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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Dharma Talks
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2024-11-27
Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness
24:12
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Tara Brach
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Taking in the Goodness: Rumi said, “Whenever some kindness comes to you, turn that way – toward the source of kindness.” This meditation guides us to look for the source of loving and to turn in that direction. It begins with a lovingkindness practice that spreads the image of a smile into the body, then continues with a practice of seeing the goodness of ourselves and others.
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. - Thomas Merton
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-11-27
Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship
52:35
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Tara Brach
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Gratitude arises when we are in sacred relationship with life—present, open and receptive. This talk explores how central gratitude is to our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and then looks at the ways we can directly gladden our minds with gratitude. We end with a guided meditation that includes sharings from the group. The audio includes a poem of blessing by John O’Donohue with a brief cut from Robert Gass – Om Namaha Shivaya (from the archives).
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-11-27
Two Ways That Our Practice Can Help with Understanding, and Developing Empathy with, Those with Different Views, after the US Election
63:28
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Donald Rothberg
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It's important for our teachings and practices to help orient us in relationship to all parts of our lives, including the larger social and political dimensions of our lives. In this session, we explore one core teaching and one central practice that together help us to respond skillfully to differences in political views. The teaching is that of dependent origination, particularly the sequence from contact to grasping. We see how the two forms of reactivity, grasping and pushing away (each potentially manifesting in many ways) result from pleasant and unpleasant feeling-tones, when there is a lack of mindfulness and background habitual tendencies. We can see how the underlying pain, for example, of many working-class people (economic pain; and the pain of feeling disregarded, left behind, and/or not respected), or the pain related to anxiety about changing gender roles, can, especially when manipulated by those in power who provide scapegoats, lead to reactivity. After presenting a model of empathy practice as crucial for bringing our practice to interacting with those with different views, we can also, through such practice, tune in with compassion to the underlying pain, and have a sense of the deep genuine needs, in our examples, for economic well-being, respect, and clarity around gender. We explore all of this in an exercise with the "empathy map," which is followed by discussion. (There were several files shared via screen sharing during the talk. These files can be accessed below and potentially downloaded, by clicking on the "Q" under "Documents," and looking for documents 229, 273, 274, and 275.)
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2024-11-27
Guided Meditation on Feeling-Tone, the Second Foundation of Mindfulness
40:14
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Donald Rothberg
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After setting the posture and tuning into intentions, we have a short period of settling, typically through the breath or some other anchor. Then there is guidance to tune into the feeling-tone, especially when there is a "moderate" level pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tone, noticing tendencies to move to wanting/not-wanting or grasping/pushing away--the two forms of reactivity. We can also, when there is reactivity, tune into the pleasant or unpleasant "beneath" the reactivity, finding, for example, some compassion when there is underlying pain. Near the end, we also explore being with all feeling-tones for a very short period of a few minutes.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2024-11-21
What Do I Need Right Now?
51:42
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James Baraz
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At this time, US citizens are going through a major adjustment to a new reality after the election. A large part of the population is happy at the outcome. And another large part is confused by that fact. A whole host of feelings are likely to arise--disorientation, confusion, fear, numbing out to name a few. In order to respond wisely to the moment, we first need to be present for and honor our experience. A key question to ask oneself is "What do I need right now?" We will explore this in the context of our Dharma practice.
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Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
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2024-11-20
Meditation: Vipassana – The Practice of Seeing Clearly
18:01
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Tara Brach
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Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment-to-moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath – or some other sensory anchor – and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention – sensations, emotions, sounds – meeting each arising experience with a clear, kind attention. The gift of this process is discovering balance in the midst of the changing flow, and gaining deep insight into the nature of reality.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-11-17
We Are the Mandala
24:06
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Ayya Medhanandi
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Pure present moment awareness reveals what we are not; and thereby, what we truly are. Investigate and question all thoughts you see circling in the mind – fearful or fanciful, liked or not. Know their clever disguises: impermanence everywhere! Not what we are, but empty, ephemeral in nature, they orbit like space debris – crowding the heart mandala of consciousness. Let go and rejoice when states of wanting, judgement, restlessness, fear, unhappiness and all the many faces of 'self' dissolve in the silence of pure awareness. This is true refuge – here and now. All else withers in the furnace of eternity.
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Sati Saraniya Hermitage
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