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Dharma Talks in English
2010-02-16 Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Moving the Principle Through the Application 60:54
Rodney Smith
Guiding the application of the teaching from the sense of self and not the true principle of selflessness is the single greatest mistake made in Buddhist practice and distorts all the revelations.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-10-11 Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: The Spirit of Questioning 56:21
Rodney Smith
Questions are the life's blood of the dharma. If we are willing to follow wherever the question takes us, then the question will take us out of our beliefs and opinions into something new and unexplored. Something will end in us and will not arise again in the same way.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-10-25 Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: The Effort to Discern 66:08
Rodney Smith
What is a skillful or unskillful state of mind? What do those terms mean--skillful for what purpose? Even to know something at this most basic level requires active discernment. The Buddha may have said certain states were skillful or unskillful, but that does nothing for your practice. You have to see its effect on you and know its impact directly.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-11-22 Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: Discernment and the Hindrances 47:25
Rodney Smith
Struggling with the hindrances draws us back into form. Each hindrance has to be thoroughly understood so that when it arises we no longer invest reality into its appearance. Discernment is the only tool that can reveal the truth of its emptiness. In seeing the true nature of the hindrance, we see our own and the struggle ends. All other applications of practice reinvest thought into the form and make it more than what it is.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-11-08 Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: Application of Discernment 56:22
Rodney Smith
Applying discernment requires an honesty of intent. That honesty is the discernment at work. If you need skillful means to help balance the energy, use it. It can be helpful to back up to the First Foundation and see how the state of mind is affecting the body. Next, move to the Second Foundation and catch the feeling tone and the accompanying story. Moving onto the Third Foundation, settle to see just what this state is in essence. Finally, apply discerning questions that pick apart the solidity and truth of the state of mind such as, "Is there space for this too?" "Where is the "me" in this state?"
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-12-13 Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: Discerning the Self 67:28
Rodney Smith
Discernment must ultimately understand the nature of self completely. Awareness saw in the Third Foundation how the self was born from a feeling and elaborated on with thought forming the story and image of "I." Even though that process is now understood (wisdom), still, because of its tremendous momentum, there may be a residual belief in the self when it arises. Discernment wears down that residual belief by tracking the sense of self through all its manifestations until there is no longer the belief in self even though there is the occasional arising of self.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2010-03-02 Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Wise Effort 56:41
Rodney Smith
It is important to learn the meditation technique, but to adhere too strictly to the form of the practice can mask self-doubt. Risking doing it wrong begins the "art" of practice, and insight develops within the art of quiet observation free from the pressure of failure.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2010-03-16 Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Understanding Mindfulness 60:14
Rodney Smith
Mindfulness is at the heart of the Buddha's teaching, but few people understand how it evolves from the simple practice of being mindful into a mature, full-embodied awareness.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2010-03-30 Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: From Mindfulness to Awareness 3:50
Rodney Smith
Mindfulness is the tool, awareness is the result. All we need to do to convert the tool into the result is get out of the way.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2010-04-13 Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: Body as the Body 55:48
Rodney Smith
The body is a residing stranger to most of us. We think we know what it is, but we have not given ourselves to it thoroughly so that it reveals its secrets.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

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