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Rodney Smith's Dharma Talks

Rodney Smith

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More and more, the teaching practice takes me into the community where I engage directly with students. My focus right now is on bringing the continuity of the Dharma into the market place. Although retreating is an important form for self-knowledge, I find myself less interested in the immediate results of a retreat and more interested in helping students investigate their relationship to the ups and downs of their everyday life.

Nature, death and spontaneous freedom continually interweave themselves into my teaching. From the forest of Thailand, where I spent several years, I bring a deep awareness of the healing quality of nature into my teachings. Relaxing into our true nature allows us to realize what it means to be a human being. It is here we find a resting point, a counterbalance to the speed and turbulence of our culture.

My work in hospice brings a sense of urgency into my teaching. Working with the theme of death and dying reveals the here and now of life to us, how important it is to open to each loss, change and transition that marks our path. Life is precious. We need to awaken without hesitation.

Many of us crave to be more calm and centered. We know that life has more to offer than this fleeting material world. For each of us, the Dharma offers an immediacy of freedom for which we do not have to strive or wait. In practice, we can learn to relax deeply into the moment and rediscover spontaneous freedom.

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2012-06-26 Fundamentals of the Dharma: Renunciation 59:37	Download Listen
Our culture has made renunciation into an austerity rather than a virtue, a contraction rather than openness. The word has the negative connotation of self-deprivation when it really means releasing ourselves from what binds us. We are usually willing to release any constraints that do not serve our greater intentions. Simplicity is the natural result of renunciation, but simplicity is not an austerity. It is not forced, but rather is the natural clearing away when everything in excess has been eliminated. Ultimately we simply renounce our separation and live life from that view and intention.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: Fundamentals of the Dharma

2012-06-19 Questions and Answers about Meditation Practice 56:52	Download Listen
Questions and answers about meditation practice.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society

2012-05-29 Fundamentals of the Dharma: Wise Intention 58:43	Download Listen
Wise intention is the energy that moves all spiritual practices forward. We mistakenly think it is our willpower, but it is always and only our intention. There are two expressions of intention: the primary intention associated with the longing to be free and the secondary intention for gain and acquisition. The secondary is formed by the mind from the primary intention, and that is the reason we believe that satisfaction can come through desire. The mind tells us that. For the energy to be reinvested back into the primary we have to prove to ourselves that secondary gains will never be truly fulfilling. That is what is left for many of us to do.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: Fundamentals of the Dharma

2012-05-15 Fundamentals of the Dharma: Wise View 59:12	Download Listen
Wise view is fundamental to everything we do in the dharma. Having adirection establishes a context for all dharma activities. Without it weflounder and move in the direction of our conditioning toward pleasureand ease. Simply stated, wise view is the view that our thoughts distortour perceptions away from the inherent interconnection of all things.Working in clear alignment with interconnection allows us the courageand intention to move toward the difficult, toward that which seems toseparate, and confirm the truth of oneness. All dharma activity must bein accordance with that intention, or it will further support theconditioned sense of separation.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: Fundamentals of the Dharma

2012-05-01 Fundamentals of the Dharma: Generosity 57:07	Download Listen
Why is generosity a fundamental dharma issue? The dharma opens us beyond our self-limitations, and generosity is the essential direction of that opening. There is a balance between staying within ourselves and our understanding without idealizing the dharma while working with our edges that keep us contained within ourselves. Generosity is the authentic journey out of that container where we realize we were never alone or isolated. Generosity is the manifestation in action of connectedness and is the fundamental conduit of a life lived from the heart.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: Fundamentals of the Dharma

2012-04-17 Fundamentals of the Dharma: Sila 61:13	Download Listen
We usually approach ethical conduct (sila) from either righteousness (morality) or idealism (I must never harm any living thing!) but not often from stability and unification of heart. From the heart we just see what is appropriate to do and do it within the context of connection and nonharm. When we transgress we learn and move on and never expect anything miraculous or perfect in any way. We simply live within the fullness of our humanity, and that is enough.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: Fundamentals of the Dharma

2012-04-03 Fundamentals of the Dharma: Staying Within Yourself 2:02	Download Listen
In the West we have little preparation for dharma practice because our lives have not been tuned to staying within ourselves. We have been taught to look outside for approval and to compare ourselves to others. How can we possibly find ourselves within any comparison? All we will ever find is a sense of lacking. Leaning toward the world does not allow us to find our own stability, and yet we cannot question the sense of self without inward evenness and dependability.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: Fundamentals of the Dharma

2012-03-29 Application Of The Four Foundations 44:46	Download Listen
The four foundations move us from form to formless but also give us a view and appreciation to make the journey
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge : March 2012 at IMS - Forest Refuge

2012-03-22 Exploring The Fourth Foundation. 43:01	Download Listen
The Buddha removes the self from consideration by remembering each mind state, simple as it is.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge : March 2012 at IMS - Forest Refuge

2012-03-15 Third Foundation: Just This 45:09	Download Listen
The Buddha seems to be suggesting to advance ourselves as little as possible in the Third Foundation. When we see what is arising minimally as "just this," we are essentially taking ourselves out of that seeing.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge : March 2012 at IMS - Forest Refuge

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