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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
James Baraz's Dharma Talks
James Baraz
I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.
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2020-06-11 Racism and White Privilege with Special Guest Deb Kerr - Part 2 57:13
We will continue our exploration of Racial Justice and White Privilege with Deb Kerr. who led us in a rich discussion last week. Deb is a core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center where she is a co-founder of EBMC and has served on the EBMC Board. Deb will offer teachings on how educating ourselves about race relates to and is an extension of dharma practice and how it connects the dots to the larger picture of systemic change.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2020-06-04 Exploring Racial Injustice and White Privilege 64:09
In the aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy and the protests that followed the community explores Racial Injustice and White Privilege. Special guest Deb Kerr, who is a Core Teacher of East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland. DE, who is one of EMBC's founders and has served on the EBMC Board has led White Privilege groups there.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2020-05-26 Tuesday Morning Dharmette and Instructions (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 47:36
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Magic of Awareness - Online
2020-05-24 Transforming Suffering Into Happiness (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 60:15
Every momnet of mindfulness we are planting seeds of non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion the basis of true happiness. This talk explores how that works and the bigger implication for our lives.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Magic of Awareness - Online
2020-05-24 Sunday Morning Dharmette and Instructions (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 49:17
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Magic of Awareness - Online
2020-05-22 Friday Morning Dharmette and Instruction (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 48:13
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Magic of Awareness - Online
2020-05-21 Creating a Life of Integrity: In Conversation with Joseph Goldstein 64:29
James invited Gail Stark to join him as his guest. Gail shares what it was like to spend 10 months practicing the 10 Paramis or Perfections under Joseph Goldstein’s guidance. Her new book, Creating a Life of Integrity: In Conversation with Joseph Goldstein, is a wonderful exploration of what it means to truly bring practice into your daily life guided by Joseph Goldstein, the ultimate Dharma coach.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2020-05-21 5 Spiritual Faculties: How the Practice Enfolds (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 63:11
Meditation and Dharma practice can be understood as a natural process of developing five qualities starting with Faith/Trust and culminating in Wisdom. This talk describes how that process unfolds.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center The Magic of Awareness - Online
2020-05-09 Loss, Grief and Death: Impermanence in Pandemic Times 56:25
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
2020-04-30 Your Practice as a Gift to Others (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 44:49
Our own centeredness and kind awareness becomes one the greatest gifts we can offer others who are in distress. Without fixing or changing our compassionate presence is healing and a source of our own inner well-being, especially when we do't identify with being "the helper".
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Centering: The Gift to Ourselves and Others - Online
2020-04-29 Wednesday Morning Instructions (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 47:00
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Centering: The Gift to Ourselves and Others - Online
2020-04-28 Finding Your Center (Online Retreat at Spirit Rock) 47:22
How can we find balance in the times of great distress? The process of first connecting with out experience, then holding what's here and finally accessing that place of peace and spacious awareness that can hold it all are discussed. Practices to help find our center are offered.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Centering: The Gift to Ourselves and Others - Online
2020-04-17 The Profound Implications of Interconnectedness 41:44
"Talk for Pandemic Reality"
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2020-04-17 Finding Refuge 29:33
"Talk for Pandemic Reality"
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley Dharma and Yoga Training Program 2020
2020-04-17 Fear or Love: We Have a Choice 33:18
"Talk for Pandemic Reality"
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2020-04-16 Calling All Bodhisattvas 66:10
"Talk for Pandemic Reality" Including Jack Kornfield's "The Bodhisattva Responds to the Virus"
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2020-03-05 Skillful Letting Go Practice for Intense Times 49:08
In times of uncertainty and tension--whether a potential global pandemic, the climate crisis, high stakes election--it's easy for apprehension to become anxiety as we constantly are worried about what's to come. This talk explores how skillful letting go practices can help us maintain our centeredness while still being engaged.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2020-02-23 You Are Loving Awareness (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 63:27
Mindful awareness creates spaciousness for love to naturally shine through -- your true nature. The talk includes reminisces of Ram Dass, major benefactor of the insight meditation community, who passed away Dec. 2019 and whose practice was "I am loving awareness."
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-21 Day 20 Afternoon Instructions: Mudita (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 50:01
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-16 Dukkha as a Path to Awakening (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 59:53
Dukkha is an inevitable part of life, the 1st Noble Truth. How we meet it and work with it is a key issue of practice. If understood, it can be a doorway to liberation.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-16 Day 15 Morning Instructions: Big Mind (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 48:23
All experience arises and passed in the vast space of awareness. This meditation, adapted from Tibetan text, directs attention to awareness itself rather than the objects within the awareness.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-09 Practice as a Path of Happiness (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 60:47
Sometimes we can misunderstand practice as mainly overcoming suffering. The Buddha spoke of cultivating and increasing wholesome states and being mindful of the "gladness of the wholesome."
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-09 Day 8 Morning Instructions: Choiceless Awareness (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 59:26
Guided meditation letting go of the primary object and allowing receiving each moment as it presents itself.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-07 Day Six Afternoon Instructions: Brahma Viharas - Forgiveness & Metta for Self (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 45:34
A guided meditation directing forgiveness & metta toward our body, mind & heart
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-04 Day Three Morning Instructions (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 54:22
A guided meditation refining awareness of breath to deepen concentration.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-02-03 Five Spiritual Faculties (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 61:50
The Five 'Spiritual Faculties describe the unfolding of our practice. From Faith through Wise Effort, cultivating Mindfulness, deepening Concentration, flowering as Wisdom.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong
2020-01-30 The Quarrel at Kosambi 44:16
Telling of the story of the quarrel at Kosambi as well as discussions around the importance of community and how to make community stronger
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2020-01-03 Reflections on the Buddha's Teaching on Intention 57:50
As we start the New Year we explore Wise Intention, the basis of all karma and the second link of the 8-Fold Path. Clarifying your Intention is different from making a New Year's Resolution or going for a goal. It's what gives energy and power to our vision for practice.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-12-26 Honoring Ram Dass and End of Year Reflections 65:12
At the end of the year, we reflect on endings and new beginnings. James offers some reflections on Ram Dass, beloved teacher and mentor, who passed away on Sunday, December 22. Then the community shares an end of year ceremony for increasing wholesome states and weakening unwholesome states.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-12-05 Just Another Ego Trip 46:16
Sometimes our shyness or concern about what others think keeps us from expressing our gifts and making as meaningful a contribution as we can. In seeing through the constructed sense of self—the understanding of Anatta—those thoughts lose their power and don’t get in the way of expressing our true nature.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-11-03 Cultivating Courage: Fearlessly Standing in Truth 6:19:02
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2019-10-17 Holding Grief Through Connection 43:47
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
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
2019-09-19 No Time to Play Small: Acting with Courage, Wisdom and Love 62:07
Greta Thunberg’s fearless willingness to speak the truth has inspired millions of youth to follow her lead resulting in the hugely successful September 20th Worldwide Climate Strike. Thunberg calls being on the autism spectrum her “superpower” because she doesn’t care what others think of her and only cares about telling the truth. Can we be like her, let go of our self-consciousness, not hold back and speak and act with honesty and courage?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-09-12 A Lineage of Goodness: Ode to Benefactors 54:53
A talk about how our benefactors impact us, wisdom and love they pass on from their benefactors and how we transmit those beautiful qualities to others who pas it on as well. No one "owns" those qualities. Rather we are part of a lineage of goodness.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-09-01 Bringing Your Practice Into The World (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 55:51
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Labor Day Insight Retreat
2019-08-29 Five Spiritual Faculties (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 62:45
This talk describes how the meditative process unfolds starting with trust or faith and culminating in liberating wisdom.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Labor Day Insight Retreat
2019-08-08 Dharmas Without Blame 40:52
With such disorienting events such as mass shootings in the news, how can we find our balance and hold things with equanimity, compassion and a wise dharma perspective. That is the theme for this talk.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-06-20 Eco Dharma 44:35
Inspired by EcoDharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis by David Loy. James shares some perspectives that can give practitioners a sense of how to hold the climate crisis situation skillfully as well as what Dharma teachings have to offer the wider societal conversation at this time.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-06-08 What's coming, end of retreat (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 57:02
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Awakening Joy
2019-06-07 Day 4 Experiential Practice: Forgiveness - Pathway to an Open Heart (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 61:22
In order to open to true well-being we need to let go of the blocks to an open heart. Practices of forgiveness towards ourselves and others are offered.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Awakening Joy
2019-06-04 Why "Awakening Joy"? (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 55:42
The Buddha was called "The Happy One", but often there is more emphasis on overcoming suffering then going for true happiness. It is beneficial to see the teachings in the light of cultivating wholesome states as well - leading to the highest happiness of freedom.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Awakening Joy
2019-05-09 An Evening with Stephen Fulder, Founder of the Israeli Dharma Community 61:54
with James Baraz, Stephen Fulder
James welcome Stephen Fulder who explores themes from his new book What’s Beyond Mindfulness? and shares about the Israeli sangha.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-05-02 Internally & Externally - Holding It All 61:49
On the recent retreat James sat with Ven. Analayo, the monastic started out the last day's teaching saying: “This morning I want to talk about climate change. Though some say this is not an appropriate topic for the Dharma Hall, in my view and in light of the crisis we are facing, there is no more appropriate or necessary topic.” We explore how Dharma principles can help each of us individually hold this unsettling situation as well as why they are the key to us waking up as a species.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-04-25 The Anapanasati Sutta: The Buddha's Teaching on Mindfulness of Breathing 69:02
After spending a recent retreat with Ven. Analayo Bhikkhu at Spirit Rock on this subject, James offers his understanding of Ven. Analayo's explanation of the discourse and how it can be applied in our meditation practice. You can also go to (paste it in your browser) this link to hear Ven. Analayo's Anapanasati guided meditation. https://www.windhorsepublications.com/mindfulness-of-breathing-audio/
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2019-03-28 A Unified Theory of Well-Being 64:14
Though there are many different approaches and styles of practice they all have one common principle that neuroscience corroborates and other spiritual traditions agree on. This talk explores this unifying practice principle and how we can simply and effectively apply it both in formal practice and daily life when we're lost in the prison of our mind.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-03-28 Guided Meditation 40:17
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-03-21 Humility and Confidence 59:19
The Buddhist writer Wei Wu Wei says: "True humility is the absence of anyone to be proud." We are often humbled by life. How we handle it can either lead to defeat or profound growth. We will explore how being humbled can deepen our capacity to open to all of our experience and strengthen our confidence and trust as we align ourselves with something greater than ourself.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley IMCB Regular Talks
2019-03-07 Guided meditation and honoring Hime Levine 54:52
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2019-02-26 Day 24 Brahma Vihara Practice: Equanimity (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 42:16
Spirit Rock Meditation Center February Monthlong

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