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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2016-04-24
Equanimity: Finding Balance in Our Practice
2:55:56
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James Baraz
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This daylong includes general talks on the theme of cultivating equanimity into your dharma practice. In addition to the talks and discussion, I offer the following practices with instructions that can be used to incline the mind toward equanimity (edited to remove lengthy periods of silence during the guided meditations):
Practice #1 - Seeing things as they are
Practice #2 - Looking through the lens of impermanence
Practice #3 - Looking through the lens of vedana
(feeling tone; 2nd foundation of mindfulness)
Practice #4 - Equanimity with Big Mind meditation
Practice #5 - Equanimty using traditional Brahma Viharas phrases
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2016-03-12
Three kinds of Dukkha
21:44
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Gregory Kramer
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Dyad with separate speakers for the first two contemplations
1. straight-forward suffering. The pain can be proliferated and held up and at this micro-level flips into Dukka-dukka
2.the dukka of impermanence, that comes with the instability of things and our responses
" Give attention to the quality of receiving."
" What is it like to be speaking of this pain of impermanence....; to be hearing it?"
3.the suffering associated waith constructions and the constructing mind
"Those images that come and haunt the mind."
"That ongoing tumult of the body-mind responding to its own fabrications."
"Can we get off the bus?"
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Insight Dialogue Community (SatiSphere)
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Insight Dialogue Retreat
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2016-02-09
The Liberating Embrace of Annicca-Impermance
1:13:51
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Marcia Rose
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The deep knowing & living with impermanence is a gateway to freeing the mind – freeing the heart. The only thing that we can really know for sure is the constancy of change. It's the most basic fact of our existence. Nothing lasts…nothing stays the same. So paradoxically the only thing that we can hold onto is the intuitive insight of impermanence, which arises out of direct experience within our practice and eventually brings a great relief and lightness into our life. We no longer
need to haul around such a heavy load.
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Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge
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February 2016 at IMS - Forest Refuge
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2016-01-20
Impermanence
61:42
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Donald Rothberg
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Based on the earlier meditation, we examine the importance of reflection on and mindfulness of, impermanence, both gross impermanence and moment-to-moment impermanence; why it's difficult to be deeply aware of impermanence; practices to explore impermanence; and deeper understandings opened up by practices with impermanence.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2016-01-07
Impermanence: Beyond the Rise and Fall of Things that Change
51:14
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Shaila Catherine
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This talk by Shaila Catherine is the first in the speaker series "Doorways to Insight." Shaila Catherine describes the importance that is placed on recognizing and contemplating impermanence. This is one of the three main characteristics that we observe in insight meditation practices. We see and know that things change. Everything is changing—thoughts, emotions, feelings, perceptions, sensations, tastes, and emotions. But when we don't see the impermanence of things, we tend to grasp and cling to them. We tend to want to make them to last, and thereby we identify and become attached. As a result of attachment, we suffer, because they are changing anyway. Can we see beyond things that change, and realize what might be called changeless or deathless, to awaken with insight, to realize nibbana?
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2015-09-22
On dukkha & dukkha nana
1:25:19
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Patrick Kearney
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We explore how the ordinary experience of dukkha becomes dukkha ñāṇa, understanding of the universal characteristic (samañña lakkhaṇa) of dukkha. We look at the how the perception of impermanence (anicca-saññā) creates anxiety when the heart intuits the groundless of experience, and how the unfolding of this anxiety is mapped by the dukkha ñāṇas of classical Theravāda Buddhism. Finally, we see how the experience of dukkha gives way to that of not-self (anattā), when the heart stabilises through the maturity of mindfulness (sati) and equanimity (upekkhā).
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Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
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Month Long Retreat led by Patrick Kearney
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2015-09-05
The “Thinning” of the Self: Exploring and Practicing Anattā (“Not-Self”) 1: Introduction and Overview
45:58
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Donald Rothberg
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The teaching of anattā (“not-self”) points to one of the three fundamental areas of liberating insight taught by the Buddha (along with the teachings on impermanence and on suffering or dukkha). Yet anattā can very challenging and confusing for contemporary practitioners. Is there “no self” (as anattā is sometimes translated)? How do we make sense of our feelings of individuality, identity, ancestry, and vocation? How do we address our own personal experiences of woundedness, trauma, and oppression? Are these all simply to be “transcended”? How is a sense of self actually in many ways important for contemporary spiritual development, and how is working with our own individual conditioning, whether psychological or social in origin, central to our liberation? How do we integrate attending to such conditioning with opening as well to the power and energy of experiences beyond the habitual sense of self?
In this daylong, we will explore these vital questions primarily in a practical way. Using the metaphors of “thinning the self” and working with a “thick” sense of self, we will cover three aspects of practice: (1) cultivating, in several ways, the “thinning” of the self, both in meditation and in everyday life, including working with the Five Skandhas or “aggregates” of experience; (2) tracking and working with different manifestations of a “thick” sense of self, both as appearing in experience and as hidden to awareness; and (3) opening to experiencing beyond a fixed sense of self, as awareness, compassion, and responsiveness deepen.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2015-08-17
Ignorance and Delusion
28:12
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Shaila Catherine
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Shaila Catherine discusses how ignorance (sometimes referred to as delusion) is the root of all unwholesome activities. Ignorance is present any time that we fail to see the three characteristics of experience: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. The wisdom that develops through insight meditation practice can overcome and uproot even deeply conditioned ignorance. Wisdom helps us to understand suffering and the cause of suffering, and awaken compassion for ourselves and others who suffer due to ignorance.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2015-07-30
Three Characteristics
45:07
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Kim Allen
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This is the fourth talk in a speaker series titled Fundamental Buddhist Principles 2015. As we observe our daily and meditative experience, the mind naturally begins to notice "universal" qualities of experience: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dhkkha), and emptiness (anatta). These three - especially impermanence - are gates to spiritual freedom. It's how we relate and react to these three characteristics that determine whether we suffer or be at peace.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Fundamental Buddhist Principles 2015
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2015-06-04
Castles Made of Sand
50:09
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James Baraz
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We get very attached to things as if they were extremely important (e.g. your basketball team winning a championship or a conflict with a friend). However, in the bigger scheme of things all of these seemingly crucial things can be held in the wider, wiser perspective of impermanence. A parable from Buddhist teachings helps illustrate this essence of true equanimity and wisdom.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2014-09-23
Body: A Matter of Life
47:34
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Shaila Catherine
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This talk was given as a part of the series "Enhancing Mindfulness Skills: A Seven-Week Series Dedicated to Cultivating Transformative Insight." This talk focuses on "Four Elements." It is a traditional practice of mindfulness of the body. In ancient India, the materiality of the body was thought to be composed of four elements—earth, fire, wind and water. These four elements, in turn, have twelve characteristics—(earth) heaviness and lightness, hardness and softness, roughness and smoothness; (fire) heat and coolness; (wind) pushing and supporting; (water) fluidity and cohesion. All of these characteristics can be known with our mind and in our body. Discerning the characteristics of material elements will lead to a profound contemplation of impermanence and death. Seeing the impermanence of the body, we know we cannot control it. The body is not-self, it is not possessable, not I, and not eternally me. Understanding the impermanence of material elements and this body composed of elements, we learn to let go. This talk concludes with a guided meditation of body scans, with emphasis on the four elements and their respective characteristics.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2014-09-16
Breath: An Intimate Focus for Attention
45:06
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Shaila Catherine
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This talk was given as a part of the series "Enhancing Mindfulness Skills: A Seven-Week Series Dedicated to Cultivating Transformative Insight." How do we approach the breath? The breath can be used in a variety of ways to enhance mindfulness and to cultivate the insight into impermanence. Observing the breath calms the mind and allows us to tune into present moment experience. By observing the changes in breathing we can assess our feelings, emotions, and moods. Realizing the impermanent, conditioned, changing nature of the breath supports a skillful and powerful recollection of death. Let this contemplation of death be poignant enough to stir a sense of urgency. Reflect on what is really important in life.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2014-06-04
Paradox of Dharma
61:32
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Eugene Cash
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Things are not what they seem Nor are they otherwise - Buddha
This talk explored the role and dynamic of paradox in Buddhist teaching and practice. We looked at the paradox inherent in the experience of the three characteristics -- anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering) and anatta (self and not self). As we relax with the paradoxical experience the three characteristics become portals to awakening.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Aging as Spiritual Opportunity
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2014-06-03
Silent Thunder
18:05
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Dhamma is deep, subtle yet powerful enough to teach us how to stop, how to listen, how to see the truth of things. For what we thought we knew, we may have not really understood. So how can we transcend our social, cultural, psychological, and environmental conditioning? By uprooting greed, ill-will, and ignorance, the mind sees the truth of impermanence, suffering and emptiness. Like silent thunder, it grows pure, fearless, awake, and free.
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Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community
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2014-04-02
Reflections On A Month Retreat
59:39
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Donald Rothberg
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Just returned from a month of retreat practice, i offer various reflections on retreat theme, including impermanence and death, working with inner guidance, and taking all experiences in a learning context, and on core practices, (concentration, insight, metta, and open spacious awareness), ending with a brief song.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2014-03-15
The Unsurpassed Happiness of Insight and Liberation
49:11
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Shaila Catherine
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This talk explores insight practice (vipassana) as a profound approach to the unsurpassed happiness of liberation. Awakening (realization of nibbana) arises through the clear seeing of mind and matter as they actually are. Insight into the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty nature of things leads to a profound disenchantment and dispassion toward what was previously clung to. Mind and matter will never the a reliable basis for lasting happiness. Seeing this, the mind releases its habits of craving temporary pleasures, and clinging to things that change. The insight into impermanence is the spark for the most profound state of peace and joy, and creates a pleasant dwelling in this very life, even for the Arahant. The talk is followed by a guided meditation that encourages the observation of changing feelings, formations, mental states and emotions—seeing the impermanent nature of all experiences.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2013-09-10
Five Preconditions for Insight: Wisdom (the fifth precondition)
36:03
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Shaila Catherine
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The Buddha taught that there are five preconditions necessary for the development of meditation practice in seclusion—good friends, virtue and restraint,
engaging in talk on the Dhamma, wise effort, wisdom. These preconditions, presented in the Meghiya Sutta, are developed progressively and support one another, with wisdom as the crowning jewel and chief. This talk explores the importance of wisdom for revealing the impermanent nature of all things. With the clarity of wisdom we discern the arising and passing of phenomena. This insight into impermanence undercuts habitual delusions that perpetuate blindly grasping and clinging transient things. Wisdom is important at all stages of the path. At the beginning of our practice, we need wisdom to discern the right direction, clarify our purpose and learn skillful methods; we need wisdom in the midst of the practice to make the many adjustments that sustain us on this path; and the path culminates in the wisdom that leads to release. With wisdom, we will see the changing nature of all things, and understand how we construct our perception of reality, discern the four noble truths of suffering, and recognize how we can realize the end of suffering.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks
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