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Dharma Talks
given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2021-09-08
Awakening and Paths of Awakening: Traditional and Contemporary
67:03
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Donald Rothberg
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We first review last week's theme of traditional understandings of awakening and the path to awakening, focused on the teachings of the Buddha, of the Thai Forest tradition, and of Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra. Then we explore the question whether we have need as well of contemporary maps of paths to awakening, to get at dimensions of contemporary greed, aversion, and delusion that are not identified in traditional maps. We suggest the need for such maps, and for integrating traditional understandings with examination particularly of psychological and social conditioning. If not transformed, such conditioning can lead to many problems for all practitioners, including teachers and those with some significant taste of awakening. Discussion follows.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2021-09-07
The Six Realms: Action and Identity in a Conscious World
47:43
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Sean Oakes
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The ancient Buddhist map of existence known as the Six Realms is both a vision of the cosmos and all its inhabitants and an elegant psychological model we can use in everyday life. Working with the realms as psychological archetypes (demon, ghost, animal, human, titan, angel) reveals patterns in how we process both harm and help in our personal and collective past, which play out as trauma and privilege in the present. Differently, and maybe more radically, working with them from an Animist framework reveals a conscious universe, where nature of all kinds is interdependent, intelligent, and part of the round of rebirth in which we all participate until full awakening. Seeing in this way challenges our identity, not just as ourselves but as defined by our species.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2021-09-01
Awakening
67:45
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Donald Rothberg
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After a number of sessions focused on practicing with reactivity and with challenges, we focus on awakening and awakened qualities. We survey the Buddha's main understanding of awakening as the ending of greed, aversion, and ignorance, as well as his pointing to a "signless, boundless, luminous" awareness at times. We also explore some of the understandings of a similar "awakened awareness" found in the Thai Forest tradition and the Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions (in part through slides, which can be found below, at this Dharma Seed site). Finally, the suggestion is made to set the intention especially this next week to cultivate one or two awakened qualities.
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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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Awakening Slides
by Donald Rothberg
(PDF)
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