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Dharma Talks
given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2007-10-31
Practicing With Thoughts And Emotions
61:22
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Donald Rothberg
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Mindfulness of thoughts and emotions gives us one of our great resources for applying our practice in daily life -- in the midst of work, relationships, and family. Here we explore some general qualities of mindfulness, then explore the guidelines of "RAIN" -- recognition, acceptance, inquiry and non-identification -- applying this approach to the experiencing of anger. Next week we explore skillful action with thoughts and emotions.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2007-10-26
Supporting And Deepening Daily Life Practice
53:25
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Donald Rothberg
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Practicing mindfulness and metta in the United States is definitely challenging for a variety of reasons which are explored briefly. We outline a number of basic supports for practice (daily practice, community, study, etc. ) and then focus on four main ways of deepening daily life practice - (1) Finding regular ways to break habits, (2)Working with a mentor or teacher, (3) Grounding in the body, and (4) Learning to take obstacles and suffering as opportunities.
(note: There is a 15 minute gap about 11 minutes into this talk and cuts out again at 53 minutes, due to technical difficulties.)
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Cultivating Clear Seeing, Opening the Heart
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2007-10-26
#7 Self & Society
59:18
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Stephen Batchelor
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A consideration of the Buddhist understanding of self as a process, based on passages from the Pali Canon. A critique of "perfection" as the aim of the teachings, based on the understanding of "freedom" as found in the Padhana Sutta. Followed by a reflection on the Buddha's SOCIAL VISION. This leads to comments on the nature of Buddhism itself as a religious institution, and concludes with a call for a CULTURE OF AWAKENING in a secular world.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Meditation and Study Retreat
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2007-10-25
#6 God & Buddhanature
57:15
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Stephen Batchelor
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A study of the Buddha's understanding of God (Brahma) as found in texts of the Pali Canon. The Buddha was an ironic ATHEIST, who did not take a fanatic position against God. This is followed by a reflection on the idea of BUDDHANATURE, starting with its origins in the Pali Canon and seeing how it evolves in later Buddhist thought in ways that both complement and contradict the early tradition.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Meditation and Study Retreat
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2007-10-24
Wisdom
56:52
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Donald Rothberg
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How do we live and act wisely, whether in our meditation practice or in the rest of our lives? The core of our practice is to come back to wisdom moment-to-moment. The main teaching on wisdom that can guide us is the Four Noble Truths. We explore this teaching as a practical guide, requiring an understanding of causes and conditions. Yet wisdom ultimately must also be connected to to two further qualities to be whole - to compassion, and to courage.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Cultivating Clear Seeing, Opening the Heart
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2007-10-22
#3 Turning The Wheel Of Dhamma
59:54
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Stephen Batchelor
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A reflection on the COUNTER-INTUITIVE nature of the Buddha's teaching - how the Dhamma goes against deeply seated intuition, e.g., that there is something permanent in this impermanent world. This is followed by a reading of and reflection on the first discourse the Buddha gave, which outlines the middle way and the four ennobling truths. To be followed in talk #4 by a detailed reading of the four truths as four injunctions rather than four things to believe.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Meditation and Study Retreat
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2007-10-21
#2 Going Against The Stream
56:31
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Stephen Batchelor
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A continuation of the study of the Buddha's account of his awakening in the ARIYAPARIYESANA SUTTA (M.26). Mindfulness as the way to GROUND oneself in the GROUND of Conditional Arising. the subjective pole of this ground is the stopping of greed, hatred, delusion. The Buddha was reluctant to teach because what he had awoken to "WENT AGAINST THE STREAM". The talk concludes with several passages from the UPANISHADS to illustrate this.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Meditation and Study Retreat
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2007-10-20
#1 The Groundless Ground
59:27
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Stephen Batchelor
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What did the Buddha teach that was distinctively his own view? This talk attempts to answer this question. I start to define three cardinal tenets of the Buddhist teachings: the Principle of Conditionality; the Process of the Eightfold Path, and the Practice of Mindfulness. I then examine a passage from the Ariyapariyesana Sutta in which the Buddha describes his awakening as a shift from a Place to a Ground.
NOTE: The quality of the recording of this talk may be improved after 11/15
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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Meditation and Study Retreat
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2007-10-03
Relationship As Spiritual Practice II
62:54
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Donald Rothberg
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We continue our exploration, with a review of why, in the contemporary west, it’s important to develop a fuller sense of relationship as practice, and what the prerequisites for this practice are, in terms of Buddhist resources. Then we explore how in relationship there can be a full sense of inner awareness and roundedness (the “I”), awareness of and xxx toward the other (the “you”), and a third “body” (the feid of the “we”. We use experiential exercises to explore this.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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2007-09-19
Relationship As Spiritual Practice I
62:13
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Donald Rothberg
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Much of our meditation practice in the west has been focused on individual practice, in silence and often solitude. While there are many traditional Buddhist resources for taking relational, communicative interactions as practice, there is also a need for developing forms to deepen such practice. We identify the Buddhist resources for this practice and offer some beginning exercises.
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center
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