The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Donald Rothberg's Dharma Talks at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Donald Rothberg
Donald Rothberg, PhD, has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice and the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy. Formerly on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Saybrook Graduate School, he currently writes and teaches classes, groups and retreats on meditation, daily life practice, spirituality and psychology, and socially engaged Buddhism. An organizer, teacher, and former board member for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Donald has helped to guide three six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality through Buddhist Peace Fellowship (the BASE Program), Saybrook (the Socially Engaged Spirituality Program), and Spirit Rock (the Path of Engagement Program). He is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers.
2007-03-28 Developing Energy In Our Practice: Wise Effort - part 1 46:42
Developing energy and effort in our practice is crucial. In its mature form, effort becomes “effortless” but on the way, we need to support our practice’s energy both generally and moment-to-moment. We look at the traditional teaching of the four “wise efforts,” adding some contemporary metaphors, especially drawn from Kayakins.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2007-03-21 Transforming Judgment - part 2 47:28
We review some of the main themes of transforming judgments – the nature of judgments and four main ways of working with judgments, using mindfulness, inquiry, and heart practices. We add some exploration of the cultural dimension of judgments and how to combine inner work on judgments with outer response and how to combine inner work on judgments with outer response.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2007-03-14 Transforming Judgment - part 1 53:55
Working with judgments is a kind of “royal road” of transformation, taking us into our deep and often unconscious views, sense of self and pain. We look at the importance of this work, and the speaker tells personal stories illustrating four ways of working with judgments: 1. mindfulness 2. seeing core patterns of mind and heart 3. metta, compassion, joy – using heart practices, and 4. deep inquiry.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2007-01-31 Mindfulness And Papanca - part 2 57:37
We focus, in this record of two talks, on the nature of Papanca or “conceptual proliferation” its roots in compulsive craving and aversion, and a number of different ways to work skillfully with Papanca.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2007-01-24 Mindfulness and Papanca 59:43
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2007-01-19 Metta and Daily Life -- Widening Circles 61:30
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2007-01-17 The Dharma and the Life and Work Of Martin Luther King 53:09
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2007-01-17 The Dharma And Martin Luther King, Jr 52:39
At this time of King’s birthday, we use the Vietnamese Buddhist recent understanding of three core areas of the Dharma- wisdom, compassion and courage with each we examine both the teachings of the Buddha and the life and work of King, playing several of his talks.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday and Wednesday Talks
2007-01-15 The Transformative Power Of Metta 33:56
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
2007-01-12 Metta For Self, Metta For The World 63:07
Metta to self is traditionally a starting point for Metta practice. Yet this is challenging for many of us as we work with our pain, judgments and demons. As we develop in Metta to self, we bring Metta out into the world, which deeply needs it. This requires a lot of creativity. We end by exploring the coverage needed to bring Metta into the world, and the need for a "tough metta" -- a Metta able to respond to difficult situations, a Metta that is neither passive nor a pushover.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Metta Retreat

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