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Rodney Smith's Dharma Talks

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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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2011-05-24 Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Worry 59:12	Download Listen
Worry attempts to protect us from every contingency. It becomes a pattern and view of life where I am the guardian and protector of my security. Worry is actually a process of self-affirmation because we keep affirming our power over what life brings forth. If I let down my guard, life would be chaotic and out of control, and therefore I need to worry to have everything turn out as I wish. Worry and planning elevates us to the status of a god while we are actually being controlled by fear.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-05-10 Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Judgment 58:55	Download Listen
Judgment is seeing the world in quantifiable terms. There a holistic way of seeing that is not partial and comparative but becomes inaccessible when we believe in judgment. Let the presence of judgment remind you that your thinking and emoting is arising from an incomplete perception. Quiet yourself to the inward narrative and allow the whole mind, undivided by judgment, to arise.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-05-07 Selfless Practice 10:40	Download Listen
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center : IMS Audio Files

2011-04-26 Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Shame 59:40	Download Listen
While we may have guilt over an incident or a series of mishaps, shame is the accompanying attitude about oneself and can therefore be far more disruptive. Life becomes an uphill battle against our destructive inward narrative. Its variations go from feeling lesser and smaller than to being an obstacle and ultimately better off not existing. Confronting our conclusion around shame is taking on our emotional posture to life itself.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-04-12 Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Anger 0:14	Download Listen
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

2011-03-29 Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Doubt 63:04	Download Listen
The mind finds endless reasons to energetically split itself in two. "Shoulds," denials, rationalizations, resentments, and countless other states are energetic divisions, where the mind is trying to have what it wants while hiding from its assumed reality. Doubt is perhaps the most common expression of this pattern. Doubt reaches for what it wants with half a heart because it fears the repercussions of being a failure.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

2011-03-24 Questions and Answers 57:25	Download Listen
Probing some of the transitional dharma points.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center : Insight Meditation and the Heart

2011-03-22 Secrets Of The Mind 47:52	Download Listen
When the mind is no longer divided, it reveals its secrets.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center : Insight Meditation and the Heart

2011-03-20 Distortions Of Mind 48:27	Download Listen
The mind configures reality into distorted images. It is our job to sort it out.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center : Insight Meditation and the Heart

2011-03-08 Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Fear 68:19	Download Listen
Fear divides the mind by convincing us that the present is in the crosshairs of an approaching disaster. We therefore need to harness the power of our thinking and take flight physically and mentally away from now. If presence is maintained, fear has no way to access the moment except by projecting into the future.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
In collection: The Satipatthana Sutta

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