The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Dharma Talks given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2024-02-01 Befriending a Spacious Refuge 55:22
Grace Fisher
Begins with a 30m meditation followed by a Dharma talk
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Thursday Morning Women’s Group

2024-02-01 Instructions on Open Awareness (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 49:54
Bob Stahl
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Insight Meditation Retreat: The Direct Path

2024-01-31 Queer Body, Dharma Body 30:50
Kimber Simpkins-Nuccio
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spirit Rock - Rainbow Sangha

2024-01-31 Integrating Metta Practice with Wisdom, Awareness, and Insight Practice 2 64:31
Donald Rothberg
We continue to explore how we might practice metta (and other heart practices) in a way integrated with mindfulness, wisdom, and insight, building on last week's session. We begin looking at some of the ways historically and culturally that the "mind" and "reason" have been separated from emotion, dating from Plato and the Greeks, and continued in the modern world with the understanding of reason and science as separate from emotion (and the body). This has been a major part of our social and cultural conditioning, evident in how mainstream education occurs, and also linked with gender conditioning. We also examine how, dating from Buddhaghosa's text, the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification), from the 5th century, metta and compassion has been labeled as practices leading to concentration, and not as linked directly with wisdom and awakening. This has been the basis for the 20th century Burmese approaches to metta and mindfulness, which have been the main influences in the West. However, when we look to the Buddha's actual teachings, as well as later Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings, we find much more of a connection between metta, compassion, and wisdom. We can see this in a number of texts which we explore, including ones in which the heart practices are seen as leading directly to wisdom, and development in awakening. In the last part of the talk, we explore ways that we can, in our formal and informal practices, integrate metta and wisdom. The talk is followed by discussion.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2024-01-31 Guided Meditation: Mindfulness, Metta, Radiating Metta, and Metta-Infused Mindfulness 39:03
Donald Rothberg
We begin with about 10 minutes of settling with our mindfulness (or another) practice. This is followed by about 5 minutes of practicing metta where it flows as easily as possible, and then by a guided practice in radiating metta, extended to radiating in a boundless way. We then return to a brief way of practicing radiating metta without visualization, followed by returning to mindfulness, infused with metta.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2024-01-30 Why Are We Practicing? (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 1:19:27
Bob Stahl
The path of awakening into wisdom and compassion.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Insight Meditation Retreat: The Direct Path

2024-01-29 The Teaching of the 8 Consciousnesses 1:26:11
Teja Bell
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks

2024-01-27 Mindfulness of the Body and Developing Kind Attending (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 56:53
Will Kabat-Zinn, Bob Stahl
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Insight Meditation Retreat: The Direct Path

2024-01-25 Sitting by the Well of Grief 55:57
Grace Fisher
Begins with a 30m meditation followed by a Dharma Talk
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Thursday Morning Women’s Group

2024-01-25 Tonglen Guided Meditation 8:51
Grace Fisher
Final meditation for the day's talk on "Sitting by the Well of Grief"
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Thursday Morning Women’s Group

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