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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2003-12-13
I Just Wanted Some Toothpaste
35:17
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Ayya Medhanandi
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The way out of pain is not in sense pleasure. But suffering can be a ticket to Nibbana – maybe not the one we asked for, but it's in our hands. So we try. Taste the moment just as it is. Choose love when there is every reason to hate. Trust when there is every reason to despair. Be patient when anger is burning within. Faced with terror or far from peace, let go. Being still in the very midst of fear, we can know non-fear. All is fleeting, not what we are, and nothing to hold onto. There, in the silent flow of the breath, the heart will soften in a tender wave of unconditional love.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2003-12-10
Those Who Rightly Love Wisdom
28:03
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Ayya Medhanandi
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In a psychic feat for his sister, Sundari Nanda, the Buddha creates a vision of a beautiful lady who transforms into an old woman. Through this direct experience of impermanence, her mind is liberated. Likewise, those who rightly love wisdom and contemplate death without fear see the emptiness and impermanence of all conditioned things. Realizing the futility of all clinging and the inevitability of death, our wisdom and faith in the Dhamma ripen and reveal the doors to the Deathless. This is the path of awakening.
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Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
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2003-12-03
Spiritual Friendships
61:19
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Carol Wilson
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The Buddha often said that keeping company with lovely and wise people is one of the most supportive qualities for our path of awakening. One of the first of our sincere practices, where we can also begin, is to be lovely friends for others in this world. How our practice is developing the qualities that make a spiritual friend.
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Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
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2003-11-28
The Power Of Metta
58:52
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Guy Armstrong
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The practice of metta brings five wonderful qualities into our Dhamma practice. It makes the heart softer and more responsive; it purifies the heart; it brings us into connection with all of life; it develops concentration; and it leads to happiness. Lovingkindness is the quality of friendliness toward oneself and others developed through the practice of metta. This talk describes how the practice works as a protection, a healing, a purification of heart, and a boundless state of mind.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2003-11-23
Giving
42:25
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Arinna Weisman
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We are often blind to our own generosity, to the gift of our practice and efforts. The Buddha invites us to contemplate this beautiful quality of our minds, and its wholesome results, as part of the practice of growing and sustaining.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-22
Patience
45:03
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Arinna Weisman
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Patience is one of the Paramis and gives us the strength to endure through difficult experiences. We can be inspired to practice it through contemplating leaders such as Mandela or the Dalai Lama who have faced extreme challenges in their lives without retribution or revenge, but with kindness and wisdom.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-18
Truthfulness
43:43
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Arinna Weisman
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The commitment to truthfulness is a mirror which highlights our deepest intention to bring harmony and peace through kind and useful words. Also it shows us the sneaky seductions of lying, flattery and unkind speech.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-13
Learning
46:32
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Rodney Smith
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Reflect on how generosity is related to equality. When you offer a gift to someone you perceive as unequal is that generosity or pity? Feel the difference between these two forms of giving. How does the heart feel and how does the mind hold the offering in a generous act and in pity? When you perceive someone as a human being regardless of their present condition you can only perceive them as equal. When you give to the less fortunate, you are lost in the pain of the circumstances. The generous heart feels that pain but gives to the human being.
This week find several occasions to give something away to someone less privileged. Before you do, release the projections and allow equality to surface. One person giving to another. Look the person in the eye when you hand them the gift. Let your heart meet theirs. Feel the humility of true generosity. Feel the joy of release. Notice the qualitative difference between giving with humility and the self-importance of "helping the disadvantaged."
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Seattle Insight Meditation Society
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2003-11-11
Morality
48:07
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Arinna Weisman
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We have a tendency to see the world through success-failure, enemy-friend, good-bad. It is also possible to hold, with love, the ambiguity of life and our own ambivalence. Without splitting, we are able to live within the ethical guidelines given by the Buddha’s teachings.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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2003-11-05
Friendship
33:17
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Arinna Weisman
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The Buddha said sangha and spiritual friendship is the holy life. This practice involves learning to experience our own beauty and Buddha nature, and through this, the beauty of others.
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Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha
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