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Dharma Talks
given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2022-08-24
"I Teach Dukkha and the End of Dukkha"--1
69:18
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Donald Rothberg
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The Buddha, at the center of his teaching, taught "dukkha and the end of dukkha." Yet it is not always clear either what "dukkha" means in this context or what "the end of dukkha" means. In this talk, we explore this core teaching in several ways. First, we distinguish four different meanings of "dukkha" that can be seen in the discourses of the Buddha, only the last of which, interpreted as "reactivity," helps us to make sense of the "end of dukkha." (See the attached PDF file.) This meaning of dukkha can be reconstructed from two core teachings, the "Two Arrows" and Dependent Origination (see the attached PDF file). We then look at several ways of practicing with reactivity, including understanding and working with the common complexity of there frequently being some kind of insight or something important being "mixed" with reactivity, as, for example, when I am very reactive about injustice.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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Attached Files:
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Four Meanings of Dukkha
by Donald Rothberg
(PDF)
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The Sequence of Contact to Grasping in the Buddha’s Teaching on Dependent Origination
by Donald Rothberg
(PDF)
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2022-08-24
Guided Meditation Exploring Feeling-Tone and Reactivity
37:48
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Donald Rothberg
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After brief basic meditation instructions related to stabilizing attention with an anchor, and then being present to the anchor or whatever else is predominant, there is a 10-minute period of stabilizing. Then there is guidance related to noticing a moderate or greater level of the pleasant or unpleasant (as long as it is workable), staying with the sense of pleasant or unpleasant, noticing any tendencies to reactivity (wanting and grasping, or not wanting and pushing away, at the levels of body, emotions, and/or thoughts). Near the end, there is some further guidance on staying with moderately unpleasant sensations for 2 minutes or so.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2022-08-22
Concentration and Insight (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
2:10:17
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Tempel Smith
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In the detailed description of the 16 steps of anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) the first 12 steps develop samadhi (concentration) as a basis for the last four steps (13-16) of insight practice. These are using in and out breathing to become sensitive to impermanence (anicca), and from impermanence to releasing the agitation (viraga) from trying to find security in a fluid and fluctuating world. The second to last step in relaxing into the completeness and thoroughness of endings (nirodha), as a support to the last step of fully letting go.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Cultivating Concentration
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