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Matthew Brensilver's Dharma Talks
Matthew Brensilver
Matthew Brensilver, MSW, PhD, serves on the Guiding Teachers Committee and Board of Directors at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He was previously Program Director for Mindful Schools and for more than a decade, was a core teacher at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. Each summer, he lectures at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center on the intersections between mindfulness, science and mental health. Before committing to teach meditation full-time, he spent years doing research on addiction pharmacotherapy at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine. He is the co-author of two books about meditation during adolescence.
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Select from Matthew Brensilver's
163
talks
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2025-09-18
Active and Receptive Dimensions of Practice
2020-03-09
Addressing Coronavirus with a Dharma View- Monday Night Dharma Talk
2021-05-21
Anatta and its Blessings
2016-05-09
Anxiety and Tranquility
2024-10-16
Attention and Anicca, Awareness and Anatta (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-09-17
Attention Models the Object, Mindfulness Models the Attention
2019-08-15
Attention, Wisdom, Grief and Love (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2024-09-28
Balancing Equanimity and Compassion
2024-11-06
Brief Post-Election Reflections
2017-05-28
Bringing Dharma Into Interpersonal and Communal Life (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2013-10-19
Clinging and the Path of Letting Go
2018-01-15
Closing Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2024-05-16
Closing Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2019-03-08
Compulsive Thinking, Concentration & Equanimity
2024-10-12
Craving, Compulsion, Non-Freedom (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2023-05-10
Cycling through All Four Divine Abodes
2026-05-07
Daily Life Practice, Love, and the World (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-01-13
Day 1: Afternoon Practice Session (part 1) (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-01-13
Day 1: Afternoon Practice Session (part 2) (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-01-13
Day 1: Evening Practice Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2017-05-23
Day 1: Instructions and Guided Meditation (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2017-05-23
Day 1: Metta for Self (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-01-13
Day 1: Morning Practice Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2019-10-19
Day 2 Morning Guided Instructions (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-01-14
Day 2: Afternoon Practice Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-01-14
Day 2: Evening Practice Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-01-14
Day 2: Morning Practice Session
2017-05-25
Day 3 Instructions and Sitting (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2017-05-26
Day 4: Metta Sit with Guidance (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2017-05-27
Day 5: Instructions and Sitting
2019-10-23
Day 6 Morning Guided Instructions: Pervasiveness of Feeling (Retreat at Spirit …
2018-11-21
Day 6: Sitting with Instructions (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2019-12-17
Death and the Poignancy of Life
2024-07-11
Deep Embodiment
2014-08-18
Dharma and Anxiety
2012-12-29
Dharma and the Developmental Tasks of Adolescence
2018-06-14
Dharma Debate: Samvega versus Softening and Receiving (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-04-17
Dharma Supports Relationships, Relationships Help Us Get Freer
2020-05-12
Dialectics of Practice - Opening and Protection (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2021-10-01
Dialogue on aspects of freedom.
2023-10-15
Duality, Merging, Not-Self and Differentiation in the Interpersonal World (Retr…
2025-04-18
Dukkha as Ambivalence in Relational Life
2014-10-27
Dukkha Either Hardens or Softens the Heart
2024-09-29
Emptiness of Self
2019-06-05
Equanimity and Samadhi
2018-06-16
Ethical Implications of Mindfulness
2025-05-12
Fear, Thinking, Safety and Samadhi (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2015-01-26
Feedback In The Context of Dharma Practice
2016-01-01
Going Home
2024-09-27
Grace, Gravity, Surrender and Silence
2016-04-18
Grief, Love and Groundlessness
2022-03-06
Guided compassion practice: grieving as a factor of growth
2014-08-18
Guided Meditation
2019-03-08
guided meditation
2021-05-19
Guided Meditation
2021-05-22
Guided Meditation - changing conditions
2022-05-18
Guided Meditation - Grief and Compassion (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2022-05-17
Guided Meditation on Body and Affect (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2023-10-12
Guided meditation: all phenomena as false alarms
2025-10-22
Guided Meditation: Allowing (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-04-19
Guided Meditation: Arousal and Valence Signifying Nothing
2019-06-21
Guided Meditation: Body and Space (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2019-06-02
Guided Meditation: Body Settling, Pleasure of the Breath
2018-06-14
Guided Meditation: Clinging and Space (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2024-05-12
Guided Meditation: Convergence of Insight and Love (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-05-13
Guided Meditation: dropping secret agendas (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2026-05-08
Guided Meditation: Effort of Effortlessness (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2026-05-06
Guided Meditation: Equanimity as Love in the Face of Helplessness (Retreat at S…
2024-05-14
Guided Meditation: Feeling
2022-03-05
Guided meditation: feeling as a prediction of risk
2020-10-06
Guided Meditation: Feelings and their elaborations
2025-09-19
Guided Meditation: Forgiving Body, Mind and World
2019-06-04
Guided Meditation: How the world impacts the emotional body
2024-10-13
Guided Meditation: In the Presence of Love (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-09-20
Guided Meditation: Internal and External Sound and Silence
2024-07-10
Guided Meditation: Landing in the Breath and Soundscape
2026-05-02
Guided Meditation: Letting Go into the Breath (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2026-05-03
Guided Meditation: Love in the Face of Suffering (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2014-06-23
Guided Meditation: Mara's Trump Card
2025-10-21
Guided Meditation: Relax a Little Further (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-09-17
Guided Meditation: Relaxing and Letting Feeling be Feeling
2020-10-03
Guided Meditation: Settling into the Body
2025-04-18
Guided Meditation: Surrendering the Territory of Me
2026-05-05
Guided Meditation: The Urgency of Feeling and Proliferation (Retreat at Spirit …
2023-03-30
Guided Meditation: Trajectory of your life and trajectory of freedom
2018-06-16
Guided Meditation: Turbulence and Peace (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-09-18
Guided Meditation: Urgency of Feeling
2026-01-19
Guided Meditation: What Does it Take to Land Here? (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-05-11
Guided Metta Meditation - Metta for All Beings (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2022-03-03
Guided Metta practice
2026-01-21
Guided Practice: Compassion and Equanimity (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2020-10-08
Guided Reflection & Meditation: Grief & Compassion
2024-07-11
Healing the Self
2016-12-30
Intensity, Clinging and Anatta in the teen years (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2017-05-24
Intentions for Practice and the Jewel of Curiosity (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2025-04-19
Know Thyself, Release Thyself, Merging
2023-10-11
Knowing and Not-Knowing
2025-04-17
Landing in the Breath
2024-05-13
Language is the hammer and every problem, a nail (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2015-08-17
Learning from Retreats
2025-10-23
Living Alongside Questions (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2022-03-07
Love and its relation with wisdom.
2024-07-11
Love and Space
2022-05-19
Love as the Default Position of the Mind
2022-03-04
Memory, prediction, Bharatanha, and the present
2024-09-26
Metta for Self
2023-10-08
Metta Practice
2018-06-12
Metta Reflections: Opening to Life Requires Love (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2014-08-19
Mindfulness in Close Relationships
2024-07-01
Mindfulness, Mindlessness, Rumination and the Species of Unconsciousness
2014-10-20
Miranda July & The Dharma
2018-12-10
Monday Night Dharma Talk
2019-03-25
Monday Night Dharma Talk
2017-10-23
Monday Night Meditation Talk (Drop-in at Spirit Rock)
2022-08-03
Morning sit with instruction (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2014-11-03
Mortality and the Poignancy of Life
2023-03-29
Moved by goodness: Reflections and Guided Metta Meditation (Retreat at Spirit R…
2023-09-23
Navigating A.I. from a Buddhist Perspective
2022-05-16
No escape other than into the heart (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2024-07-12
Not-self
2018-01-12
Opening Night: Evening Practice Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2024-09-29
Plasticity, Call off the search, Unification and Love
2015-04-06
Psychotherapy and Dharma
2015-12-31
Q&A
2021-05-20
Reflections and Guided Heart Practice
2023-10-13
Reflections and Guided Meditation on Mudita
2025-08-18
Reflections on Freedom
2025-10-20
Reflections on Time in Dharma: Surrendering to Time, Healing Time, Not-Making T…
2024-09-27
Relaxing the Body and Mind
2018-06-13
Samadhi (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2015-02-23
Self-Love and Selflessness - Part 1
2015-03-02
Self-Love and Selflessness - Part 2
2018-11-24
Sila as Our Practice in the World (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-10-22
Sīla, Samādhi, Pañña
2018-11-23
Sitting with Instructions (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2014-09-08
Some Fruits of the Practice
2016-11-25
Spirit Rock-Attention, Love and Service
2016-11-20
Spirit Rock-Metta in the Post Obama Era
2016-11-22
Spirit Rock-Samadhi in the Context of Letting Go
2023-05-11
Surrender & Faith (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2019-02-28
Technology as an Existential Threat to Mindfulness - Matthew Brensilver and Ran…
2023-05-12
The anchor is everywhere
2025-09-19
The Circuitous Journey to Presence through Past and Future
2015-12-30
The Intensity of Being a Teenager
2019-06-22
The Interpersonal Dimension of the Dharma (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2020-10-05
The Parami of Truthfulness
2019-06-18
The Story of Jumping Mouse (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2023-03-31
The Three Characteristics and Love
2026-05-01
The Why of Practice: Three Possible Answers (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2014-12-31
Things Nobody told Me When I was a Teen
2015-06-29
Thinking
2024-07-11
Throughlines of Self and Not-Self
2021-09-30
Tranquilizing side of the 7 Factors: Agitation and temporal density.
2020-10-08
Tuere Sala and Matthew Brensilver in dialogue about wisdom
2014-10-30
Unpacking Some of the Fruits of Practice
2018-11-23
Untitled (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2018-11-23
Untitled (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2020-05-14
Vulnerability, Porousness, Equanimity & Love (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2014-07-01
Where Rubber Meets the Road: A Series on Mindful Living
2016-10-01
Where You At, Where You Going
2025-12-22
Wise Intention
2014-06-23
Working with Anger
2020-05-17
Your Face: The Gaze, Self-view, Intimacy and Letting Go (Online Retreat at Spir…
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Select one of Matthew Brensilver's 41 retreats
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1900-01-01
Monday and Wednesday Talks
1900-01-01
NYI Regular Talks
2012-12-27
New Year's Teen Retreat (Walden West)
2013-10-16
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
2014-10-25
Liberate the Body - Stretch the Mind: Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga Retreat
2014-12-28
New Year's TEEN Retreat
2015-12-27
New Year's Teen Retreat
2016-09-26
Kind Awareness: The Integration of Metta and Vipassana
2016-11-18
Thanksgiving Insight Meditation Retreat
2016-12-27
New Year's Teen Retreat
2017-05-22
Essential Teachings on the Path of Awakening
2018-01-12
Awakening in Every Moment: A Retreat in Mindfulness, Metta and Morality
2018-06-11
Essential Teachings on the Path of Awakening
2018-10-20
Insight Meditation: The Convergence of Wisdom and Love
2018-11-16
Thanksgiving Retreat
2019-06-01
Wisdom and Compassion For Our Time
2019-06-01
Wisdom and Compassion for Our Time
2019-06-17
Spring Insight Meditation Retreat
2019-08-12
Insight & Loving Kindness
2019-10-17
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
2020-05-11
Spring Insight: Dharma, Care and Community in Uncertain Times - Online
2020-10-02
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat with Phillip Moffitt, MA, SEP; Matthew Brensilv…
2021-05-18
Spring Insight Retreat with Matthew Brensilver, PhD, Tuere Sala and Brian Lesage
2021-09-26
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
2022-03-02
Opening to Wisdom and Love: Insight Meditation Retreat
2022-05-14
Spring Insight Meditation Retreat
2022-08-01
Young Adult Insight Meditation Retreat
2023-03-28
The Convergence of Insight and Love
2023-05-08
Spring Insight
2023-10-07
Fall Insight 2023
2024-05-11
Spring Insight: Understand the Mechanisms of the Salutary Effects of Mindfulness
2024-07-09
Healing the Self, Loving the Self, Forgetting the Self
2024-09-25
Love and Rest
2024-10-10
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
2025-04-16
Ethics and Love in Interpersonal Life
2025-05-09
Spring Insight Retreat
2025-09-16
Love and Rest
2025-10-16
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
2025-12-18
Winter Solstice Retreat (2025): Embracing the Dark, Inviting the Light
2026-01-18
Tranquility and Insight: The Path to Inner Peace
2026-04-30
Spring Insight Retreat 2026
