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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2004-01-01
The Present Moment
66:01
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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GET REAL
Reality is threatening when we try to live in our stories and preconceived notions. But when the mind is free of the falsity of delusion, things that are real pose no danger to the mind.
RIGHT NOW
What you're doing right now is very important -- a principle that applies to any 'right now,' because what you're doing right now is always shaping 'right now' as well as the future.
JUST THIS BREATH
In one breath you've got everything you need for the practice, so be fully aware right here, and the fullness of your awareness will develop over time without your having to pace yourself or to plan ahead.
SHAPING YOUR LIFE
As meditators, we can easily slip into the attitude that we're like people watching T.V. -- passive consumers, watching a reality that's ready-made -- but that's not what's really going on. We've always active, always shaping things, even when we seem to be perfectly still. The purpose of the meditation is to be more careful about our intentions, more alert about how we're shaping things.
DEVELOPING YOUR POTENTIAL
The simple things we already have in the present can be put together in such a way that they can lead to true happiness. We don't have to go searching outside. All we need is to develop what's right here.
FIVE TALKS ON ONE CASSETTE OR CD
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Metta Forest Monastery
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2004-01-01
Exploring The Breath
1:11:52
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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INTRODUCTION TO BREATH MEDITATION
Learn how to enjoy keeping the mind with the breath. If you spend time with the breath, you get sensitive not only to the breath, but also to what the mind is doing in the present moment and to the way it causes unnecessary suffering for itself.
GETTING TO KNOW THE BREATH
We live with the breath, and yet we don’t know it, and as a result don’t get as much out of it as we could. The breath can provide food, clothing, shelter, and medicine for the mind if you take the time to get to know it well.
INSIGHT FROM THE BREATH
The type of insight that’s going to make a difference in the mind has to come from the mind’s being solidly based. So, until your mindfulness of the breath is really solid, this is where you want to focus all your efforts.
WHY THE BREATH
The breath is like a mirror for the mind. When there’s greed, anger, delusion, they’ll show up in the breath. And you find that not only does the breath reflect the mind, but you can use the breath to have a positive effect on the mind as well.
THE FULLNESS OF THE BREATH
When the breath in the body is full, you find that it’s really resilient and eases your burdens in lots of ways. So experiment to see what a “full breath” is.
THE BREATH'S POTENTIAL
The mind is like an animal: that if it hasn’t been trained it’s difficult to live with. Once we train it, though, it stops creating so much suffering for itself. So we begin by staying in one place with something really simple: the breath.
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Metta Forest Monastery
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2004-01-01
Shaping Your Life
11:30
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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As meditators, we can easily slip into the attitude that we’re like people watching T.V.—passive consumers, watching a reality that’s ready-made—but that’s not what’s really going on. We’ve always active, always shaping things, even when we seem to be perfectly still. The purpose of the meditation is to be more careful about our intentions, more alert about how we’re shaping things.
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Metta Forest Monastery
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In
collection:
The Present Moment
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2003-12-18
Exploring The Breath
1:13:10
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Learn how to enjoy keeping the mind with the breath. If you spend time with the breath, you get sensitive not only to the breath, but also to what the mind is doing in the present moment and to the way it causes unnecessary suffering for itself.
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Metta Forest Monastery
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2003-12-13
I Just Wanted Some Toothpaste
35:17
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The way out of pain is not in sense pleasure. But suffering can be a ticket to Nibbana – maybe not the one we asked for, but it's in our hands. So we try. Taste the moment just as it is. Choose love when there is every reason to hate. Trust when there is every reason to despair. Be patient when anger is burning within. Faced with terror or far from peace, let go. Being still in the very midst of fear, we can know non-fear. All is fleeting, not what we are, and nothing to hold onto. There, in the silent flow of the breath, the heart will soften in a tender wave of unconditional love.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2003-12-10
Those Who Rightly Love Wisdom
28:03
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Ayya Medhanandi
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In a psychic feat for his sister, Sundari Nanda, the Buddha creates a vision of a beautiful lady who transforms into an old woman. Through this direct experience of impermanence, her mind is liberated. Likewise, those who rightly love wisdom and contemplate death without fear see the emptiness and impermanence of all conditioned things. Realizing the futility of all clinging and the inevitability of death, our wisdom and faith in the Dhamma ripen and reveal the doors to the Deathless. This is the path of awakening.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2003-12-03
Spiritual Friendships
61:19
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Carol Wilson
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The Buddha often said that keeping company with lovely and wise people is one of the most supportive qualities for our path of awakening. One of the first of our sincere practices, where we can also begin, is to be lovely friends for others in this world. How our practice is developing the qualities that make a spiritual friend.
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Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
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2003-11-28
The Power Of Metta
58:52
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Guy Armstrong
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The practice of metta brings five wonderful qualities into our Dhamma practice. It makes the heart softer and more responsive; it purifies the heart; it brings us into connection with all of life; it develops concentration; and it leads to happiness. Lovingkindness is the quality of friendliness toward oneself and others developed through the practice of metta. This talk describes how the practice works as a protection, a healing, a purification of heart, and a boundless state of mind.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2003-11-23
Giving
42:25
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Arinna Weisman
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We are often blind to our own generosity, to the gift of our practice and efforts. The Buddha invites us to contemplate this beautiful quality of our minds, and its wholesome results, as part of the practice of growing and sustaining.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-22
Patience
45:03
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Arinna Weisman
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Patience is one of the Paramis and gives us the strength to endure through difficult experiences. We can be inspired to practice it through contemplating leaders such as Mandela or the Dalai Lama who have faced extreme challenges in their lives without retribution or revenge, but with kindness and wisdom.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-18
Truthfulness
43:43
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Arinna Weisman
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The commitment to truthfulness is a mirror which highlights our deepest intention to bring harmony and peace through kind and useful words. Also it shows us the sneaky seductions of lying, flattery and unkind speech.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-13
Learning
46:32
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Rodney Smith
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Reflect on how generosity is related to equality. When you offer a gift to someone you perceive as unequal is that generosity or pity? Feel the difference between these two forms of giving. How does the heart feel and how does the mind hold the offering in a generous act and in pity? When you perceive someone as a human being regardless of their present condition you can only perceive them as equal. When you give to the less fortunate, you are lost in the pain of the circumstances. The generous heart feels that pain but gives to the human being.
This week find several occasions to give something away to someone less privileged. Before you do, release the projections and allow equality to surface. One person giving to another. Look the person in the eye when you hand them the gift. Let your heart meet theirs. Feel the humility of true generosity. Feel the joy of release. Notice the qualitative difference between giving with humility and the self-importance of "helping the disadvantaged."
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Seattle Insight Meditation Society
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2003-11-11
Morality
48:07
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Arinna Weisman
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We have a tendency to see the world through success-failure, enemy-friend, good-bad. It is also possible to hold, with love, the ambiguity of life and our own ambivalence. Without splitting, we are able to live within the ethical guidelines given by the Buddha’s teachings.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-05
Friendship
33:17
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Arinna Weisman
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The Buddha said sangha and spiritual friendship is the holy life. This practice involves learning to experience our own beauty and Buddha nature, and through this, the beauty of others.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-01
The Power Of Mindfulness
53:55
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Guy Armstrong
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Mindfulness is our doorway to reality, or nature, which reveals its truths to us. The qualities of mindfulness, effort and concentration, are at the heart of the meditative path. As they develop, they bring our hearts and minds ever closer to the awakened mind of the Buddha. Only
mindfulness can stem the tide of conditioned thought patterns that sweep us into sorrow.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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