A talk on the Buddha's Teaching of three roots of happiness: non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion. Stating each in a positive way they are 1) Letting go/Generosity, 2) Loving-Kindness 3)Clarity/Wisdom. As part of the talk I share some personal stories of how my different paths of Buddhism and the Hindu path of devotion converged around these three qualities.

Non-Greed, Non-Hatred and Non-Delusion were taught by the Buddha as the three roots of happiness. Stating each in a positive way they are 1) Letting go/Generosity, 2) Loving-Kindness and ClarityWisdom. Every moment that we're mindful we're cultivating these qualities. This talk explores both the moment-to-moment as well as the relational aspects of these three qualities.

Big Mind/Big Sky Meditation Practice

The Buddha said that karma is all based on intention. In every moment we are sowing the seeds of suffering or happiness. In addition to this moment to moment aspect, intention also refers to a wider motivation—Clear Comprehension of Purpose—our aspiration and vision that fuels and inspires us to practice. Both of these dimensions of intention are explored.

Wise or Right Effort includes cultivating wholesome states and then maintaining and increasing them. This talk explores how to maintain and increase these states and the importance of consciously including them in our practice. Particular emphasis is on the power of investigation, as well as mindfulness.

Includes device renunciation

The list of the Five spiritual Faculties - Faith, Energy, Mindfulness, Concentration and Wisdom - is a helpful way to understand the unfolding of practice. Each of these are important issues of practice and each can be seen to build on the next for the full flowering of the awakened heart/mind.

In this teaching the Buddha speaks of three different qualities that need to be in balance for development of the awakened mind and that there is no right way to do the practice.

James and Kate Munding, co-guiding teacher of Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley co-led this evening exploring the power and importance of like-minded friendship and community especially in these times. At the beginning of the talk James reads a moving letter written to the community by a 31-year old woman from Australia named Stephanie whose story of sexual assault James shared in his talk from two weeks before entitled: "The Third Precept: Trauma, Respect and Cultural Wake Up". See: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/52436/

The Third Precept is: I undertake the training precept to refrain for sexual misconduct. After Christine Blasey Ford's moving testimony at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, this talk explores this cultural moment together. The impact of sexual assault, importance of courage, especially of women, to speak the truth in the face of animosity and criticism and the power of fierce compassion are discussed.

"This is a talk given at James Baraz's Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley." James recently sat with Ven. Bhikkhu Analayo, an extraordinary Buddhist scholar and meditation teacher. He shares some of the teachings and practices that he learned on the Brahma Viharas and how they can help lead to deeper perceptions of emptiness including infinite space and infinite consciousness. The talk gives a glimpse of the value of experimenting and playing with the mind. With Ven. Analayo's permission, James' takes us on a quick journey through some rather profound terrain. So let whatever your experience or non-experience be okay. For a deeper dive into the material the listener is referred to Ven. Analayo's book: Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation: Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation.

Every moment of mindfulness we are weakening the forces of greed, hatred & delusion (roots of suffering) and strengthening the forces of non-greed (letting go & generosity), non-hatred (loving-kindness) and non-delusion (wisdom). This talk explains how that works.

The course of practice is explored: how mindfulness works, willingness to open to our suffering, discovering our wholesome qualities & the Buddha within, dealing with forgetting who we are, then sharing our love & wisdom with the world.

One definition of the word Dharma is Natural law. Trees hold a very special place in the Buddha’s teaching.. The Buddha was born under a tree, enlightened under a tree and died under a tree. He told his disciples to find “roots of trees” to sit and meditate. Trees are the perfect environment to practice in the Thai Forest Tradition. Metta practice was taught by the Buddha in response to actions of “Tree spirits”. We’ll explore the special significance of trees and Nature in the Buddha’s teaching.

James returns from his recent teaching In Europe and Israel. Besides his trip to the West Bank for a glimpse of Palestinian life, he shares a fascinating project: Israelis’ actually changed their attitude about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a marketing experiment called “The Conflict Campaign” based on paradoxical thinking principles.
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The video clip of the campaign in the talk can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZadiztzLt0
To learn more about “The Fund for Reconciliation Tolerance and Peace” go to:
http://www.frtp-arik-peace.org/
Or, “Like” their Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/fund4rtp

Let others know.

dharma talk

Metta for everybody

Morning instructions

Dharma talk

Morning instructions

Panoramic and Refinement on Breath

Opening to Emotions and Thoughts

Breath, Body Sensations, and Hearing

Metta for Self and Benefactor

Working with the Wandering Mind and Initial Instructions with Breath

Suzie Brown is from Melbourne, Australia. She’s co-founder of the Melbourne Insight Meditation Group and has taught Mindfulness to medical students at Monash University. Suzie has also been a facilitator, trainer and educator for over a decade in the areas of environmental sustainability and organizational strategy.

After seeing the movie "Won't You Be My Neighbor" about Mr. (Fred) Rogers, James offers reflections about how deeply we can be touched and inspired by the good we see in others. That capacity to be touched by and love goodness is, in some sense, the heart of spiritual practice. Something in us loves the truth and is drawn to goodness around us. And it makes us yearn to activate the good inside.

This month marks the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Ajahn Chah, one of the most influential Theravadan masters of the 20th Century from the Thai Forest tradition. Ajahn Chah was the primary teacher of Jack Kornfield, Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Amaro and other influential teachers. Ajahn Chah's teaching is a major influence on the Dharma as presented at Spirit Rock. This talk offers some reflections his approach to practice at once deep, fierce, down to earth, humorous and wise.

When you understand the law of karma you realize that each moment we are sowing the seeds for more suffering or more happiness depending on your response to experience. This talk explains how that works and how to choose wisely for a life of true happiness and inner peace.

Believing our judging thoughts is not only suffering it is a misunderstanding of reality. This talk explores how the mind gets caught in judgments and how to skillfully work with them.

When we feel connected and alive our natural response to suffering is a caring heart. Different dimensions of compassion are explored.

In order to awaken joy we have to learn to have a healthy relationship with ourselves - holding our pain and sorrows as well as learning to appreciate all of our beautiful qualities.