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Dharma Talks
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2017-11-22
A Grateful, Giving, Happy Heart
49:20
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Tara Brach
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Gratitude is like breathing in – letting ourselves be touched by the goodness in others and in our world. Generosity is like breathing out – sensing our mutual belonging and offering our care. When we are awake and whole, breathing in and out happens naturally. But these beautiful expressions of our heart become blocked when we are dominated by the fear and grasping of our survival brain. This talk explores how we can facilitate the evolution of consciousness with the deliberate cultivation of generosity, and ends with a guided meditation on gratitude and generosity.
For happiness, how little suffices for happiness! … the least thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a whisper, an eye glance-little maketh up the best happiness. Be still.
~ Nietzche ~
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2017-11-12
How Do I Save That Moth?
20:06
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The Winter of the World is here… How do we bear it? What does the mind need in order to open to the teachings? Dana. Sila. Generosity and virtue. Cultivating generosity, starting with the material, can mature into acts of sharing one’s time, energy, abilities, kindness and compassion. Let us cherish these noble qualities and develop them in a boundless way, for all beings. The Buddha advises us how to be fearless and present with a loved one near death. A talk given at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in November, 2017.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2017-10-24
Tuesday Night Teacher-Led Sit with Lama Rod Owens
56:30
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Lama Rod Owens
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The great Black American singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder once sang, “Love’s in need of love today.” His words couldn’t be more true as we face a global community struggling with war, poverty, illness, climate instability, and the rise of political authorities and governments who do not seem to be grounded in compassion or kindness. We speak about love and attempt to practice love but some of us are losing faith in the transformative power of the wish for ourselves and others to be happy. Our practice of love is in need of our renewed faith in love. In this talk, we will be exploring the question of how practicing love can become a strategy that resists and undoes our experiences fear, apathy, and numbness as we attempt to live and love in a challenging world.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2017-10-24
Guided Meditation - Tuesday Night Sit
42:18
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Lama Rod Owens
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The great Black American singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder once sang, “Love’s in need of love today.” His words couldn’t be more true as we face a global community struggling with war, poverty, illness, climate instability, and the rise of political authorities and governments who do not seem to be grounded in compassion or kindness. We speak about love and attempt to practice love but some of us are losing faith in the transformative power of the wish for ourselves and others to be happy. Our practice of love is in need of our renewed faith in love. In this talk, we will be exploring the question of how practicing love can become a strategy that resists and undoes our experiences fear, apathy, and numbness as we attempt to live and love in a challenging world.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2017-10-15
Choose Love Not Sorrow
20:41
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Ayya Medhanandi
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We can be kind to anyone with practice. So start where you are and trust this practice of kindness. Even in the face of painful times, reflect wisely – not to be poisoned by fear, despair, or sorrow. Rather see the truth within and open a well-spring of infinite love in your own heart. For you are the hero of your life. First, we slay the dragons of fear and aggression. Gently and resolute, break them apart and extend kindness to all as to yourself. To accept the miracle of pure awareness – patient, diligent, with unwavering compassion, draw out the dart of sorrow and know the gift of love.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2017-08-04
Truth and Reconciliation
28:43
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Can we face what we most fear and touch the well-spring of goodness, kindness and compassion within us? The first step towards Truth is taking responsibility for our own actions, intentions, and their consequences. Denial and distraction only numb us to what is painful to remember let alone face up to. But the Truth will always emerge. There is no running away from it. So we acknowledge our unskillful acts and open the door to forgiveness and reconciliation. One glimpse into the true marrow of our being reveals the urgency of repairing harm and the healing power of forgiveness.
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Ottawa Buddhist Society
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2017-07-12
Radical Self-Honesty: The Joy of Getting Real
48:40
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Tara Brach
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Our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt, resisted parts of our psyche. This talk explores ways we can deepen self-honesty and reconnect to a wholeness of being that enables us to live with spontaneity, confidence, wisdom and love.
A quote by Elizabeth Lessor from the talk: “My prayer to god every day: Remove the veils so I might see what is really happening here and not be intoxicated by my stories and my fears.”
NOTE: Tara was away this week and asked for this favorite talk from 2014-11-05 be posted.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2017-06-21
Stories That Imprison Our Heart – Part 2
50:50
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Tara Brach
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Our suffering arises from fear-based stories that are often outside our awareness. These include stories of our deficiency or importance, of being a victim, of being unseen or unloved, of facing failure or rejection. This is true collectively too. We have shared stories of bad “others” that fuel wars, shared stories of the value of continued growth in consumption and production that destroy our earth, shared stories of our human right to enslave and violate other animals. We have the capacity to bring the stories that separate and imprison us into the light of awareness, and with great compassion, loosen their grip. These two talks look at the ways fear-based stories create suffering, and how awakening from them reveals the freedom of our true, and universal, belonging.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2017-06-16
I Teach Pleasure
62:57
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Ajahn Sucitto
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The Buddha taught pleasure. When the mind feels safe and comforted, it doesn’t crave. It loses its fear and regret. This is pleasant. Sila helps us practice this skill of turning things to the subtle pleasure of releasing stress and pressure. We stop creating the boundary of self and other that prevents unification. To others as to myself.
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Meditationszentrum Beatenberg
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The Wisdom of Embodiment
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2017-06-14
Stories That Imprison Our Heart – Part 1
53:00
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Tara Brach
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Our suffering arises from fear-based stories that are often outside our awareness. These include stories of our deficiency or importance, of being a victim, of being unseen or unloved, of facing failure or rejection. This is true collectively too. We have shared stories of bad “others” that fuel wars, shared stories of the value of continued growth in consumption and production that destroy our earth, shared stories of our human right to enslave and violate other animals. We have the capacity to bring the stories that separate and imprison us into the light of awareness, and with great compassion, loosen their grip. These two talks look at the ways fear-based stories create suffering, and how awakening from them reveals the freedom of our true, and universal, belonging.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2017-05-22
When You Get Close to the Sun
19:40
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Ayya Medhanandi
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What can protect us from the repercussions of negative and unwholesome mind states? Begin the journey, the archeology of our own heart. It’s a total cleansing. Like a mountain climber, we ascend the interior slopes and our burden lightens. We clear it out moment by moment. Whatever misfortunes come, letting go, we wean ourselves away from the quicksand of habit. We grow fearless, students of life, learning to bow and bring forth these gifts, like diamonds from coal in the quiet eternity within us. Therein, we hear the timeless hymn of unspoken love.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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2017-05-22
On the Look Out
33:59
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Venerable Punna was one of the great bhikkhus of the Buddha’s time, known especially for his fierce faith, practice skill, and his fearlessness. When the Buddha hears that Punna plans to wander on foot in a remote and dangerous frontier region, he questions Punna how he would respond to the inevitable perils and violent ways of the native people of that place. Their dialogue reveals Venerable Punna’s remarkable courage, wisdom, and selflessness.
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Madison Insight Meditation Group
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When Truth Speaks Out
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2017-05-18
"Courage: An Essential Quality of Practice"
52:25
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James Baraz
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The Buddha spoke of waking up as going "against the stream" in order to see things with fresh eyes. One essential ingredient of the spiritual journey is courage required to grow and be willing to step outside of our comfort zones. Being a spiritual warrior means facing our deepest fears, dealing with loss, opening to the places inside we'd rather not see and trusting that your awareness can meet any moment that arises. We explore this topic in our dharma practice as it manifests on and off the cushion.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2017-03-15
Realizing Your Deepest Desires
52:19
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Tara Brach
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This talk differentiates between egoic intentions (driven by wants and fears), and our true aspiration (deepest desires) to manifest our full potential for awake awareness and love. We explore ways to realize and open to our deepest desires when we are stuck in self-promotion, grasping and conflict, so that our aspiration becomes a compass of the heart that can guide us in living with wisdom and compassion.
“What’s my deepest intention. What really matters?”
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2017-03-07
Money
41:24
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Kim Allen
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Kim Allen gave the third talk in a speaker series titled "Everyday Dhamma." She discussed how money is an important part of our life, as well as a potent realm for practice. Much of what the Buddha said about wealth and money was about our relationship to money, because this is where our suffering and freedom lies. More specifically, we can easily have an unwholesome relationship to our wealth. For example, we can become miserly and crave even more wealth. Or we can establish a wholesome relationship with our wealth, such as supporting our family, our friends, and the Dhamma. In this way, we can relate to money with wisdom and generosity, instead of grasping and fear.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Everyday Dhamma
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2017-01-05
What Channel Are You Tuned To?
50:52
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James Baraz
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(Note: This talk has some occasional sound distortion but it's worth it.)
As the Buddha said, "We are what we think. With our thoughts we make the world." Our minds can go to the the greatest places of fear, anxiety and ill will or understanding, compassion and peace. When we're lost in confusion we have in us the capacity to remember the goodness and wisdom that our hearts long to connect with. This talk is about remembering that possibility and cultivating access to that Buddha right inside, especially when the outside world is giving us very different messages.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2016-12-21
The Revolution of Tenderness – Part 2
65:54
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Tara Brach
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These two talks explore our capacity to be tender – sensitive and responsive to ourselves and others. This capacity marks a radical evolutionary shift from a self-centered existence shaped by fear, to a life lived from the realization of our collective belonging and the preciousness of all life. The talks examine the conditioning that inclines us toward dissociation and emotional reactivity, and the practices of presence that evolve our heart and awareness.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2016-12-14
The Revolution of Tenderness - Part 1
1:15:33
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Tara Brach
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These two talks explore our capacity to be tender - sensitive and responsive to ourselves and others. This capacity marks a radical evolutionary shift from a self-centered existence shaped by fear, to a life lived from the realization of our collective belonging and the preciousness of all life. The talks examine the conditioning that inclines us toward dissociation and emotional reactivity, and the practices of presence that evolve our heart and awareness.
from Tara’s talk: Pope Francis invites us to “live the revolution of tenderness,” which is expressed through closeness, compassion and service...
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2016-11-20
Redemption
30:51
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Ayya Medhanandi
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How can we be free of anger? To cross a river, walk over it. From a burning house, escape. So too, when your heart is on fire, stay present, forgiving and compassionate. Balance and cleanse the mind to stop it from spinning with fear, to see deeply, to heal. We direct the mind to what is great – the very source of unsurpassed joy arising as we awaken to the blessed Dhamma.
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Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto
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2016-11-18
Change for the Good
33:51
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Are we ready to stop clinging, let go and trust? If we live with gratitude and change for the good; if we learn to really see, we will be able to listen from within and notice the true condition of the mind, going from a state of fear to non-fear, from suffering to non-suffering, from trauma to trust and the truth of the Unconditioned. Putting out the fires of greed, hatred and delusion, we forgive, set our burdens down and embrace kindness. We make wise choices and we live and die with joy, peace, and blessing.
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Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto
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2016-11-08
Chant, Breathe, Trust - Bless the Rain
16:21
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Ayya Medhanandi
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One way animals restore themselves after an attack and regain equilibrium is through the trembling of the body. We too, as human beings, can create an inner rhythmic chant to resonate vibrational waves that help us move out of fear and clear traumas from our nervous system. All the senses converge and soak in the sound of the breath itself. Trusting the heart's innate goodness, we feel uplifted. Bless the rain.
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Ottawa Buddhist Society
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2016-09-22
"The Issue of Othering"
58:04
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James Baraz
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Dedicated to the memory of Bob Kaneko, a dharma friend who recently passed away. As a child Bob spent years 4-8 in a Japanese Internment camp in California,1942-1946. This talk explores how easily we humans can unfairly treat and oppress those different from us. We see this daily in the media with hateful rhetoric stirring fears in many. How can we use practice to skillfully respond?
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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IMCB Regular Talks
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2016-09-10
Fear and Fearlessness
26:58
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Amita Schmidt
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Fearlessness is a deep spiritual practice. This talk offers some tools and reflections on increasing your inner strength and fearlessness during these difficult times
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Insight Meditation of Cleveland
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