The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Dharma Talks given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2021-07-09 Metta/Lovingkindness and Purification of negative mental factors 53:48
Bonnie Duran
Metta/Lovingkindness practice strengthens wholesome mental factors and allows us to see more clearly our negative mental factors. Seeing more clearly an important source of our suffering, hate/aversion, we are able to work more directly for our own and others' happiness.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP

2021-07-09 Compassion Practice: Introduction & Guided Meditation 51:56
John Martin
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP

2021-07-08 Walking the Path of Compassion 25:39
Grace Fisher
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Thursday Morning Women’s Group

2021-07-08 Supports for Steadying the mind: The Jhana Factors 56:20
Sally Armstrong
There are five factors that are supported for deepening concentration, known as the jhana factors. These factors are developed in any kind of intensive meditation practice but are particularly supportive of the development of concentration. They also serve to counterbalance the hindrances. When the hindrances are not active, the mind and heart can be steady and open.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP

2021-07-08 Equanimity Brahma Vihara 45:36
Tempel Smith
Opening the heart and balancing with wisdom, the equanimity sacred dwelling becomes established as we relax the tightness of our preferences to be more intimate with how the world actually is moment to moment. Equanimity brahma vihara is a flow of sacred caring without reactivity or agitation to complex truths. Starting with the open heart we have in loving the natural world, we progress to bring loving equanimity to our personal lives. Through caring equanimity, we can discover how clinging to our preferences blocks deeper connection.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP

2021-07-08 Metta for Easy Being & Self: Instructions & Guided Meditation 47:37
John Martin
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP

2021-07-07 What We're Doing with Our Metta Practice and Why It Matters 57:44
John Martin
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP

2021-07-07 Metta/Lovingkindness from our Benefactors and Ancestors 34:12
Bonnie Duran
This is a guided meditation with Benefactors…..Lovingkindness is an important mental factor for our everyday lives and for Dharma practice. It promotes happiness in ourselves and those all around us. It is a mental attitude of enlightened beings… Non-duality- All my relations. Our ancestors wanted the best for us.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center "July Lovingkindness Retreat" with Tempel Smith, Bonnie Duran, MPH, DrPH, John Martin, Sally Armstrong, Marcy Reynolds and Kristina Baré, MFT, SEP

2021-07-07 Deepening Daily Life Practice 2: Practicing with Reactivity 69:27
Donald Rothberg
We begin with a review of last week's opening exploration of deepening daily life practice, naming some of the challenges of daily life practice, some initial ways of deepening such practice, and the centrality for such practice of mindfulness of the body. We then, for the rest of the session, explore how we can practice with reactivity when it arises, in its two forms--grasping after the pleasant and pushing away what is taken as unpleasant. We ground such practice in the Buddha's teaching in the model of Dependent Origination of the sequence from contact to feeling-tone to wanting (or not wanting) to grasping (or pushing away). We then point to a number of ways of practicing with reactivity and some of the complexities of such practice, particularly the ways in which reactivity can be enmeshed with discernment. A discussion follows!
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2021-07-07 Deepening Daily Life Practice 2: A Guided Meditation: Practicing with Reactivity 26:04
Donald Rothberg
In this guided meditation, we start with about 10 minutes of settling. We then attend to when there is a moderate or greater pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tone, bringing some investigation as to what occurs in ones' experience. Toward the end of the guided meditation, there's an invitation to track for any moment of reactivity (grasping onto the pleasant in some way, or pushing away the unpleasant).
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

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