The Neurology of Awakening, with Rick Mendius: The latest brain research has begun to confirm the central insights of the Buddha and other great teachers. And it's suggesting ways you can help your brain to enter deeper states of mindfulness and concentration, love, and happiness. Suffering, joy, and freedom all depend on what happens within your nervous system. Skillful practice thus means being skillful with your own brain. This experiential workshop offers user-friendly information with lots of practical methods. No background in neuroscience or mindfulness is needed. We'll cover: --- The relationship between the mind and the brain; --- Strengthening neural factors of mindfulness; --- The role of concentration in Buddhist practice; --- Practical help from brain research for steadying the mind...quieting it... and bringing it to singleness. Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals- This workshop is designed to help you: a) Name two mechanisms of experience-dependent neuroplasticity; b) Give clients two examples of how repeated mental activity changes brain structure; c) Describe temperamental variations in the control of attention; d) Teach clients two ways to practice mindfulness.

Finding compassion & balance amidst the wild & beautiful changes of Life...

If we review where the exploration of Dependent Origination has brought us over the course of this series of talks, we will notice four perceptional shifts that Dependent Origination has encouraged. The first is that through Dependent Origination we perceive there are an infinite number of influences on every event and that existence itself arises from multiple factors, and therefore there is no separate existences. Everything is tied together through the web of relationship. But Dependent Origination moves it even further by its second perceptual shift in which it shows how the web of somethingness was generated by the mind from nothing. Out of nothing, form arises and becomes the world of connected relationships with "me" arising within it. The "how did that happen," is explained by Dependent Origination, as the links build upon themselves to reveal a world of appearances that have no inherent substance. The third perceptual change from Dependent Origination is a variation of the second in which the world arises directly from "my" projections. In essence the world does not have a fundamental existence of its own. It is dependent upon "me" and what I know, for it to be. The fourth shift is the acknowledgment of struggle that is inherent in the arising of form from formlessness. We are birthed from that struggle and ultimately must grow old and die because of it.

Change is the fundamental law of nature. How one learns to skillfully be with unwanted change is the difference between a life of peace and a life of anguish. Mindfulness practice addresses this directly.

An impassioned talk that includes a little known story from the suttas about the dangers of and suffering caused by the notion of private property. During the talk, winds of 45 mph buffeted the monastery, emergency sirens sounded in the distance, and three power outages occurred. Ends with a lively discussion with the sangha.

30 of 43 from Luang Por Sumedho - CD: Talks from Thailand (2008-2014) 00:00 Q1: Have you ever had doubts and considered disrobing?; 03:55 Q2: What do you think of more socially, enviromentally engaged monks? 14:08 Q3 [Some people say] there is a conspiracy of the older monks against women who [they say want to] change the dhamma; 25:42 Q4 What do you think about the future of Buddhism in the west and the different interests of westerners, even some aversion to hearing about the Four Noble Truths?; 50:50 Q5 Is samsara within or also external to the mind of the individual?

All conditioned things (read: everything) are constantly changing. These were the Buddha’s last words to us. To the degree to which we are able to live this truth is to the degree that we end our struggle with life and live in this world with happiness and ease. All aspects of this retreat including the sitting and walking instructions, the dharma talk and even the format of the retreat will incorporate the teachings of change.

All conditioned things (read: everything) are constantly changing. These were the Buddha’s last words to us. To the degree to which we are able to live this truth is to the degree that we end our struggle with life and live in this world with happiness and ease. All aspects of this retreat including the sitting and walking instructions, the dharma talk and even the format of the retreat will incorporate the teachings of change.

This recording begins with approximately 20 minutes of teachings on anger, followed by a little less than 20 minutes of a guided meditative reflection. The talk examines the force of aversion, anger, hatred, and hostility as manifestations of what in Pali are called dose-rooted states. Rather than criticize and judge ourselves when anger arises, we extract ourselves from the story of anger, and practice seeing it as an experience of suffering—as dukkha. Anger does not happen to us; we actively engage in the process. Therefore, through clear seeing and wise inquiry, we can change the conditions that perpetuate anger in our lives. Often anger arises when there is unwise attention to an unpleasant sensory or mental contact. We can learn to work mindfully with these deeply conditioned tendencies and feeling how it manifests in the body, become aware of the feeling tone (vedana), recognize the mental state, and discern how it functions—its origin, cessation, and way leading to its cessation. The primary antidote is mindfulness.