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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
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.
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2002-04-08 Following The Pain Line 42:09
The first step of spiritual maturity is to move into pain. Holding the pain without explanation or justification allows it to open into emptiness.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2002-03-29 The Eightfold Path 1: Wise View 41:35
Wise view is the essential first step, which frames the entire path of practice.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2002-01-07 Receiving the World 43:52
Owning or exposing our prejudice as a way of opening to and receiving the world.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2002-01-03 The I Of The Storm 39:43
Realizing how the "I" feeds upon conflict and vanishes in stillness.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2001-12-17 Sitting Practice And Its Effect On Our Life 44:34
The techniques of sitting meditation effects our attitude to life itself.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2001-12-12 Reflections On September 11Th 43:30
Is September 11th about retaliation and patriotism or unending violence of the human mind?
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2001-11-01 Why Meditate? 46:33
Exploring the four facets of meditation.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2001-10-01 After The Retreat: What Now? 44:16
The ingredients of a spiritual life using our natural interest and curiosity.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2001-03-14 Receiving The World 46:40
Looking at how to use three different postures toward life and freedom to move from partial openness to radical receptivity.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2001-03-12 Arriving In The Here And Now 44:44
To arrive in the here and now means to acknowledge the truth of the present moment where we find ourselves. Most of us have found ways to avoid the present, so as to avoid facing difficulties. This talk identifies strategies we use to keep from arriving and explains how living with integrity will allow us to arrive more easily.
2001-03-10 Accessing The Dharma 42:33
Recognizing the specific orientation toward life that we develop when accessing the Dharma.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2001-02-01 Illusion IV: Taking What Lacks Independent Existence As Independently Existing 39:22
The self is a play upon the field of time and has no reality outside of thought.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2001-01-03 The Personal And The Impersonal 46:32
The personal and the impersonal must come together for the completion of the practice.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2001-01-01 Illusion III: Taking The Momentary Display Of The World As Continuous 38:44
Since time is created by thought, the universe is inherently discontinuous.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-12-31 Inspiring The Heart 31:02
finding and accessing that which sustains our urgency.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2000-12-29 Life's Lessons 43:32
What are the fundamental lessons we learn through living that form the basis of our practice?
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2000-12-15 Illusion 1: Taking What Is Insubstantial To Be Permanent 38:34
We deliberately attempt to make the insubstantial permanent because of the implications of an insecure world.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-08-28 The Obsessive Mind 45:55
The mind can seize upon anything for its survival and form an entire psychic reality around its wants. Exploring what is behind obsessive thoughts and actions.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-08-21 The Moody Mind 41:25
Moods can be so pervasive that they form the psychic posture we have towards life. We can distill our relationship to life down to a mood when we forget the law of impermanence.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-08-14 The Isolated Mind 42:06
A mind that cuts itself off from feedback and relationship becomes warped around its own ideas. Our minds can implode in on themselves when we isolate ourselves from new perspectives.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-08-07 The Controlling Mind 40:46
We think through the exertion of will we can make the moment safe, but in the end we simply distort what is truly supporting us. One way we distort the Dharma is through our need to control circumstances rather than receive events.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-07-05 The "No" Of Love 41:54
We are never sure how love will act once it is released
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2000-04-24 The Eightfold Path 8: Wise Samadhi 38:31
Samadhi completes the circle as it contains the wholeness of the path with its oneness of mind.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-04-17 The Eightfold Path 6: Wise Effort 38:15
Applying effort, without the wise overview, leads to the illusion of self-improvement.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-04-10 The Eightfold Path 7: Wise Mindfulness 43:53
Exploring how mindfulness flows naturally from a wise view.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-04-03 The Eightfold Path 5: Wise Livelihood 43:15
Are we prostituting one-third of our life to fund the other two-thirds?
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-03-27 The Eightfold Path 4: Wise Action 39:28
Without the integrating the wise view into our actions, our path can remain very conceptual.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-03-13 The Eightfold Path 3: Wise Speech 39:45
We are most often known by what we say, externally, to others; while self-knowledge comes, most often, by what we say internally to ourselves.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-03-06 The Eightfold Path 2: Wise Aspiration 43:57
When framed by wise view, aspiration begins the journey to the other shore.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2000-02-27 A Glimpse Of Connection 41:51
Sometimes our hardened view of separation parts, for just a moment, and a glimpse of perfection fills us wonder and appreciation.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
2000-01-08 Illusion II: Taking What Is Incapable Of Satisfying As Happiness 42:35
Happiness as most of us recognize it is the pursuit of comfort but ultimately cannot be found within the field of birth and decay.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
1999-12-29 Resolutions Of The Heart 40:26
Learning how anger never ceases when it comes through anger.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1999-12-02 Touching The Earth 37:08
When the Buddha touched the earth, he opened up a common touch point for us all.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
1999-10-13 Perpendicular Universe 39:04
we live in our imaginary world at the expense of an all encompassing now.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
1999-02-27 Self-Kindness And Self-Indulgence 40:38
the practice is built on self-kindness and is destroyed through self-indulgence, but ultimately moves beyond the self entirely
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1999-02-01 Anger: Transforming Anger 38:45
Remaining in contact with our source of anger is the only way to transform it into love.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
In collection: Anger
1999-01-05 Leaving The Wilderness 42:55
entering the wilderness, we leave all the old rules behind, only to return and rejoin the community
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1999-01-01 Anger: About Anger 38:23
An overview of what anger is, where it comes from, and how to work with it.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
In collection: Anger
1999-01-01 Journey Into The Mind 41:58
journey into the mind sequence - a strategy far different than our worldly pursuits
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1999-01-01 Anger: Control, Fairness And Non-Existence 66:29
We hold life to certain ideal standards, which inevitably lead to anger.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
In collection: Anger
1999-01-01 Anger 2:23:37
An overview of anger, where it comes from and how to work with it.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1998-08-21 What's Love Got To Do With It 44:32
we always have the resource of our love, no matter what the problem
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1998-08-17 The Room Of The Mind 48:22
the only strategy we can employ within the room of the mind is stillness
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1998-08-02 The Need To Conform 35:47
The need to be seen as "normal" often inhibits a deeper investigation.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1998-05-13 The Unforgiving Mind 45:27
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1998-03-28 The Evolution Of View 25:46
As we practice, our view evolves from dualism to unity.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1998-03-26 Death Be Not Proud 46:53
Death brings up the entire range of our humanity where, even though the "I" is the loser, our sense of connectedness remains.
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
1998-03-24 The Way Things Are 47:08
To pierce the movements of the mind leads to seeing clearly.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
1998-02-23 Essential Elemetns Of Formless Practice: Finding Our Passion 31:00
Awareness is a natural by-product of our interests. We discover meditation when we uncover our interests.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
In collection: Essential Elements Of Formless Practice
1998-02-16 Essential Elements Of Formless Practice: Right Attitude 46:18
The perpetuation of the new view of reality comes from maintaining a learning attitude.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
In collection: Essential Elements Of Formless Practice

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