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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Michele McDonald's Dharma Talks
Michele McDonald
Because I've been teaching in Burma the last three years, I've been able to see how mindfulness can be nourished by a culture that supports the ancient liberation teachings and by daily experiences of happiness arising from acts of generosity, morality and renunciation. Thus the practice of Buddhism and the living of Buddhism are woven together in a seamless tapestry.
2004-06-17 A Restless Heart 59:49
The experience of peace amidst our humanity.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2004-06-12 The Practice And Ultimate Mystery Of Mindfulness 50:16
Understanding the complete practice of mindfulness
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2004-06-09 Letting Life Be - The Heart's Release 51:51
Understanding how generosity, renunciation, lovingkindness and wisdom support and deepen the heart's release.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2004-06-05 Basics Of Lovingkindness Practice 52:39
Humans are human - we are not perfect. Unconditional love as the antidote for idealistic perfectionism.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2004-05-05 Longing For Freedom 45:45
Learning to bring the ability to remember. Being willing to go through our longing and weariness as we liberate ourselves.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2004-05-03 Equanimity 44:31
Equanimity is the peace we can awaken to within all of our cells. We can experience a peace in the face of agitation, joy and sorrow.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2004-04-02 Finding Patience 59:43
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge April 2004 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2003-10-26 Inevitability Of Groundlessness & Love 69:55
Valuing healthy connection and detachment while facing our inloveability fear of nothingness
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2003-10-19 Comparing, Compassion And Gratitude 60:19
Perfectionism, self-judgement, self-hatred, our eating habits and freedom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2003-10-14 The Roots Of War And The Roots Of Peace - Seven Factors Of Enlightenment - II 61:07
How calm concentration and equanimity help us uproot the causes of war and develop the roots of peace within us.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2003-10-05 Any Moment Of Our Lives Is The Doorway To Enlightenment 59:55
What are the qualities of awakening that allow us to open, awaken to any moment of our lives and be truly liberated: with boredom, with rage, with hopelessness, with the breath, with any experience.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2003-09-28 Loving Our Meditation Practice 58:18
Loving the purifying aspect of mindfulness practice and loving pure exploration.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2003-09-23 Finding Balance By Being Comfortable With Losing Balance 53:39
Maintaining continuity of mindfulness in our moment-to-moment experience is a tightrope of continual re-balancing as life changes. Surrendering to this process strengthens wisdom and love.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2003-09-20 Renunciation (Dhammaruwan Chant) 49:55
Facing the roots of suffering by developing kindness for ourselves and others through the practice of renunciation.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2003-06-25 No Part Left Out 53:06
Relief, mystery and unexpected joy: living the paradox of stillness and movement, love and wisdom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2003-06-21 On Being Free From Conditioning 49:49
Developing curiosity and the light within us.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2003-06-19 On Being Born 60:07
Freedom, forgiveness, joy and doubt: developing spiritual strength in this human world.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2003-06-14 The Power Of Concentration 45:13
The unification of the heart. Bringing the Mother Cow within us and Baby Calf within us together in metta or mindfulness practice.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2003-06-13 Entering The Center Of Metta 1:14:54
Opening of nature of metta retreat, instructions, refuges & precepts.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2003-04-30 Working Skillfully With The Paradox Of Connecting And Detaching 46:51
Understanding how to work with love and longing, detachment and indifference.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2002-10-28 Walking The Spiritual Path Lightly 52:01
Balancing connection, detachment, humor and spiritual friendship through the radiant beauty of the mystical.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2002-10-14 Understanding Mara And The Seven Factors Of Awakening (Part 1) 52:30
Being awake or asleep is a choice we make each moment of our life -- understanding how to balance and maintain mindfulness, investigation, energy and joyful interest.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2002-10-06 Understanding The Ache Of Incarnation Itself 53:52
Giving birth to the adventure of living a life with great depth of wisdom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2002-09-30 Humility: Who Has Control Of The Remote? 47:46
Honoring whatever appears in our life is humility. What happens when the identification with desire, aversion, or delusion has control of the remote.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2002-09-23 The Four Guardian Meditations 43:15
How the four guardian meditations bring about protection, refuge, inspiration and aspiration for liberation.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2002-06-14 Taking Refuge In The Dhamma (Truth) 46:42
As we learn to trust the Dhamma we learn to trust our practice.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2002-06-09 Navigating Through The Darkness 47:48
Developing a taste for the truth rather than being lost in the darkness of our complicated evasions of the truth.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2002-06-05 The Essence Of Love And Wisdom 59:42
What do our hearts truly need and want? How does loving ourselves and others happen? How does the heart open the essence of love and wisdom?
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2002-06-01 Giving Birth To Lovingkindness 54:07
Different ways that Lovingkindness practice offers us levels of protection, concentration and deep understanding.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2002-05-01 Working With Difficulty 48:27
How to work skillfully with difficult body sensations, emotions, or mental states.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2002-04-29 Trusting Our Practice Of Awakening Wisdom 45:13
Practicing choosing to "show up" for our experience because we are aware that we are here to learn as much as we can spiritually. This leads to trusting our practice.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2001-10-29 Our Next Breath 53:48
Understanding the multidimensional layers of reality: the relative and absolute levels of existence where freedom can happen in any moment.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2001-10-22 Feeding Our Hearts With Love And Wisdom 59:07
Recognizing how love purifies understanding and how understanding purifies love.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month Retreat Part 1
2001-06-24 There Is No Bad Practice 39:21
Learning how, when we honor all of our experiences, we shift from an innocent faith to a mature one.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Young Adult Retreat
2001-06-22 Opening Talk Of Young Adults Retreat: Wildness And Kindness 32:25
Remembering how to take care of ourselves, each other, and the world. Talk includes saying precepts together and a guided meditation.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Young Adult Retreat
2001-06-15 Connection And Disentanglement 50:40
Finding our balance by connecting with life as it is, even as we release control over the results.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2001-06-13 A Blue Hole In The Heart 53:28
Understanding the meaning of wisdom and emptiness. Ignorance can seem like bliss, but learning from life experience brings the happiness of wisdom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2001-06-11 The Secret To Happiness 51:34
Cutting through indifference and ignorance so we can live in greater freedom. The secret to happiness is not short-term self-interest, but learning how to liberate ourselves through our life lessons.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2001-06-06 Purity Of Heart 52:01
Creating the understanding that purifies love, compassion, appreciation and equanimity.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2001-06-02 Does Metta Work? 46:10
Exploring how and why the Loving Kindness practice works.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2001-05-26 The Secret To Happiness 48:22
The secret to happiness is not short-term self-interest but rather learning how to liberate ourselves through our life lessons.
2001-05-02 When Things Don't Go Our Way 49:52
Instead of pretending to be okay when our beautiful dreams get blown apart, can we learn to respond with compassion, ease and balance?
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2000-10-29 Who Can Get Past The Tangles In This World? 53:40
Trying to get to Cold Mountain, or the wisdom of someone who is willing to die for freedom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 2000 Three Month Retreat
2000-10-23 Each Moment Is "Just Enough": 7 Factors Of Enlightenment 62:24
life as an empty cup
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 2000 Three Month Retreat
2000-10-23 Awakening From Spiritual Slumber 59:46
Discovering how any one of the six doors of our senses can lead to enlightenment.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 2000 Three Month Retreat
2000-10-15 Doing The Best We Can And Letting Go Of Control 49:57
Understanding patience, compassion and equanimity in the face of suffering.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 2000 Three Month Retreat
2000-10-08 Sensitivity To Kindness 54:19
How can we discover a relaxed effort in practice: if we are desperate enough to be sensitive to kindness.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 2000 Three Month Retreat
2000-07-29 Nurturing Our Aspiration For Freedom In Daily Life 55:40
Inspiration for deepening our daily life and spiritual practice.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2000-07-27 Dignity And Compassion 54:39
Experiencing the dignity of relating to the pain of our world with compassion.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2000-06-25 A Non-Violent Life 47:55
Understanding what conditions bring about peace.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Young Adults Retreat
2000-06-10 Courage, Right Effort And Freedom 54:54
Trusting different skillful means to balance our effort in practice on the road to freedom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2000-06-07 The Four Noble Truths: Understanding The Wisdom Teachings 54:45
Understanding emptiness: leaving no trace of identification with experience.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2000-06-05 The Kindness Of Renunciation That Leads To Peace 53:03
Seeing all aspects of renunciation as kindness rather than deprivation.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2000-06-01 Dignity On The Path 54:34
Planting the seeds of love, compassion, joy and equanimity results in the harvest of dignity.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2000-05-30 Love And Hate 49:22
Ways of working mindfully with discontent and understanding the importance of connection.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2000-05-28 Understanding Lovingkindness Practice 49:19
How to deepen our connection to ourselves and all beings.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat
2000-05-03 Patience And Courage 47:34
Relating to liberating ourselves as a way of life.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
1999-11-02 Hellos And Goodbyes: "Relating To Change" 50:00
"may we be happy and peaceful and may we know things are just as they are."
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1999 Three Month Retreat
1999-11-01 Wisdom Is Our Refuge 51:07
understanding Anatta which leads to wisdom and truth as our refuge
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1999 Three Month Retreat
1999-10-25 Wise Surrender 55:16
using our precious human birth to learn wisdom and compassion
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1999 Three Month Retreat
1999-10-14 Begging Bowl Heart- Mind 51:18
living our lives as an alms round
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1999 Three Month Retreat
1999-10-11 Doubt, Impatience And Trust 52:48
How to work with resistance to aversion.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1999 Three Month Retreat
1999-10-04 The Courage To Swim Upstream 54:19
the courage it takes to face the truth that we never know what is going to happen
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1999 Three Month Retreat
1999-09-27 Transformative Moments 49:40
the nuts and bolts of insight and the transforming moments.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1999 Three Month Retreat
1999-07-20 Joy Beyond Its Objects 57:03
Joyful interest in connecting with the truth of how things are.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
In collection: Happiness And Joy
1999-07-16 Insight And Purification 46:49
understanding the relationship between mindfulness and liberation.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
1999-06-22 The Courage To Be Free 39:30
please don't delay spiritual ardency
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Young Adult Retreat (4 days)
1999-06-14 "To Love And To Say Goodbye" Supports To Practice 53:46
supporting our daily practice with forgiveness, generosity, and patience.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat (10 days)
1999-06-10 Just Along For The Ride 48:39
learning to apply mindfulness to all of our experience: recognition, acceptance, interest and non-identification
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat (10 days)
1999-06-03 Appreciating Joy In The Face Of The Joys And Sorrows In This Life 51:40
learning to transform our awareness of pleasure in this world into sympathetic joy (mudita)
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat (8 days)
1999-05-31 Planting A Metta Garden 51:30
patience and acceptance in the cultivation of metta and mindfulness
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat (8 days)
1998-11-02 Patience As A Path To Travel On 57:30
patience with transitional times and with the purification process thereof
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Partial #1 (6 weeks)
1998-10-27 Joy Beyond Its Objects 56:28
joyful interest as the Gateway to Awakening
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Partial #1 (6 weeks)
1998-10-17 Walking Through The Joy And Sorrow In This World With Wisdom And Love 57:55
deepening our commitment to understanding life, rather than judging it
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Partial #1 (6 weeks)
1998-10-11 Mindfulness As A Last Resort 49:40
going beyond the transitory - understanding of the unsatisfactory nature of experience
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Partial #1 (6 weeks)
1998-10-05 The Poetry Of Mindfulness 53:52
how mindfulness brings about a deep acceptance of the rhythms of change in our lives
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Partial #1 (6 weeks)
1998-06-25 Developing A Passion For Understanding Young Adults 42:19
"Who Am I?" grow into facing the unknown right now
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Young Adults Retreat (4 days)
1998-06-13 The Factors of Light in the Mind - The Factors of Awakening 53:44
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1998-06-03 Flowers Of Joy, Flowers Of Sorrow: Where Is Kuan Yin? 54:49
bringing compassion and mindfulness to our experience
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat (8 days)
1998-05-30 Metta, Concentration And The Hindrances 55:07
how to do the Lovingkindness practice in relationship to concentration or mindfulness
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat (8 days)
1997-12-10 Inner And Outer Harmony: Practice As A Way Of Life 46:58
valuing our spiritual life and ways to practice in the world
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-11-30 Equanimity With Endings 54:01
how to work with the timeless world with the pressure of the world of time
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-11-17 Renunciation, Fear And Letting Go Of Control 54:07
finding the edge of our practice
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-11-02 Awakening: The Lotus Flower And The Mud 52:54
how does freedom happen?
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-10-27 Patience & Determination 55:52
understanding what spiritual practice means over lifetimes
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-10-20 Unconditional Peace 58:34
opening to understanding rather than judging the experience of suffering
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-10-19 Acceptance, Satisfaction & Trust 52:21
totally accepting change: learning to be "neighborly" with all of our experience
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-10-12 Freedom: Soft, Imperturbable Peace 55:28
what is freedom from suffering?
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-09-21 Inner & Outer Refuge 44:43
developing inner and outer refuges in our lives and on retreat
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1997 Three Month Retreat
1997-06-26 Stretching The Mind & Heart 40:31
why we practice meditation - given at the young adults retreat
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Young Adults Retreat (4 days )
1997-05-31 What Is Life For? 52:43
there are two types of rare and precious human beings: one who is kind and one who is grateful for kindness received
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Metta Retreat (8 days)
1996-10-06 Renunciation, Kindness, And Freedom 54:12
Understanding the kindness that comes with renunciation (letting go), and how this leads to freedom.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1996 Three Month Retreat
1996-09-26 Inevitability Of Wisdom Through Practicing Mindfulness 57:21
paying attention to life with continuity and purpose
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1996 Three Month Retreat
1996-06-10 Bringing The Practice Into The World 58:43
wherever you're going, remember the Dharma is everywhere
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 10 Day Metta Retreat
1995-12-02 Q&A 44:23
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1995-11-30 Q&A 20:24
Date estimated, with Steve Armstrong and Joseph Goldstein
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1995-11-22 Q&A 55:26
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1995-11-21 Morning Q&A 47:27
Date estimated, with Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein and Steve Armstrong
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1995-11-08 Q&A 59:41
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1995-11-07 Riding The Waves Of Fear 65:37
learning how to relate to the experience of fear with understanding and compassion
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center 1995 Three Month Retreat

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