Rodney Smith's Dharma Talks
Rodney Smith
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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Select from Rodney Smith's
381
talks
--
VIEW ALL
2012-03-22
Exploring The Fourth Foundation.
2010-12-12
"I Teach One Thing Only"
2009-04-08
3.8 Billion Years Ago
2011-01-04
A Blameless Life
2000-02-27
A Glimpse Of Connection
2010-01-12
A Paradigm Shift of the Heart
2009-06-20
A wise Orientation to Practice
2008-09-01
Abiding in Pause
2014-03-11
Abiding with Creation
2007-09-03
Abiding Within Paradox
2001-03-10
Accessing The Dharma
2010-08-15
Adaptation and Surrender
2001-10-01
After The Retreat: What Now?
2010-08-14
Aligned with Awakening
2010-07-20
Aligned With Selflessness.
2005-12-10
Aligning the Mind and Body
2009-04-05
Aligning the Mind With the Now of the Body
2022-05-10
Always and forever plus a guided meditation
2010-08-17
An Evolution Toward Stillness
2009-09-06
An Imposter in the Body
1999-01-01
Anger
1999-01-01
Anger: About Anger
1999-01-01
Anger: Control, Fairness And Non-Existence
1999-02-01
Anger: Transforming Anger
2012-03-29
Application Of The Four Foundations
2012-03-01
Applying The Four Foundations
2001-03-12
Arriving In The Here And Now
2008-04-05
Authentic Action
2024-05-06
Awakening Out of the Past
1985-01-01
Being Human
2016-12-13
Birthing the quiet mind
2008-05-25
Blessed Quiet
2008-08-31
Body Trumping Mind
2005-03-30
Boundary Formation
2007-09-01
Boundaryless Living
2004-05-23
Caring Attention
2013-12-13
Closing Talk
2024-05-04
Conceptual Time and Its Alternative
2008-09-03
Congruent Effort
1998-01-01
Contemplation Of Death And Dying
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - I
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - II
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - III
1998-01-01
Contemplation On Death And Dying - IV
2015-06-09
Continua of Practice: Adaptation to Surrender
2015-10-20
Continua of Practice: Alienation to Belonging
2015-08-18
Continua of Practice: Blame to Accountability
2015-06-30
Continua of Practice: From Denial to Openness
2015-07-14
Continua of Practice: From Self-Centeredness to All Beings
2015-08-04
Continua of Practice: From the Horizontal to the Vertical
2015-05-12
Continua of Practice: Introduction
2015-10-06
Continua of Practice: Shadow to Light
2015-11-03
Continua of Practice: Sophistication to Innocence
2015-05-26
Continua of Practice: The Unified Mind
2010-09-04
Continuums of Practice
2007-03-19
Contrasting Wise Effort And Right Effort
2010-01-05
Courage Toward the Infinite
1998-03-26
Death Be Not Proud
2013-01-22
Dependent Origination
2013-02-05
Dependent Origination: Co-Dependent Arising (1)
2013-02-19
Dependent Origination: Co-Dependent Arising (2)
2013-11-05
Dependent Origination: Aging
2013-09-17
Dependent Origination: Becoming
2013-10-01
Dependent Origination: Becoming Through Thinking
2013-10-22
Dependent Origination: Birth
2013-01-22
Dependent Origination: Causality
2013-04-30
Dependent Origination: Consciousness
2013-06-18
Dependent Origination: Contact
2013-11-26
Dependent Origination: Death
2013-08-13
Dependent Origination: Desire
2013-07-30
Dependent Origination: Feelings
2013-07-09
Dependent Origination: Feelings and Personalities
2013-04-16
Dependent Origination: Formations of Mind (2)
2013-08-27
Dependent Origination: Grasping and Clinging
2013-03-12
Dependent Origination: Ignorance
2013-03-26
Dependent Origination: Mental Formations
2013-05-21
Dependent Origination: Name and Form
2013-12-17
Dependent Origination: Review
2013-06-04
Dependent Origination: The Six Senses
2022-05-21
Descending into the heart
2007-03-15
Differentiating Right Effort from Wise Effort
2004-07-19
Distorting The Mind
2011-03-20
Distortions Of Mind
2010-07-22
Effort and the End of Suffering
2008-08-11
Effort and the First Beginning
1998-02-02
Essential Elements Of Formless Practice
1998-02-02
Essential Elements Of Formless Practice: An Overview
1998-02-16
Essential Elements Of Formless Practice: Right Attitude
1998-02-09
Essential Elements Of Formless Practice: Right View
1998-02-23
Essential Elemetns Of Formless Practice: Finding Our Passion
2021-08-22
Exploring Meditation as a Gateway to Transcendent Awareness, Part 1
2021-08-24
Exploring Meditation as a Gateway to Transcendent Awareness, Part2
1996-04-20
Finding Our Breath
2002-04-08
Following The Pain Line
1997-03-01
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness
1997-03-04
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Investigating The Dharma
1997-03-03
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Of Consciousness
1997-03-02
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Of Feelings
1997-03-01
Four Foundations Of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Of The Body
2013-12-12
Fourth Foundation
2010-01-01
From Adaptation To Surrender
2012-12-09
From Form To Formless
2009-12-29
From Noise To Stillness
2010-09-07
From Science to Art
2012-01-10
Fundamentals of the Dharma
2012-11-23
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Appreciation
2012-02-07
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Bare Attention
2012-01-10
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Death and Denial
2013-01-08
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Embodied Action
2012-08-07
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Faith
2012-11-06
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Fear
2012-05-01
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Generosity
2012-10-23
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Love
2012-09-11
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Love of Honesty
2012-07-10
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Mindfulness
2012-01-23
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Moving Toward the Struggle
2012-09-25
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Relax, Observe, Allow, and Respond
2012-06-26
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Renunciation
2012-02-21
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Samadhi
2012-10-16
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Self-Uncertainty
2012-04-17
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Sila
2012-04-03
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Staying Within Yourself
2012-08-21
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Surrender
2012-07-24
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Wisdom
2012-05-29
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Wise Intention
2012-05-15
Fundamentals of the Dharma: Wise View
2018-12-12
Grounding Our Practice
2022-05-21
Guided Meditation on "descending into the heart"
2022-05-10
Guided Meditation on "Form to Formless"
2022-05-19
Guided meditation on "the evolution of awareness"
2022-05-28
Guided meditation on "the now of all time "
2022-05-24
Guided Meditation on "vulnerability as a threshold into awareness"
2022-05-26
Guided meditation on resolving distance
2022-05-12
Guided meditation on the first foundation of mindfulness
2022-05-14
Guided meditation: merging the heart sutra with the four foundations - part two
2000-12-15
Illusion 1: Taking What Is Insubstantial To Be Permanent
2000-01-08
Illusion II: Taking What Is Incapable Of Satisfying As Happiness
2001-01-01
Illusion III: Taking The Momentary Display Of The World As Continuous
2001-02-01
Illusion IV: Taking What Lacks Independent Existence As Independently Existing
2007-12-30
In Alignment With Zero
2000-12-31
Inspiring The Heart
1994-07-02
Integrity
2005-01-04
Integrity: Confronting The Assumption Of Incompletion
1999-01-01
Journey Into The Mind
2007-04-01
Leanings of the Mind
2003-11-13
Learning
1999-01-05
Leaving The Wilderness
2000-12-29
Life's Lessons
2007-09-07
Listless Mind
2010-07-24
Living A Blameless Life.
2006-01-10
Living an Ethical Life
2024-05-08
Living Time, Dead Time, and Borrowed Time
2022-05-14
Merging the Heart Sutra with the four foundations of mindfulness - part one
2022-05-14
Merging the Heart Sutra with the four foundations of mindfulness - part two
2012-12-11
Mirroring Meditation
2008-08-13
No Words to Follow
2003-01-18
Non-Doing
2009-08-04
Once, Long Ago (1 of 2)
2009-08-05
Once, Long Ago: Awakening (2 of 2)
2022-05-05
Original sin.
2018-12-10
Perception and Recognition With Guided Meditation.
1999-10-13
Perpendicular Universe
2016-12-11
Perspectives on pain.
2009-07-07
Practice Q and A
2008-03-25
Practice Q and A
2008-12-09
Practice Q and A
2006-12-19
Practice Q and A
2007-07-03
Practice Q and A
2008-08-14
Practice Q and A
2009-01-20
Practice Q and A
2004-01-06
Precepts and Refuges
2005-08-23
Psychic Leanings of the Mind
2009-08-02
Purgatory
2016-12-15
Q&A
2008-01-05
Questions And Answers
2011-03-24
Questions and Answers
2008-09-04
Questions and Answers
2013-01-01
Questions and Answers
2014-12-13
Questions and Answers
2012-06-19
Questions and Answers about Meditation Practice
2018-12-13
Questions From The Retreat
2007-04-04
Radical Accountability
2006-12-29
Radical Accountabilty
2014-03-25
Realm Of Practice and realm Of Abiding
2001-03-14
Receiving The World
2002-01-07
Receiving the World
2008-01-02
Recovering The Primary Intention
2002-11-01
Referencing The Moment
2001-12-12
Reflections On September 11Th
2008-10-04
Relating to Anger
2006-03-11
Relax, Observe And Allow
2005-12-29
Relax, Observe, Allow
2005-06-18
Relax, Observe, and Allow
2014-03-18
Releasing Our Imaginary Friend
1999-12-29
Resolutions Of The Heart
2022-05-26
Resolving distance
2002-06-29
Responsibility
2008-07-13
Restless Body, Unworried Mind
2008-03-30
Right Effort And Wise Effort
2007-09-05
Sacred Intention
2002-12-06
Sangha: A Path of Relationship
2007-01-09
Sangha: The Strength in Gathering
2010-04-13
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: Body as the Body
2010-07-06
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: Death and the Body (1)
2010-08-03
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: Death and the Body (2)
2010-05-25
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: Integrating Body and Actions
2010-06-08
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: Loving the Whole Body
2010-08-24
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: Mindfulness of the Mind Within the Body
2010-05-11
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: The Body in Movement
2010-04-27
Satipatthana Sutta, First Foundation: The Image of the Body
2011-08-02
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: An Overview (1)
2011-08-16
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: An Overview (2)
2011-11-08
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: Application of Discernment
2011-12-13
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: Discerning the Self
2011-11-22
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: Discernment and the Hindrances
2011-09-27
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: Independent Seeing
2011-10-25
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: The Effort to Discern
2011-09-13
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: The Lions Roar
2011-10-11
Satipatthana Sutta, Fourth Foundation: The Spirit of Questioning
2010-01-19
Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Foundations
2010-03-30
Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: From Mindfulness to Awareness
2010-02-16
Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Moving the Principle Through the Application
2010-02-02
Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Selfless Application
2010-03-16
Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Understanding Mindfulness
2010-03-02
Satipatthana Sutta, Introduction: Wise Effort
2010-12-21
Satipatthana Sutta, Second Foundation: Equanimity
2010-09-14
Satipatthana Sutta, Second Foundation: Feelings Molding Character
2010-11-23
Satipatthana Sutta, Second Foundation: Feelings Unleashing Thoughts
2010-09-28
Satipatthana Sutta, Second Foundation: Leaning into Feelings
2010-11-09
Satipatthana Sutta, Second Foundation: Neutral Feelings
2010-10-12
Satipatthana Sutta, Second Foundation: The Pain of Pleasure
2010-10-26
Satipatthana Sutta, Second Foundation: Unpleasantness Leading to Divisiveness
2011-01-11
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Awareness of the Mind
2011-02-22
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Dividing the Mind Through Aversion
2011-02-08
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Dividing the Mind Through Desire
2011-04-12
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Anger
2011-06-28
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Arrogance
2011-06-14
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Boredom
2011-03-29
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Doubt
2011-03-08
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Fear
2011-05-10
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Judgment
2011-04-26
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Shame
2011-05-24
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: Division Through Worry
2011-01-25
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: The Divided Mind
2011-07-12
Satipatthana Sutta, Third Foundation: The Personal and Impersonal
2011-08-30
Satipatthana Sutta: Questions and Answers
2008-08-09
Searching in a Wise Direction
2013-12-10
Second And Third Foundation
2012-03-08
Second Foundation: Dissolving Form
2011-03-22
Secrets Of The Mind
1993-01-03
Self Doubt
1999-02-27
Self-Kindness And Self-Indulgence
2002-12-07
Self-Kindness and Self-Indulgence
2004-12-07
Self-Knowledge
2011-05-07
Selfless Practice
2002-12-29
Sensitivity Of The Heart
2018-12-11
Shifting Identity
2008-01-08
Sila, Samadhi, Panna
2010-09-08
Sincerity: Hunger for the Truth
2001-12-17
Sitting Practice And Its Effect On Our Life
2015-12-08
Sophistication To Innocence
2009-09-05
Space, the Final Frontier
2005-06-22
Stepping out of Self-Deception
1995-07-01
Taking Responsibility
2003-04-08
Task-Centered & Heart-Centered Meditation
2009-05-26
Ten Paramis: Energy (1)
2009-07-14
Ten Paramis: Energy (2)
2009-11-24
Ten Paramis: Equanimity (1)
2009-12-15
Ten Paramis: Equanimity (2)
2009-01-27
Ten Paramis: Generosity (1)
2009-02-10
Ten Paramis: Generosity (2)
2009-10-27
Ten Paramis: Metta (1)
2009-11-10
Ten Paramis: Metta (2)
2009-07-28
Ten Paramis: Patience (1)
2009-08-11
Ten Paramis: Patience (2)
2009-03-24
Ten Paramis: Renunciation (1)
2009-04-14
Ten Paramis: Renunciation (2)
2009-09-29
Ten Paramis: Resolve (1)
2009-10-13
Ten Paramis: Resolve (2)
2009-08-25
Ten Paramis: Truthfulness (1)
2009-09-15
Ten Paramis: Truthfulness (2)
2009-02-24
Ten Paramis: Virtue (1)
2009-03-10
Ten Paramis: Virtue (2)
2009-04-28
Ten Paramis: Wisdom (1)
2009-05-12
Ten Paramis: Wisdom (2)
2018-12-08
Tensionless Sitting
2000-07-05
The "No" Of Love
2006-07-14
The Art Of Non Doing
2003-04-10
The Awakened Heart
2006-01-01
The Bored Mind
2000-08-07
The Controlling Mind
2014-12-09
The Counter Intuitive Ground Of Spiritual Practice
2018-12-09
The Critical Role Ego Plays In Awakening
2004-07-21
The Doubting Mind
2002-03-29
The Eightfold Path 1: Wise View
2000-03-06
The Eightfold Path 2: Wise Aspiration
2000-03-13
The Eightfold Path 3: Wise Speech
2000-03-27
The Eightfold Path 4: Wise Action
2000-04-03
The Eightfold Path 5: Wise Livelihood
2000-04-17
The Eightfold Path 6: Wise Effort
2000-04-10
The Eightfold Path 7: Wise Mindfulness
2000-04-24
The Eightfold Path 8: Wise Samadhi
1998-01-06
The Essential Elements Of Formless Practice
2022-05-19
The evolution of awareness.
2006-01-05
The Evolution Of Insight Practice
1998-03-28
The Evolution Of View
2013-12-08
The First foundation
2014-03-04
The Flame Of Now
2002-04-12
The Four Great Efforts
2009-01-13
The Gift of Blamelessness
2007-01-01
The Governing Laws Of The Mind
2008-04-02
The Governing Laws Of The Mind
2006-09-02
The Governing Laws of the Mind
2002-01-03
The I Of The Storm
2000-08-14
The Isolated Mind
2002-11-05
The Judging Mind
2022-05-07
The Landscape of Awakening
1993-01-04
The Mind's I
2000-08-21
The Moody Mind
1996-03-16
The Natural Way
1998-08-02
The Need To Conform
2007-10-13
The No of Love
2004-05-28
The Non-Doing Of Practice
2022-05-28
The now of all time
2000-08-28
The Obsessive Mind
2004-05-26
The Path Of Not Knowing
2001-01-03
The Personal And The Impersonal
1998-08-17
The Room Of The Mind
2008-08-30
The Root of the Root of Yourself
2002-12-23
The Sangha
2010-01-19
The Satipatthana Sutta
2003-04-06
The Search For Meaning
2003-03-27
The Spirit Of Questioning
2015-12-10
The Spiritual Journey - Ascent and Desent
2004-07-23
The Story And The Story Teller
2003-01-01
The Story and the Storyteller
2007-03-22
The Tasks of Being Nobody
2009-01-27
The Ten Paramis
2005-06-21
The Three Awakenings
2005-01-11
The Triple Gem
1998-05-13
The Unforgiving Mind
2003-01-05
The Urban Buddhist
1998-01-01
The Wanting Mind
1998-03-24
The Way Things Are
2010-09-05
There is Only Mystery
2012-03-15
Third Foundation: Just This
1987-01-03
This I Am Not
2009-06-23
Three Point Eight Billion Years Ago
1995-01-01
Time
1995-01-01
Time: Death, The Ending Of Time
1995-01-01
Time: Fractured Time
1995-01-01
Time: Quieting Time
1995-01-01
Time: Time And The Ending Of Suffering
2008-09-02
To Be or Not to Be
1999-12-02
Touching The Earth
2008-08-12
Tracking a Dying Lion
2023-05-02
Transcending Identity Day 1 Dharma Talk
2023-05-03
Transcending Identity Day 2 Evening Guided Meditation
2023-05-03
Transcending Identity Day 2 Morning Guided Meditation
2023-05-04
Transcending Identity Day 3 Dharma Talk
2023-05-05
Transcending Identity Day 4 Evening Guided Meditation
2023-05-05
Transcending Identity Day 4 Morning Guided Meditation
2023-05-06
Transcending Identity Day 5 Dharma Talk
2023-05-07
Transcending Identity Day 6 Evening Guided Meditation
2023-05-07
Transcending Identity Day 6 Morning Guided Meditation
2023-05-08
Transcending Identity Day 7 Dharma Talk
2014-12-11
Understanding States Of Mind
2006-07-11
Untying The Knot Of Contraction
1996-01-01
Using Death To Understand Life
2005-01-01
Utterly Ordinary
2007-04-07
Utterly Ordinary
2022-05-24
Vulnerability as a threshold into awareness.
2003-03-24
Wanting: The Payoff And The Pain
2008-02-02
What Reality Are We Practicing
2009-02-21
What the Body Knows
1998-08-21
What's Love Got To Do With It
2004-11-23
Wholeness and Healing through Generosity
2001-11-01
Why Meditate?
1986-12-29
Why Meditation
1996-04-18
Wise Speech
2009-08-01
Wrong Way on a One-Way Road
--
Select one of Rodney Smith's 37 retreats
--
1997-02-28
Vipassana Retreat (9 days)
1998-02-01
IMS Audio Files
2002-12-27
New Years Retreat
2003-03-21
Vipassana Retreat
2003-04-05
Vipassana Retreat
2004-05-01
May 2004 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2004-07-01
July 2004 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2004-12-28
New Year's Retreat
2005-03-25
Vipassana Retreat
2005-12-28
New Year's Retreat
2006-03-10
Vipassana Retreat
2006-07-09
Vipassana Retreat
2006-12-27
New Year's Retreat
2007-03-01
March 2007 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2007-12-28
Resolutions of the Heart: New Year's Retreat
2008-03-28
Living Freedom: Insight Meditation Retreat
2008-07-11
Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat
2009-04-03
Living Freedom: Insight Meditation Retreat
2009-06-19
Insight Meditation Retreat
2009-12-28
Resolutions of the Heart: New Year’s Retreat
2010-07-18
Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat
2010-12-10
Insight Meditation and the Heart
2011-03-18
Insight Meditation and the Heart
2012-03-01
March 2012 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2012-12-07
Insight Meditation and the Heart
2013-12-06
Insight Meditation and the Heart
2013-12-13
Holding Your Life with Kindness, Gratitude, and Contentment: A Weekend Retreat
2014-03-01
March 2014 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2014-12-07
Insight Meditation and the Heart
2015-05-12
Continua of Practice Series
2015-12-06
Insight Meditation and the Heart
2016-12-09
Insight Meditation and the Heart
2018-12-07
Awakening : Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Students
2021-08-21
Awakening: Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Practitioners
2022-05-01
May 2022
2023-05-02
Transcending Identity
2024-05-04
Breaking the Spell of Time
2004-11-23
Wholeness and Healing through Generosity
62:13
Notice how frequently you second-guess your generosity. You may have the desire to be generous but you let it pass without acting. This week act upon any impulse to be generous: if you have the thought to give something to someone, do not delay or second-guess the impulse. Give.
Each time you open the Internet this week begin by going to thehungersite.com and offer a free donation to all the similar sites listed on that web page. Say metta phrases to each disadvantaged group as you make the offering. May all being have sufficient food; may all beings be free of breast cancer.... Feel the pain associated with each category of people and wish them well. Explore the relationship between feeling pain for another and generosity. Does the pain motivate you to move towards or away from giving?
Notice your meditative posture and see if the chest and shoulders are fully open when you sit. How does your posture affect your mind? As you move through the day notice your posture when you feel selfish or irritable. Notice it when you feel generous and confident. When you feel selfish and closed down to generosity adjust your posture to a more open stance and see if that has any effect on your state of mind.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2003-11-13
Learning
46:32
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."
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2006-01-10
Living an Ethical Life
46:01
Pick one of the Five Precepts (refrain from killing, refrain from taking what is not offered, refrain from distorted or harsh speech, refrain from sexual misconduct, and refrain from drugs or drink which cloud the mind) for study this week. This training is intended to heighten your awareness of both the gross and subtle forms of disconnection within that precept. Make a point to examine the subtle areas very carefully. For instance, wise speech might apply to self-beliefs such as your projections, self-doubt, and unworthiness. Refraining from taking life might include any dismissive or negating behavior to another. Refraining from sexual misconduct could imply using flirtation or sexuality in a manipulative or deceitful manner. Refraining from drugs and drink could include caffeine and sugar. Remember the precepts are not meant to foster a sense of failure but to point to a more connected view of life.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2003-01-18
Non-Doing
45:47
Carry the statement, "Seek first to understand before being understood," throughout this week. How does this intention create a listening attitude? Experience the effect of listening on your heart, how it opens you to caring. How does your behavior change when you allow actions to flow from listening instead of making assumptions prior to the action? Watch how the phrase interrupts reactive and impulsive thinking. Do you see the potential for changing many of your relationships through this intention?
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
