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Dharma Talks
given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2021-07-07
Deepening Daily Life Practice 2: Practicing with Reactivity
69:27
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Donald Rothberg
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| 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! |
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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2021-07-05
Monday Night Dharma Talk - Collective Pain, Collective Practice, Collective Liberation
64:02
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Sean Feit Oakes
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| Description: So much of the pain afflicting our lives right now is based in conditions that are much larger than any of us as individuals. The climate crisis, racism, economic suffering, and the pandemic all are results of actions committed not by individuals but by groups. Rather than absolving us of responsibility, knowing this can help us to move through doubt and shame into the more wholesome states of urgency and collective agency. |
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2021-06-30
Deepening Daily Life Practice 1
68:12
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Donald Rothberg
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| In an important sense, daily life practice is central and vital; it is where we live! Yet at times in the non-monastic Insight Meditation approach as it's developed in the West, such practice has been somewhat marginalized, with retreat practice and formal meditation practice at the center. We explore first the challenging context of daily life practice for many Western practitioners, including not just such a lack of sustained emphasis on daily life practice, but also the challenges of living in what is often a very busy, "mental" culture and society. We then look at a number of ways to bring more awareness into daily life, inviting the listener to see what one or two ways of practicing might be emphasized in the next period of time. We give a more in-depth focus on one very central way of bringing more awareness into daily life--developing mindfulness of the body. We offer a number of different practices that support such mindfulness of the body. |
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Monday and Wednesday Talks
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