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Dharma Talks
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2024-04-03
Ways of Deepening Practice and Taking One's Next Steps: Reflections on a Four-Week Retreat
51:05
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Donald Rothberg
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Following four weeks of Donald's personal retreat, he identifies a number of ways of deepening practice that he experienced and that we might bring into our lives. The invitation is to see what one or two or three ways of deepening resonate and seem to call us to our "next steps." Among the ways of deepening are going on retreats (understood as periods of intensive training), staying in touch with and periodically remembering one's deeper intentions, pausing and stopping regularly, clarifying priorities, the importance of working with the subtle energy body, opening to non-doing in meditation and daily life, integrating awareness and metta, and finding ways of regularly coming back if stuck, caught in reactivity, or lost in thought. The talk is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2024-01-31
Integrating Metta Practice with Wisdom, Awareness, and Insight Practice 2
64:31
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Donald Rothberg
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We continue to explore how we might practice metta (and other heart practices) in a way integrated with mindfulness, wisdom, and insight, building on last week's session. We begin looking at some of the ways historically and culturally that the "mind" and "reason" have been separated from emotion, dating from Plato and the Greeks, and continued in the modern world with the understanding of reason and science as separate from emotion (and the body). This has been a major part of our social and cultural conditioning, evident in how mainstream education occurs, and also linked with gender conditioning. We also examine how, dating from Buddhaghosa's text, the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification), from the 5th century, metta and compassion has been labeled as practices leading to concentration, and not as linked directly with wisdom and awakening. This has been the basis for the 20th century Burmese approaches to metta and mindfulness, which have been the main influences in the West.
However, when we look to the Buddha's actual teachings, as well as later Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings, we find much more of a connection between metta, compassion, and wisdom. We can see this in a number of texts which we explore, including ones in which the heart practices are seen as leading directly to wisdom, and development in awakening.
In the last part of the talk, we explore ways that we can, in our formal and informal practices, integrate metta and wisdom. The talk is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2024-01-24
Integrating Metta Practice with Wisdom, Awareness, and Insight Practice 1
63:04
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Donald Rothberg
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We often hear that the heart of the teachings and practice is to connect wisdom and compassion, clear seeing and the kind heart, developing what Jack Kornfield calls the "wise heart." Yet such a connection or integration can be challenging in several ways. First of all, we have major conditioning in modern Western culture to separate the "mind" and the "heart" (or emotions), as well as the body. Also we find tendencies in the Theravada tradition to see Metta practice as separate from Insight practice, as in the way that Buddhaghosa in the influential text, the Visuddhimagga, lists Metta practice as a form of Concentration practice, and in some of the ways that Metta is taught as a complement to insight practice in the West. In this talk, we begin to explore what it might look like to integrate more fully Metta and wisdom, mindfulness, and insight, both in formal practice and daily life. The talk is followed by discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2024-01-14
Metta Practice with Difficulties and Challenges: Metta for the Difficult Person, Practicing with the Judgmental Mind, and Forgiveness
63:41
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Donald Rothberg
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We begin by exploring the nature of some of the challenges of metta practice, including with difficult emotions, body-states, and thoughts, and how to practice when these challenges arise. The spirit is that of understanding challenges as part of the path of learning. We then focus on one way of deliberating bring metta practice to a challenging situation, through metta with the difficult person, followed by an account of one particular challenge, the “judgmental mind,” its nature and how to practice with it; this includes a short selection from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s’ sermon, “On Judging.” Lastly, there is an introduction to forgiveness practice.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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January Metta 2024
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2024-01-07
Kindness Through and Through
25:10
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Contentment and generosity nurture a quality of metta that is kind through and through. We learn to respond to life like the good earth that is ever patient with and tolerant of our heedlessness. Whatever you throw on it – even if it’s harmful – the earth receives that. Generating such a depth of goodwill, we endure through hardships with contentment even if we’re struggling. And, with a generosity of harmlessness, we weave great compassion and benevolence to ourselves as well as to others. Such measureless kindness never dies. It is our true wealth and the bedrock of our path to liberation
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Portland Friends of the Dhamma
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2023-11-18
Give Peace A Chance
18:29
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Ayya Medhanandi
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With selfless awareness, we practise good-will, radiating loving-kindness inwardly and to all beings, even to those who are indifferent or hostile, or to those who cause harm. This is the Buddha's instruction to us in the Metta Sutta. Can we unequivocally wish all beings freedom from harm? Can we forgive enough to convert thoughts of fear, anger or enmity into benevolence? It takes courage to enter a dark space without a light. So we try as much as we can because unconditional compassion and kindness in this world give peace, healing and reconciliation a chance.
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Ottawa Buddhist Society
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2023-10-28
Grenzenlose Güte - ihre Bedeutung und Entwicklung
48:29
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Renate Seifarth
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Es wird auf den Zusammenhang von Weisheit und Mitgefühl hingewiesen. Die Grundlage von Mitgefühl ist die tiefe Güte des menschlichen Herzens, Metta. Güte verringert unser aller Leid. Sie stellt keine Bedingungen und kann nicht zu Enttäuschung führen. Sie ist eine unendliche Kraft in unserem Herzen, in Angesicht von Leid wandelt sie sich in Mitgefühl, wird Wohlergehen wahrgenommen, entsteht Mitfreude. Die Ausdehnung unseres Blick führt uns zu der Motivation von Bodhicitta.
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Seminarhaus Engl
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2023-10-19
Metta Meditation on Loving-Kindness for All Beings
19:48
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Devon Hase
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Loving-kindness, or metta meditation, is a classical Buddhist technique for cultivating the warm qualities of the heart-mind. Please enjoy this twenty-minute guided meditation using phrases, images, and felt sense in wishing kindness for all beings.
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Various
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2023-10-19
Metta Meditation on Loving-Kindness for a Difficult Person
20:00
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Devon Hase
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Loving-kindness, or metta meditation, is a classical Buddhist technique for cultivating the warm qualities of the heart-mind. When we cultivate the intention of kindness for the challenging people in our lives, we grow our capacity to hold everyone in unconditional love, even if we don't agree with their choices. Please enjoy this twenty-minute guided meditation using phrases, images, and felt sense in wishing kindness for a difficult person.
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Various
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2023-10-19
Metta Meditation on Loving-Kindness for Strangers
20:00
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Devon Hase
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Loving-kindness, or metta meditation, is a classical Buddhist technique for cultivating the warm qualities of the heart-mind. Please enjoy this twenty-minute guided meditation using phrases, images, and felt sense in wishing kindness for strangers.
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Various
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2023-10-19
Metta Meditation on Loving-Kindness for a Friend
20:00
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Devon Hase
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Loving-kindness, or metta meditation, is a classical Buddhist technique for cultivating the warm qualities of the heart-mind. Please enjoy this twenty-minute guided meditation using phrases, images, and felt sense in wishing kindness for a friend.
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Various
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