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Dharma Talks
given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2020-02-11
Day 10 Afternoon Instructions: Practicing Forgiveness (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
44:54
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Tempel Smith
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As we further open our hearts to include even difficult people, it is very helpful to learn how to practice forgiveness. Often when deeply hurt our hearts hold resentments and yearn for accountability before it would be willing to risk opening again. And yet when others feel out resentment, judgment and the need for accountability they too shut down defensively.
Starting with a good friend whom you have a history of love and trust, or even your companion animals, you can build a path of forgiveness. Some times we will never get full accountability, yet we can move beyond the pain of resentment to heal ourselves here and now.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
:
February Monthlong
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2020-01-29
From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha Mind 13: Exploring Our Experience of Time 4
64:24
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Donald Rothberg
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We focus in this session on four ways of practicing that help us to transform our conditioning in relationship to time: (1) opening to the present moment, as in our core practice of mindfulness; (2) exploring impermanence reflectively and experientially in several ways; (3) accessing, at least briefly, a timeless awareness, and learning to live from this awareness more and more; and (4) noticing and examining our various forms of conditioning around time. The first three ways of practicing correspond to the guided practices in the earlier guided meditation. For the fourth, we look especially in this session at the powerful ways that our cultural and social conditioning operates, comparing some of the main aspects of conditioning in the mainstream U.S., with its emphasis on future planning, productivity, and busyness, among other orientations to time, with how some other cultures experience time.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
:
Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2020-01-26
Triggers As Teachers
4:34:52
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David Richo
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We are all triggered at times by what people say or do, especially in relationships. Our triggers can teach us about ourselves, both what’s still unresolved, and what we need to work on. Our goal isn’t to root out all our triggers, but to use them as trail-heads for our own inner journeys that have long awaited us. Whether via the psychology path, especially when grieving the past, or the spiritual paths of mindfulness and lovingkindness, we’ll discover and cultivate practices and resources to support us. In this day, we’ll explore how to move from the suffering of reacting to the freedom of responding.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2020-01-22
From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha Mind 12: Exploring Our Experience of Time 3
62:51
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Donald Rothberg
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We continue to investigate our experience of time, focusing first more extensively on common patterns of experiencing time in a conditioned way. We then point to three main ways that our sense of time is transformed as we awaken, related to a deepened sense of impermanence as well as a greater sense of presence, and, finally, a movement, so to speak, into timeless awareness. Relatedly, we point to four main ways of practicing to investigate our experience of time, related first to examining our various conditioned constructions of time, and then to opening further to impermanence, presence, and timeless awareness, which can then also, to speak, hold time.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
:
Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2020-01-14
The Transformative Power of Metta Practice (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
56:21
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Donald Rothberg
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Guided by a recent translation of a poem about metta practice by an early Buddhist nun, from The First Free Women, we contemplate the simple yet radical and profound spirit of metta practice. The author tells us: "I have followed this Path of friendship to its end. And I can say with absolute certainty—it will lead you home.” We look at how metta cuts through fear, how it deepens concentration, how we work with the challenges of metta practice, how we navigate the “purification process” linked with metta practice, and how we integrate the kind heart, mindfulness, wisdom, and skillful action.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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January Metta Retreat
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2019-12-11
From the Ordinary Habitual Mind to the Buddha-Mind 11: Time 2
63:00
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Donald Rothberg
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Following last week’s initial inquiry into our experience of time, and, for many, a week of practice related to time, we explore (1) further aspects of the nature of the ordinary conditioning related to the experience of time, bringing some of our own findings as well as material from philosophy, physics, and psychology; (2) some further material on how the Buddha and other awakened beings teach about time and the timeless; and (3) several main practices that help us to explore and transform our conditioning related to time, including developing mindfulness in the moment, opening to “flow” states, and exploring impermanence.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
:
Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2019-12-07
Honoring All Life: Exploring the First Precept of Non-Harming
2:35:16
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Bob Stahl
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Bob Stahl, Richard Shankman, James Baraz, Thanissara, Bob Isaacson, Patti Breitman, WIll Tuttle, Jina Shah, Tara Brach, Konda Mason, Dawn Mauricio
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2019-11-27
Cultivating Generosity and Gratitude
63:40
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Donald Rothberg
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A day before Thanksgiving, we explore the central importance of cultivating generosity (dāna) and gratitude (kataññutā), and their interrelationship. The Buddha teaches (AN 2.11): "These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done.” We look at a number of ways to practice to cultivate generosity and gratitude, and some of the nuances and complexities of such practices, including the importance of gratitude as a practice in difficult circumstances. Ultimately, these two practices teach us to rest more and more with a sense of interdependence and what Thich Nhat Hanh calls “interbeing.”
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2019-11-27
Cultivating Generosity and Gratitude
66:24
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Donald Rothberg
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A day before Thanksgiving, we explore the central importance of cultivating generosity (dāna) and gratitude (kataññutā), and their interrelationship. The Buddha teaches (AN 2.11): "These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done.” We look at a number of ways to practice to cultivate generosity and gratitude, and some of the nuances and complexities of such practices, including the importance of gratitude as a practice in difficult circumstances. Ultimately, these two practices teach us to rest more and more with a sense of interdependence and what Thich Nhat Hanh calls “interbeing.”
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
:
Monday and Wednesday Talks
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