This is the first of two talks outlining key developments in the evolution of Buddhist schools in India between the death of the Buddha (463 BCE) and the emergence of Dzogchen (ca. 6th cent.). This talk covers the stages of classical (or Nikaya) Buddhism up to the beginning of the Mahayana.
This is number four in a ten-part series on Buddhadharma as a Path of Happiness. This series covers the ten principles discussed in James' Awakening Joy Course from a dharma perspective.
These talks investigate how fear, nature's protector, proliferates and becomes a trance of fear and the cause of deep suffering. We look at the "body of fear"- the thoughts, physicality, emotions and behaviors that express and fuel the trance of fear. Through stories and guided reflections we explore the ways that Buddhist meditation can free us from the grip of unhealthy fear.
Mindfulness of the body goes against the grain of our culture yet is fundamental for most of us to bring awareness, compassion and wisdom to daily life. We explore some of the transformation possible through mindfulness of the body.
The first step to unfabricate reality is to catch the mind in the act of fabrication. When we drop all this make-believe, we discover that our mind is naturally and awesomely spacious.
Opening Talk for a retreat where the silence, sitting and walking of Insight Meditation and the movement of QiGong are seamlessly woven together into a form that invites us to gently explore the ways in which we define and limit ourselves, allowing insight into our true nature to arise, freeing us to live in a woser and more compassionate relationship with ourselves and the world.
We lose huge swaths of our life when caught in wanting experience to be more and different. Yet if we bring a mindful presence to the thoughts and feelings of wanting, we discover a portal into full aliveness and freedom. This talk explores how to recognize and investigate wanting mind; how by tracing longing back to it's very source we discover that what we long for is already here.
This is the third of a series based on cultivating the wholesome states that I share in my Awakening Joy Class. This first week we’ll explore the theme of Opening to Suffering.
Empathy and aggression are both part of our evolutionary survival equipment. We awaken spiritually as we bring awareness to the vulnerability that drives aggression, and discover that we can directly cultivate our capacity to experience loving connection.
