Talks: Reflections on the Path

Part 1 – Wise Practice

Part 1 – Wise Practice

This four week series reviews many key components of Buddhist meditation practice. Beginning with intention and attitude, we cover the strategies that help us arrive in presence, the key elements of mindfulness, working with difficult emotional states and the practices that awaken our heart. Each week will include guided meditations and reflections.

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Part 1 – Wise Practice

Don’t Know Mind

Thoughts, and more broadly, conceptual knowledge, cannot lead to the direct realization of truth, of reality. While thoughts are an essential part of surviving and thriving, spiritual awakening only becomes possible when we step out of the trance of thinking. This talk invites listeners into the radical openness and freedom of not-knowing.

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Part 1 – Wise Practice

The Attitude that Perpetuates Suffering

Our conditioning is to conclude that “something is wrong” when we encounter difficulty. This way of relating to experience binds us in a trance–it locks in the identification with a separate, victimized, self; it leads to unwise action and it removes us from presence. This talk guides us in recognizing our often unconscious attitude towards what is happening, and arriving in the unconditional presence that is the source of love, wisdom and freedom.

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Part 1 – Wise Practice

Celebrating Vesak: Oh Nobly Born

Vesak is the Buddhist holiday that celebrates the Buddha’s birth, enlightment and death. What links these events is the radical and powerful message of all Buddhist teachings: We each have the potential to realize and live from and awakened heart and mind. This talk explores how the key mythological, psychological and spiritual junctures of the Buddha’s life are entirely relevant to our own transformation.

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Part 1 – Wise Practice

Three Gifts That Serve Freedom

There are three spiritual capacities that are essential for our freedom. The first, forgiveness, is the releasing of stories that this self, or another, is bad. It is an opening of the heart to include all parts of our own being and this world. The second, inner fire, is the...

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Freedom from Trance

Freedom from Trance

We live in the story of being a separate entity, and often, with the felt sense that something is wrong. This talk investigates the genesis of this trance, and the […]

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Part 1 – Wise Practice

Wise Investigation

This talk focuses on the use of inquiry and investigation in energizing a lucid, mindful presence. The interest and care that underlies wise investigation is essential in both healing difficult emotional tangles and in revealing the very nature of reality. Guided meditation included.

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Intention and Spiritual Freedom – Part 2

Intention and Spiritual Freedom – Part 2

While we can't change the past, it is our intention in this present moment that determines the unfolding of happiness and freedom in our life. When unconscious, our intentions are often shaped by craving and aversion. These two talks explore how we can become mindful of...

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Intention and Spiritual Freedom – Part 1

Intention and Spiritual Freedom – Part 1

While we can't change the past, it is our intention in this present moment that determines the unfolding of happiness and freedom in our life. When unconscious, our intentions are often shaped by craving and aversion. These two talks explore how we can become mindful of...

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Downwind from Flowers

Downwind from Flowers

This talk reflects on ways that we can attend to nature--our inner body, the natural world and our relatedness to each other. Through these domains we can discover the impermanent flow of life, a gateway to pure Beingness and the healing to wholeness that arises from love.

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Awakening Through Conflict

Awakening Through Conflict

The wisdom of the Buddha can guide us not only in discovering inner freedom, but in healing that which divides us from each other. While conflict is inevitable--we are wired toward flight and flight when our needs are not met--it is possible to have our patterns of...

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Without Anxiety About Imperfection

Without Anxiety About Imperfection

The nature of being human is that we get caught in anger and judgment, hurt and fear. This talk explores what it means to be without anxiety towards this universal emotional conditioning as it appears in ourselves and others. Condemning imperfection binds our identity with an...

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Divine Abodes – Equanimity

Divine Abodes – Equanimity

Joy is an innate capacity, an expression of unconditional presence with life. Yet for many, it is blocked by our conditioning to grasp after life and to defend against loss. This talk explores how we can develop the selfless presence that allows for joy, and nourish that joy so...

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Divine Abodes – Joy

Divine Abodes – Joy

Lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equinimity, are natural expressions of our awakened heart. In this series of four talks, we will examine what arouses these qualities of a wise heart. Each talk will include guided reflections. Joy naturally arises from the heart space that welcomes all that is. This talk describes four pathways of discovering and inhabiting this intrinsic openness of Being.

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Divine Abodes – Compassion

Divine Abodes – Compassion

Lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equinimity, are natural expressions of our awakened heart. In this series of four talks, we will examine what arouses these qualities of a wise heart. Each talk will include guided reflections. Compassion naturally arises as we allow ourselves to be touched by suffering–our own, those we know, all beings. As we discover our shared vulnerability, the pain of separation dissolves and our hearts open to widening circles of belonging.

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Divine Abodes – Lovingkindness

Divine Abodes – Lovingkindness

Lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, are natural expressions of our awakened heart. In this series of four talks, we will examine what arouses these qualities of a wise heart. Each talk will include guided reflections. A key theme in cultivating lovingkindness is...

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Divine Abodes – Compassion

Freedom In the Midst of Fear – Part II

One understanding of the spiritual path is relating wisely to fear. Our conditioned reaction is to feel aversion to fear and do anything but simply experience it. We discover freedom when instead of reacting, we recognize and open to fear with a kind, committed presence. While...

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