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In Memoriam: Rick Woudenberg


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Dharma Talks
2024-10-02 The Courage to Say Yes – A Conversation with Tara and poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer 62:23
Tara Brach
I ran across acclaimed poet, Rosemerry Trommer, several years ago in a volume where she shares about the loss of her son, Finn, who took his life at age 16. I had never read anything on grieving that touched me so deeply, that held so much wisdom, such a deep affirmation of love. I went on to read her collection All the Honey, and now her new one, The Unfolding. These books are filled with Post-its: I didn’t realize how much I needed Rosemerry’s words to remind me of what most matters. In our interview, we talk about the key themes in her poems: grief, love, opening to what’s difficult and what’s beautiful… saying yes to life. The Unfolding, by Rosemerry Wahtola Tromer, will help you remember the loving that most matters, and to say Yes to this precious life. This is a wonderful gift to your own spirit, and for dear ones in your life! Order Rosemerry’s books, here!
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-08-21 Grief: A Portal Into Living Life Fully 56:30
Amana Brembry Johnson
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spirit Rock - Rainbow Sangha

2024-05-05 Dealing with emotional damage: shock, grief, anxiety 27:21
Ajahn Sucitto
Dhamma Stream Online Sessions

2024-02-22 Building the path to our best home: how to work with grief, and shame that can hinder Metta 51:24
Jessica Morey
This talk explores obstacles to Metta, with a focus on shame and grief, as well as their distinction to hiri and ottappa
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Lovingkindness Retreat

2023-09-03 Grief, Refuge, and Liberation 1:14:38
Kate Johnson
Spirit Rock Meditation Center BIPOC Voices - Series

2023-07-20 Morning Reflections #17: Concentrating the Mind 44:45
Nikki Mirghafori
A guided practice to center, calm and collect the mind by abiding with clear comprehension and mindfulness, without desire and grief for the world.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge July 2023

2023-07-12 Being with Love, Death and Grief: Tara Brach and Frank Ostaseski 1:33:22
Tara Brach, Frank Ostaseski
Grief is our natural way of expressing loss for what we love, and learning to open to grief serves the deepening and widening of our loving. This event, given at the Upaya Zen Center on June 25, 2023, includes short meditations and talks by Frank and Tara, and powerful sessions of questions and responses.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2023-05-03 Cultivating Inner Freedom 31:11
JD Doyle
Grief and Joy: A Day of Remembrance and Healing for the LGBTQIA+ Community
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spirit Rock - Rainbow Sangha

2023-04-21 Q&A 68:18
Ajahn Sucitto
00:09 Q1 Could you speak about the experience of thinking and emotions. 06:09 Q2 I feel I have no control. The music in my mind keeps playing, I feel I am going mad. How can I cultivate mindfully without making thoughts and stories stronger. 20:59 Q3 How can I deal with grief over loosing loved ones? 28:19 Q4 Is it normal to feel warm and perspire during sitting meditation? 32:56 Q5 Does it matter how you place the hands during sitting meditation? 35:40 Q6 When one sees the light – I guess this is meditation nimitta – do you focus on the breath or follow the light? 37:47 Q7 [Should one] place attention on the entire body even when walking? 47:43 Q7 I have scoliosis and am uncomfortable in every position. Are there techniques to help with body and mental pain skillfully when I meditate? 52:59 Q8 Regarding the 12 links of dependent origination, which link is the weakest? 59:46 Q9 How do we enter the stream? 01:01:45 Q10 Can you elaborate on what you said about what Sariputta and Moggallana understood regarding the arising of the Tathagata?
Palilai Buddhist Temple :  Deepen Your Practice

2023-01-13 Winter Wisdoms: Embracing the Dharma of Grief, Stillness, and Preparation 1:28:55
Lama Rod Owens
Gaia House Winter Wisdoms: Embracing the Dharma of Grief, Stillness, and Preparation

2022-12-31 A Friend That Will Never Fail Us 27:00
Ayya Medhanandi
With the Buddha as our guide, we walk in his footsteps. If we fall away from the path, we return to it as soon as we can. Just as you steer your car back on the road should it veer off. The mind may be on fire with wanting, fear, grief or anger. Then feel the heat. Know its origin and see its ending – not owning nor feeding it, let it subside. Here and now, awareness and wisdom deepen. We are waking up. And we discover – that true friend resides within our own heart.
Portland Friends of the Dhamma

2022-10-06 From Heartbreak to Compassionate Action 55:06
James Baraz
Kaye Cleave is a sangha member and film producer of the award-winning movie Catherine's Kindergarten. Catherine’s Kindergarten is the story of Kaye's emotional journey to confront her grief after the death of her only child, juxtaposed with her physical journey to a Nepalese mountain village to open a school in memory of her daughter. It is a truly moving experience. I'm proud to be part of Kaye's journey and in the film. Kaye will share some of her story of how the practice helped her process her grief and transform it into compassionate action. We share a clip of the movie and discuss the process of how we can turn heartbreak into meaning.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2022-07-15 Dhamma Streams Q&A 32:28
Ajahn Sucitto
04:57 Q1 How to work with jealousy at others’ good fortune. 21:15 Q2 Living through old age, sickness and death is really highlighting my dread of being unreasonable and fitting in with familyWhat to do? 23:33 Q3 How can we use grief after the loss of a loved one? 27:36 Q4 Two similar questions: (a) I have experienced a loss of direction and feel no zest for living and insecurity overwhelms me. (b) Angry thoughts / emotional intensity lead to self admonishment. What can I do?
Cittaviveka 2022 Online Teaching

2022-07-15 Q&A 50:04
Ajahn Sucitto
04:57 Q1 How to work with jealousy at others’ good fortune. 21:15 Q2 Living through old age, sickness and death is really highlighting my dread of being unreasonable and fitting in with family. What to do? 23:33 Q3 How can we use grief after the loss of a loved one? 27:36 Q4 Two similar questions: (a) I have experienced a loss of direction and feel no zest for living and insecurity overwhelms me. (b) Angry thoughts / emotional intensity lead to self admonishment. What can I do? 32:25 Q5 Can you expand your ideas about the connections between citta and cetena. 37:37 Q6 What is meant by the unconditioned? 42:56 Q7 What are the kasinas? 46:24 Q8 Can you speak about hiriottappa?
Cittaviveka 2022 Online Teaching

2022-05-24 The heart of presence 38:24
Leela Sarti
Exploring the nature of the heart and why we have to turn to our grief to be truly human
Nirodha Insight Meditation in Finland Timeless Presence

2022-05-18 Guided Meditation - Grief and Compassion (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 30:49
Matthew Brensilver
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spring Insight Meditation Retreat

2022-04-21 Patacara - going beyond grief. 1:19:23
Ayya Anandabodhi
Sharing the story of Patacara who lost her whole family, within a few hours, then lost her mind. Meeting the Buddha, she regains her senses and breaks through to stream entry, and later - Nibbana
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Therīgāthā – Awakening Verses of the Early Buddhist Nuns: Monastic Retreat

2022-04-16 Facing Sadness, Grief and Anxiety 1:22:25
Ayya Santussika
Karuna Buddhist Vihara

2022-04-07 Clear Comprehension: The Buddha's Teaching on Four Different Elements of Practice 48:53
James Baraz
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.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2022-02-28 A Peaceful Heart In A Time Of War And The Legacy Of Thich Nhat Hanh | Monday Night Talk 54:40
Jack Kornfield
Tonight I had planned to talk about Thich Nhat Hanh, the great and wise Zen master and teacher who died recently at age 95. But it seems critical to also acknowledge the grief of the war in Ukraine. As it says in the Buddhist teachings (and in other wisdom teachings), in this world, hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed. There has to be a better game than war for human beings. We have to look at the war within ourselves as well. Thich Nhat Hanh’s instruction was to stop—stop making enemies. Make prayers. Make blessings. This is our moral task.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2022-01-12 How to Meet Obstacles in Metta Meditation--(Retreat at Spirit Rock) 61:42
Kaira Jewel Lingo
We begin with metta as heart training, a practice of awakening and growing our heart and explore how our practice of metta can also support and help to transform others. Then we move into obstacles to metta meditation and how to practice with them, covering when metta feels mechanical, distractions, grief, doubt, anger, and struggling to offer metta to ourselves. We close looking at how metta can be a protection and also how the Earth can be a source and inspiration for metta.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Metta Retreat: Cultivating the Wise, Awakened, and Responsive Heart

2021-12-20 Setting An Intention Of The Heart Dharma Talk | Monday Night Talk 50:13
Jack Kornfield
When we sit quietly and face the stillness, we start the feel the grief that we carry—and the immense beauty of life. When we get quiet we can see in a new way. Make of yourself a light. It’s never too late to start over and set an intention of the heart. It could be as simple as “I vow to be kind.” By aligning our dedication with our highest intention, we chart the course of our whole being. Then no matter how hard the voyage and how big the setbacks, we know where we are headed.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2021-11-13 Anger, Grief, Afflictive Emotions 48:17
Ajahn Sucitto
Anger, grief and fear are primary reflexes that have the potential of taking us back to our safe, sympathetic intimate environment. To the extent that we have lost connection to the capacity of our autonomic nervous system to discharge stress, emotional energies freeze and don’t get resolved. This leave residues that sour and cripple the heart. So we practice cultivating our intimate environment; it's from here we can meet and transmute these afflictive emotions with pure presence.
New York Insight Meditation Center

2021-10-13 Grieving and Timeless Love 57:49
Tara Brach
How we relate to change and loss is directly connected to how fully we live and love. This talk looks at the classic ways we avoid opening to the realness of loss, and how our sorrows and grief can become a portal to awakening our heart and spirit.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2021-09-22 Refuge in Sangha 47:47
Leslie Booker
Reflections on what it has meant to find true refuge, by experiencing the generosity of Sangha through grief, through isolation and through their wisdom.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Finding True Refuge: A retreat for LGBT*QI2 and GNC Communities.

2021-05-22 A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy on Grief, Gratitude, and Belonging 1:32:11
Joanna Macy, Stephanie Kaza
The powerful COVID-19 virus teacher has brought us to the brink of widespread systems change and deep uncertainty about how things will unfold. There is a hunger for a more profound understanding of the links between ecosystem collapse and public health threats, between patterns of economic domination and racial injustice. Systems thinking and Buddhist views together offer skillful means for making sense of these interlocking calls for action.
Barre Center for Buddhist Studies A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy on Grief, Gratitude, and Belonging

2021-05-02 Q&A2 45:41
Ajahn Sucitto
Where is the experience of bodily energies found in the suttas; what is the source of Ajahn’s ‘forensic precision’; how to us somatic presence with the 3rd and 4th foundations of mindfulness; please help with insomnia; experiencing resistance to standing meditation; grief and pain experienced with ‘Future and Past’ exercise; how to deepen into the ‘neither/nor’ space; is samādhi developed by sustaining sati; how to deal with overactive citta; how did you deal with the fear of death when being robbed in India?
London Insight Meditation Clearing the Floods

2020-12-13 The Art and Practice of Forgiveness 4:23:24
Phillip Moffitt, Noliwe Alexander
The art of forgiveness begins with connecting to the heart. The practice involves learning skills such as metta, mindful acknowledgement, and compassion. Practicing these skills enables you to free yourself from painful identification with past events. This is a day to bring remorse or grief about past actions and move beyond feelings of guilt and shame. Likewise, if someone has wronged you, you will be guided toward holding them in accountability without closing your heart. Additionally, forgiveness practice will move you toward clarity and acceptance for the ways you have let yourself down. Practicing forgiveness allows you to move from a heavy, remorseful heart and a reactive mind to a heart that’s light but still feels regret, and a mind that is calm and clear. The day will be held with periods of guided silent sitting and walking meditation practice, instruction in the art and practice of forgiveness, and a forgiveness ceremony, with opportunities to ask questions to the instructors.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center

2020-12-07 Evening Q&A 42:53
Ajahn Sucitto
Meaning of ‘The citta goes to distinction’; search for security externally and internally; the wrapping and unwrapping of citta; manas and its relationship to citta; practicing with grief; is citta the unconditioned; please clarify comment about vipassana practice; when is observing bodily/somatic states dissociation and cutting off from them?
Bodhi College Citta: Mind, Heart, Spirit

2020-11-12 Holding Loss, Grief, and Impermanence with Tenderness 39:57
Kate Munding
Grief and the process of mourning can be held as a sacred time that lends towards a greater capacity for compassion and a clearer knowing of what is truly precious in our life?
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Finding True Refuge in Uncertain Times with Anushka Fernandopulle, Chas DiCapua, Kate Munding, Jozen Tamori Gibson and Dawn Scott

2020-10-08 Guided Reflection & Meditation: Grief & Compassion 30:54
Matthew Brensilver
Guided Meditation
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Fall Insight Meditation Retreat with Phillip Moffitt, MA, SEP; Matthew Brensilver, PhD; Tuere Sala and Dawn Scott

2020-05-09 Loss, Grief and Death: Impermanence in Pandemic Times 56:25
James Baraz
The Buddha said to reflect each day on the facts of old age, sickness and death. He also said to to come to terms with the fact that everything and everyone near and dear to us will be separated from us. In these Covid-19 days our practice becomes letting go of what was and adjust to a new way of being. This practice of impermanence includes opening to loss, grief and death which is explored in this talk.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks

2020-05-03 Dhamma Stream Online Puja: The Gift of Vulnerability 32:03
Ajahn Sucitto
It’s possible to meet suffering with an open heart. If the heart can open to grief, pain and vulnerability, a new view is possible – one beyond the cycle of birth and death. Keep the heart open to Dhamma, rooted in faith and goodwill. This is the Path to the deathless. *Sutta References: Therīgatha 6:2; Samyutta Nikaya 12:23; Samyutta Nikaya 1:10
Cittaviveka At Home with the Homeless: Ajahn Sucitto Locked Down

2020-04-11 10 Grief 18:19
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Satipanya Retreat Centre Talks on the Middle Length Discourses

2020-03-04 From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha Mind 16: Working with Our Psychological Conditioning 3 62:28
Donald Rothberg
We begin by pointing to how combining traditional Buddhist training with transforming psychological and social conditioning and unresolved material suggests the contours of a contemporary path of awakening. We then identify some of the main areas of the contemporary “shadow,” of unconscious, unresolved conditioning and developmental wounds, such as anger, fear, death, shame, conflict, trauma, grief, sexuality, and so on. We then give a “map” of four stages in the transformation of the shadow (particularly in a meditative context), starting with finding ways to access the shadow, then learning to be with and explore the shadow, then transforming the shadow, and then integrating the shadow work with daily life.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2019-10-17 Holding Grief Through Connection 43:47
James Baraz
I [recently] spoke about how sharing our pain by connecting with another helps us hold and process our grief. This week I want to look at the importance of "Connection through Community" and how we can create more community in our lives.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

2019-10-03 Holding Grief Through Connection 56:18
James Baraz
Whether the climate crisis, some other social issue or personal loss, sharing our pain by connecting with another helps us hold and process our grief. By opening the heart we can transform our feeling of isolation into one of shared humanity. This talk ends with a guided experiential dyad exercise adapting Joanna Macy’s "Learning to See Each Other" meditation from Coming Back to Life.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks

2019-09-30 Holding Love and Grief for the Earth 51:55
Mark Coleman
How the Bramha Viharas - the divine abodes of love, compassion, joy and equanimity arise in relationship to being in nature and how they suggest us holding the grief and pain during climate/eco crisis.
Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center Awake in the Wild: Embracing Change

2019-09-19 Working with Difficult Emotions 60:18
Guy Armstrong
Describes ways to work with difficult emotions in general. Offers particular guidance on meditating with the states of desire, anger, self-judgment, grief, and fear.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three-Month Retreat - Part 1

2019-08-15 Attention, Wisdom, Grief and Love (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 50:50
Matthew Brensilver
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Insight & Loving Kindness

2019-06-01 Meeting the Ecological Crises of our Time 60:37
Yuka Nakamura
How can we meet the ecological crises facing our planet without falling into denial, grief or cynicism? Acknowledging the Dukkha can awaken a sense of urgency, samvega, that gives us the energy and courage to rise to the challenge and seek ways of responding skilfully. The talk addresses three areas: Developing wisdom and skills, acting from wisdom and compassion, connecting with others and engaging in our communities and societies.
Meditationszentrum Beatenberg Ascension: 4 Day Insight Meditation Retreat

2018-10-05 Day Four, Guided Self-Compassion across the lifespan, from childhood to old age. (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 44:04
Alisa Dennis
Can we travel into our past and into our future through the power of our intention and the magnetic pulse of our hearts? Maybe? And what’s wrong with living in the Maybe Place? This guided meditation supports us in deepening the capacity of our hearts to listen deeply and at ease to our own pain and suffering across our lives. Widening the heart's capacity to hold our own grief and sorrow will strengthen our capacity to turn toward, be with, and then respond thoughtfully to the pain of the world.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Evolving Together: Mindfulness Meditation and Modern Science

2018-08-09 "How to Practice When Life is Difficult." 53:17
Kate Munding
This is a practice that brings in ease to the mind and body, offering relief from our dukkha while also supporting more mental clarity to see through some of our confusion and aversion. It can be used for stress, grief, and being overwhelmed. It can also be used to prepare for more concentration and steady mindfulness when the mind or body is a bit stirred up.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks

2017-12-19 Feeling Emotions on the Meditative Path of Awakening 41:31
Shaila Catherine
Shaila Catherine discusses the importance of developing mindfulness of emotions and mental states. Human beings have the capacity to experience a wide range of emotions—they may be subtle or intense, unwholesome or wholesome. Working with emotions requires energy and courage to be willing to face the raw fact that this mental state is present. We can become aware of, and work skillfully with, any emotional state including anger, hate, gratitude, fear, sadness, calmness, insecurity, contentment, grief, tranquility, lust, compassion, loneliness, jealousy, envy, restlessness, peacefulness, faith, love. Emotions are changing mental states that arise in conjunction with every perception. When we are mindful of emotions we drop the conceptual narrative of the story line and investigate how the mind operates. What conditions nourish each mental state, and what conditions cause them to end? How do these mental states affect the clarity of our perception? We can observe the dynamic interaction of emotions and the body, and learn to work with emotions in conjunction with their somatic manifestations. We might gather ideas for investigation by reviewing the detailed Abhidhamma categories of mental states and the factors that constitute each state, or we might simply observe the arising and ceasing of mental states in activity and our meditation.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley

2017-10-11 River of Change – Part 2 – Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life 49:06
Tara Brach
These two talks look at how we relate to change – especially the notable changes involving loss of relationships and our own body and mind. We examine our strategies for avoiding uncertainty and fear; the consequences of resisting reality; our refuges of presence and compassion in the face of grief; and the gifts of opening fully to the river of change.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2017-10-04 River of Change – Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life – Part 1 54:35
Tara Brach
These two talks look at how we relate to change – especially the notable changes involving loss of relationships and our own body and mind. We examine our strategies for avoiding uncertainty and fear; the consequences of resisting reality; our refuges of presence and compassion in the face of grief; and the gifts of opening fully to the river of change.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2016-12-28 Love - and Death 61:32
Tara Brach
To live our lives fully, we need to embrace the natural unfolding of birthing and dying. Yet we are deeply conditioned to resist loss, to pull away from fear and grief. Through a powerful Inuit story shared by Clarissa Estes, this talk explores how our practices of presence can open us to what we avoid, and free us to love without holding back.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC 2016 IMCW New Year Retreat: Awakening the Heart of Compassion

2016-12-08 Spring Washam - Spirit Rock: Dharma Talk: Compassion 58:36
Spring Washam
Meeting the Grief Chief of Compassion
Spirit Rock Meditation Center In the Presence of Love: Metta and Qigong Retreat

2016-11-01 Day 2: Dharma Talk - Reorienting our life in the light of death 51:07
Nikki Mirghafori
1) Death brings the scarcity of time to our consciousness. 2) The parable of the poisoned arrow and holding the imponderables with a "don't know" mind. 3) Grief, for ourselves and loved ones, as a natural response to death.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Maranasati: Contemplating Death

2016-10-06 Finding Freedom Through Grief 48:53
James Baraz
How can we process deep pain and turn it into deepening compassion and understanding? Kaye Cleave shares her moving story with James and the community about losing her 18-year old daughter and finding a way to transform her grief into meaningful beneficial action. The talk begins with this video about her trip to Nepal to build a school in honor of her daughter. To view the video: Catherine's Gift, go to Youtube.com at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HILTuvNRXrg
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks

2016-07-16 Across the River of Pain 28:03
Ayya Medhanandi
We long to be free from this wandering, to go beyond all suffering. The body is our raft to cross from one side of the river of pain to the other. And there we leave the raft. But we don’t leave it until we cross, until we realize the Deathless – when no one ‘dies’ but we know the death of greed, of anger, of delusion. As we cross, we end the pain, grief, rage, vulnerability, fear – every form of distress. And where we were once inflamed by these troubles, they give way to the infinitudes of love and compassion.
Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community

2016-06-15 Orlando: Practicing with Grief and Despair 50:07
Lila Kate Wheeler
Cambridge Insight Meditation Center

2016-04-28 Evening Q&A 51:12
Ajahn Sucitto
Samsara; The Realms; Broken Heart/Deep Grief; How to Be with Heavy Stuff; Painful Feelings; Identification with the Body; Precepts; Abuse; Sound of Silence; Equanimity
Padmasambhava Peace Institute :  Body, Heart and Mind: Embodying Citta

2016-04-18 Grief, Love and Groundlessness 53:49
Matthew Brensilver
Audio recording of the Monday night class on April 18, 2016 with Matthew Brensilver.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center

2015-07-08 Grief, Letting Go and Compassion 1:25:24
Rebecca Bradshaw
Common Ground Meditation Center Weekly Dharma Series

2015-04-21 Touching the Earth 1:11:07
Amma Thanasanti
A Buddhist Response to Climate Change Using essential Buddhist teachings we can examine the suffering that is being caused by climate change. We feel for the beauty and life-enriching presence of animals, forests, oceans and our many different human relationships and, as we focus on gratitude, we gain a capacity for understanding our grief, sorrow and shock at the prospect of their demise. Understanding the causes of climate change and the interdependence of living systems, we can move into engaged action. When we see the importance of generating skillful effort to deal with climate change we can focus on specific and constructive actions and be the change we want to see in the world.
New York Insight Meditation Center NYI Regular Talks

2014-11-19 Awakening Through Change and Loss 1:19:42
Tara Brach
Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely related to how we open to the truth of impermanence. This talk examines how our ways of trying to control life solidify our perception of being separate and threatened. We then look at the wings of mindful presence and compassion that open us to loss and grief, and reveal the loving awareness that is beyond birth and death.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2014-08-13 The Dhamma of Snow 26:04
Ayya Medhanandi
In the grip of painful feelings such as fear, anger, grief, or despair, we are in danger of allowing these to subdue the mind. Discernment and clear awareness help us to see through our pain to the ending of pain – not only for ourselves, but for all beings. We ascend the highest Everest of the spiritual realm. That might seem impossible from where we sit now. But if we trust this process, just like the sudden vanishing of winter snow, we realize a transcendent interior melting of all sorrow.
Satipanna Insight Meditation (SIMT) :  2014 Chapin Mill Retreat

2014-04-17 Framed By Awareness 56:32
Ajahn Sucitto
Our mind /body is held in the grip of kamma, framed by anxiety, grief and other forms of dukkha. Mindfulness replaces this frame with clear, emphatic awareness.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Holistic Awareness: Monastic Retreat

2013-08-13 Dependent Origination: Desire 61:24
Rodney Smith
We think of desire as a spiritually undesirable state of mind. Because it holds such power over our actions and thoughts, we are reluctant to thoroughly take it on and explore what it is. Desire is not just one simple state of mind. It is the composition of all the links that preceded it in Dependent Origination, the confluence of ignorance, mental formations, consciousness, name and form, six sense base, contact, and feelings. It holds all of that and the idea of "me" as well. As an analogy, think of snow as being the composite of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, etc. Snow seems like something separate and different from the conditions that form it, but it is those conditions. We can enter and examine the energy of desire through any of these composite conditions. Encouraged by our thoughts, desire also has a strong sense of becoming something, something essential to us. But when we look at desire, it is a future thought holding the wish of a different life. Sad, is it not? When properly seen, we can you feel the grief of the unfulfilled desire?
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: Dependent Origination

2013-02-27 The Fires of Loss 60:52
Tara Brach
We all encounter the great losses of our own health and life, and of cherished others. We are conditioned to resist opening to the rawness and grief that comes with loss. This talk describes the refuge of presence in the face of loss, and the gift of timeless love that arises as we make peace with the reality of this living, dying world. [NOTE: Tara was traveling this week, so offering a well-loved talk from 2010.]
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2012-09-10 Grief 18:49
Amma Thanasanti
Shakti Vihara

2012-05-08 Dynamics of Emotion 44:27
Shaila Catherine
Meditation can reveal the dynamic process of emotional life. In this talk, Shaila Catherine explores relationships between mind and body, between thoughts and emotions, and between present moment experience and concepts. Emotions are not avoided in meditation, instead we engage in a balanced and wise investigation of emotions and see their changing, impermanent, and empty nature. Transformative insight into impermanence may come through understanding the functioning of mental states, without worry about difficult emotions such as anger, grief, or fear. We will learn to respond, act, and speak with wisdom as we learn to open to the full range of emotional life.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley Tuesday Talks—2012
In collection: Meditation and the Emotional Landscape

2011-04-12 Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Anger 0:14
Rodney Smith
Anger is often unconsciously encouraged because it clears away the doubting mind. "I know why I feel this way, and I am right," says anger. Spiritually we can only approach and understand anger from humility, the opposite direction of righteousness. Anger usually arises as a component of grief where something you cared about was blocked or diverted away from you. If we can see anger as grief, humility is more easily accessed.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-04-05 Loss, Grief, and Love 46:08
Howard Cohn
Mission Dharma

2010-09-23 Working with Difficult Emotions 60:52
Guy Armstrong
There are four primal difficult emotions that come often in meditation and daily life: grief, anger, desire and fear. When we learn to relate skillfully to these emotions as they appear, there can be a great increase in the sense of freedom and ease in our life and practice.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three-Month Retreat - Part 1

2010-08-01 Grief and the Eightfold Path 33:55
Ayya Anandabodhi
Insight Meditation Center

2010-06-16 The Fires of Loss 60:52
Tara Brach
We all encounter the great losses of our own health and life, and of cherished others. We are conditioned to resist opening to the rawness and grief that comes with loss. This talk describes the refuge of presence in the face of loss, and the gift of timeless love that arises as we make peace with the reality of this living, dying world.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2009-07-28 Opening to Grief 51:51
Sky Dawson
The Four Noble Truths and opening to grief.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Insight Meditation

2008-01-13 Wholeness, Fear And Grief 41:39
Ajahn Sucitto
Cittaviveka Winter Retreat

2005-08-21 Skillful Emotions 61:04
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The path involves learning how to marshal various emotions--grief, joy, desire, disgust, gladness, dispassion--some of which are normally regarded as negative. But they have their uses, so learn how to cultivate them all along the way. Without these emotions, the practice doesn't go anywhere. With them it can take you to release.
Metta Forest Monastery

2000-03-23 Death, Grief and Practice 29:17
Eugene Cash

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