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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2022-08-22
Concentration and Insight (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2:10:17
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Tempel Smith
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In the detailed description of the 16 steps of anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) the first 12 steps develop samadhi (concentration) as a basis for the last four steps (13-16) of insight practice. These are using in and out breathing to become sensitive to impermanence (anicca), and from impermanence to releasing the agitation (viraga) from trying to find security in a fluid and fluctuating world. The second to last step in relaxing into the completeness and thoroughness of endings (nirodha), as a support to the last step of fully letting go.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Cultivating Concentration
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2022-08-10
Four Foundations of Mindfulness - Part 2
24:12
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Ajahn Achalo
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00:44 Q1: I am interested to learn Sattipathana Sutta from Tan Ajahn, a perspective from a monk's. I'm following your talks for some time now and your talks inspire me. I have recently done Sattipathana course from Goenka tradition. Would you please teach us as Vassa is also just around the corner. Will be highly grateful. 42:51 Q2: Sila is generosity. In the retreat Q&A, it says sila is for the abandoning of the 3 fetters in order to gain wisdom. Please elaborate. I do not know what the 3 fetters are. I have not finished reading all the literatures of Buddhism. Thank you. 55:11 Q3 Dear Ajahn, currently I am facing some obstacles and fear because there is a violent Vajrayana fighter nun who cannot rejoice in my daily dana to Buddha and Bodhi tree. She is trying to harm me by kicking my bag when I am chanting, disturbing me...etc. How can I protect myself from these types of circumstances? With metta. See also this video: Four Foundations of Mindfulness - Part 2 - Aug 10, 2022
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Anandagiri Forest Monastery
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2022-07-27
A Guided Meditation Cultivating Equanimity and Compassion
37:48
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Donald Rothberg
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After basic instructions in (1) settling and stabilizing attention, and (2) practicing mindfulness, there is 5-minute period of settling and stabilizing. Then there are several practice suggestions for cultivating equanimity, especially by noticing and exploring reactivity and any appearances of the "Eight Worldly Winds." After another 10 minutes or so, there is also guidance in two main ways of developing compassion, through opening in mindfulness to what is difficult or painful, and through a three-step self-compassion practice from Kristin Neff.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-07-14
The Five Hindrances
62:19
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Mei Elliott
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This talk provides an overview of the Five Hindrances, afflictive mental states that obscure our inner wisdom. It covers how to practice with the hindrances by engaging mindfulness, curiosity and kindness, as well as how to apply antidotes. Mei Elliott is currently the director of San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center temple, where she lives and practices.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2022-06-27
Mindful Respect | Monday Night Talk
54:10
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Jack Kornfield
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In India, when people greet one another they put their palms together and bow, saying namaste, “I honor the divine within you.” It is a way of acknowledging your Buddha nature, who you really are.
When I was training as a Buddhist monk, I witnessed an aura of straightforwardness, graciousness, and trust around my teacher Ajahn Chah. Here was a community dedicated to treating each person with respect and dignity. In the monastery, the walking paths were swept daily, the robes and bowls of the monks were tended with care. We learned to value ourselves and others equally.
Whether practiced in a forest monastery or anywhere else, mindfulness practice begins by deliberately cultivating respect, starting with ourselves. When we learn to rest in our own goodness, we can see the goodness more clearly in others.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-06-22
The Indriyas
66:06
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Ajahn Sucitto
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The five indriya are intimate allies that allow for a full and profound liberation - faith, persistence, mindfulness, concentration and discernment. They are conditioned but help us to cultivate the path towards the unconditioned. (Les cinq Indriya sont des alliés intimes qui permettent une libération pleine et profonde - foi, persévérance, pleine conscience, concentration et discernement. Ils sont conditionnés mais nous aident à cultiver le chemin vers l'inconditionné. )
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Terre d'Éveil Vipassana
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Energy as a means of liberation and well-being
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2022-05-25
Practicing with Fear 3
66:03
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Donald Rothberg
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We start by acknowledging the mass shooting in Texas that occurred yesterday, in the context of our practicing with fear, following up an earlier guided meditation and sharing (not recorded) related to the shooting. We then look generally at the three core ways of practicing with fear, going into some depth on each: (1) cultivating mindfulness and clear seeing (wisdom), (2) working with the heart practices, and (3) acting skillfully. We then focus on how the process of awakening typically involves at each new stage an opening to fear, and also mention some of the dynamics of the "Dark Night of the Soul." Lastly, we look at how to explore and work with fear related to our social world, in terms of the three ways of practicing with fear. There follows a period of discussion.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-05-18
Practicing with Fear 2
68:32
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Donald Rothberg
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We review briefly some of what we covered in the last session (April 27) on practicing with fear. We then explore the various types of fear reported in the group, what we find bringing mindfulness to hear, particularly what's experienced in the body and in the mind, and the importance of having antidotes to fear, when the level of fear is at a high level and our usual practices are not effective. We also point to the way that as we develop and move into new areas of learning, we also often open up to new fears that are part of the new territory. We close with a period of questions and sharing.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-05-16
The Most Basic Truths: Gateways to Freedom | Monday Night Talk
53:39
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Jack Kornfield
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When I first entered the monasteries in Thailand and Burma, I was taught everything is anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory), and anatta (no-self). The reason these were repeated over and over again is because if you see these, you see with the eyes of wisdom. Because everything is changing, the more you cling and hold on, the more you suffer.
To free ourselves, we need to quiet the mind through some mindfulness in meditation.
Then, instead of identifying with the changing conditions, we learn to release them and turn toward consciousness itself, to rest in the knowing. My teacher Ajahn Chah called this pure awareness, "the original mind," or resting in "the one who knows."
As the Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “It is the truth that liberates, and not your efforts to be free.”
With practice, we discover the selflessness of experience; we shift identity. We can be in the midst of an experience, being upset or angry or caught by some problem, and then step back from it and rest in pure awareness. We let go; we release holding any thought or feeling as "I" or "mine." We release the whole sense of identification, and the conditioned world is just anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory), and anatta (empty of self) -- it has nothing to do with our true nature. We learn to trust pure awareness itself. This is one of the ways Ajahn Chah taught about liberation. Awakening is always here and now. Practicing this way, your life is transformed.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-04-27
Practicing with Fear 1
65:30
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Donald Rothberg
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After a brief review of last week's exploration of the relationship of Buddhist practice to Passover, Easter, and Ramadan, we explore a theme that is part of those holidays, and central to our practice--how we work with fear and anxiety. We look at the centrality of such practice, and the different types of fear, distinguishing the unskillful aspects (such as confusion, reactivity, and the continual repetition of negative narratives) from the at times skillful aspects (such as recognizing danger). We then suggest ways of bringing mindfulness to fear, as well as ways of understanding and responding to fear.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-04-14
Maranasati: Practice with Death and Dying
50:31
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James Baraz
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The Buddha suggested reflecting regularly on five aspects of life called the Five Reflections (also called the Five Remembrances). This talk focuses on what he called "the most supreme of all meditations": mindfulness of death or maranasati. Although contemplation of one's death might seem unsettling or scary, when undertaken as a conscious practice it can be extremely enlivening and even liberating.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2022-04-09
Mindfulness of the Interactive Domain
39:05
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Moving into the inter-reactive, inter-responsive world we can become distracted, scattered. Seeing the seeds or tendencies to act in worldly ways contributing to disparities and lack of fellowship, we hold our attention suitably, living with others calmly and peacefully.
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Cittaviveka
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2022-04-08
Talk at Bodhgaya
1:16:37
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Ajahn Achalo
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40:19 Q&A (questions are précised) 40:33 Q1 History and geography teach us that ten thousand years ago people were living in filth, like animals. Yet the scriptures speak of many thousands of eons of lives. How are these [two very different time frames] possible? 43:00 Q2 Could you please give more tips and advice for real beginners in meditation? 50:08 Q3 Regarding the four foundations of mindfulness, is there one which is more important? 53:57 Q4 I have come to see doubt as a most important hindrance in my practice. I even doubt the existence of that thing called enlightenment. How can I get rid of that? 58:46 Q5 Regarding sense restraint, can you say more about practicing with sound here. 1:07:54 Q6 How can householders go deeper into vipassana with the limited time in their lives? 1:12:31 Q7 Could you clarify how we would do the Buddho mantra in our daily tasks
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Bodhgaya
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2022-04-07
Clear Comprehension: The Buddha's Teaching on Four Different Elements of Practice
48:53
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James Baraz
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This talk explores the topic of Clear Comprehension (sampajañña in Pali) a powerful Dharma teaching on four different aspects of practice. In the Satipatthana Sutta the Discourse on the Four Foundation of Mindfulness, with regard to each foundation, the Buddha says the following: "Here, bhikkhus (practitioners), a bhikkhu (practitioner) lives contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending and mindful, having overcome, in this world, covetousness and grief..."
Clear comprehension means more than just having bare attention. Understanding and applying these four facets of Clear Comprehension can support a real deepening of our Dharma practice.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2022-03-02
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 8 Closing of Class
32:56
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Bob Stahl
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Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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Insight Santa Cruz
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2022-02-23
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 7 Tears, Grease, Saliva, Mucus, Oil of the Joints, Urine
43:58
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Bob Stahl
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Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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Insight Santa Cruz
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2022-02-23
32 Parts of the Body Meditation: Discovering Freedom within the Body—Week 7 Anatomy Presentation
1:15:50
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Bob Stahl
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Guest teachers Robin MacFarland and Tufumoena’i Lesu’i from the Cabrillo College Anatomy lab taught today’s class. They offered an anatomy presentation.
Please join us for this 8-week “32 Parts of the Body” meditation class that has rarely been taught in the West. This practice will cultivate deeper insight into the true nature of the body and most importantly to help see through the identifications, conditionings, beliefs, and narratives – the erroneous view of self. It has also been used for healing illness. Various methods will be taught to strengthen mindfulness of the body and to explore the mind/body connection. Each class will consist of silent and guided meditation, chanting of the body parts and small and large group discussion. These teachings and practices will help develop greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion; and foster the depth of practice.
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Insight Santa Cruz
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2022-02-20
The 3rd and 4th Foundations of Mindfulness
63:46
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Tempel Smith
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While the 3rd and fourth foundations of mindfulness can be taught as their own separate topics, it can be very useful to look at the language and instruction given in both of them together. In the 3rd foundation we rest mindfully in all cognitive and emotional states as they arise and pass with the courage not to change them. In the 4th foundation of mindfulness we use this deeper intimacy from the 3rd foundation to act most skillfully in how we let go of suffering states and welcome wholesome states.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
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