Talks: Reflections on the Path
The Revolution of Tenderness – Part I
The Revolution of Tenderness - Part I ~ A two-talk series explores our capacity to be tender - sensitive and responsive to ourselves and others. This capacity marks a radical evolutionary shift from a self-centered existence shaped by fear, to a life lived from the realization...
Spiritual Reparenting
CC ~ When we are not sufficiently nurtured in childhood, we are inclined toward anxiety, depression, addiction and other forms of suffering. In a deep way, we do not feel at home with others. We are disconnected from our own body, heart and spirit. This talk explores how...
Trusting the Gold (retreat talk)
When we are unaware of the emotions and beliefs that shape our experience, we are in a trance characterized by an identity as a separate, incomplete self. Trance obscures the awareness and love that is our deepest essence. This talk explores the two key pathways of awakening...
“Play a Greater Part” – Part 2 – Bodhisattva for Our Times
During scary and uncertain times, the habitual reflex is to try to find ground by creating stories about what’s happening and hardening into us-them blame. This only perpetuates the aggression and violence that is so prevalent in our societies. These two talks are a reflection...
“Play a Greater Part” – Part 1 – Bodhisattva for Our Times
During scary and uncertain times, the habitual reflex is to try to find ground by creating stories about what’s happening and hardening into us-them blame. This only perpetuates the aggression and violence that is so prevalent in our societies. These two talks are a reflection...
The Wings of Awakening – Self-Honesty & Love (retreat talk)
We evolve our consciousness by bringing a clear and kind attention to the tangles of suffering. This talk explores how the "second arrow" of self-judgment imprisons us in emotional reactivity, and the pathways of awakening awareness that reconnect us with our full human...
Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times – Part 2
Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times - Part 2 - The shadow is the unfaced, unlived fears and emotional pain in our individual and collective psyche. When not brought into awareness it expresses as “no” - the anger, aggression, hopelessness and cynicism that is resisting and...
Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times (Part 1)
Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times - Part 1 On both individual and societal levels, suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt parts of our psyche. This talk looks at two interrelated ways of practice that help us to awaken from a limiting self-sense characterized by...
Seeking What’s True – Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other – (Part 3 of 3)
Seeking What’s True – Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other – (Part 3 of 3) The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three-part series examines the process of...
Seeking What’s True – Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other – (Part 2 of 3)
Seeking What’s True - Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other - (Part 2 of 3) The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three-part series examines the process of...
Seeking What’s True – Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other – (Part 1 of 3)
Seeking What’s True - Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other - (Part 1 of 3) The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three-part series examines the process of...
Spiritual Empowerment ~ “A Heart That is Ready for Anything”
Spiritual Empowerment ~ "A Heart That is Ready for Anything" ~ When we are trying to control life, we are removed from presence, and act in ways that separate us from others and solidify the experience of being a insecure self. This talk explores our often unconscious...
Realizing Our Undefended and Awakened Heart (retreat talk)
It is our evolutionary and spiritual potential to release unnecessary habits of violating other tribes, individuals and unwanted parts of our own being. This talk explores three essential facets of the pathway to awakening: Leaving the fortress of aversive judgment, entering...
Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Working with Attachments and Addictions
In Buddhist cosmology the torment of intense desire that can never really be satisfied is depicted as the realm of Hungry Ghosts. This talk explores the attachments and addictions that so many of us struggle with, and the teachings and practices that can liberate us. Listen to...
Trusting Our Hearts – Trust in Our Basic Goodness
Trust in our basic goodness directly effects our capacity for intimacy with others, creativity and living fully. This talk explores the ways that our caregivers and culture undermine that trust, primarily by giving us messages that we are “not enough” or flawed. We...
Letting Go – The Freedom of Awake Awareness
We know we need to let go of harmful habits like obsessive worry, blame and over consuming to experience true well-being, yet much of the time we are stuck and judge ourselves for being out of control. This talk explores what's so difficult about letting go and how we can't...
Your Future Self: Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind
Our lives are shaped by our evolutionary past - the fears and wants that arise from a separate self sense - and the pull of our evolutionary potential - our awakened heart and mind. This talk explores the power of these pulls, and the teachings and reflections that make us most...
How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 2
The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side,...
How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 1
The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side,...
Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance
If we are suffering, it is because we are believing something that is not true and caught in emotional reactivity. A key tool in meditation is investigation – actively inquiring into what is happening inside us. When we investigate with sincere interest and care, the light of...
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