This past Sunday Zac led our discussion on the topic of Right (or “Wise”) View.
He played excerpts from two talks:
Lama Surya Das 2012-01-17 32:07
Right View
Insight Meditation South Bay – Silicon Valley: Tuesday Talks—2012
http://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/283/22760.html
Rob Burbea 2006-12-31 56:58
Views In Practice (…They make all the difference)
Gaia House: New Year’s Retreat
http://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/210/12308.html
This Sunday, Rebecca led our gathering by reading the transcript of a talk given by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa Rinpoche describes a “Fourth Moment” beyond what we consider the three concepts of relative time: past, present, and future. He describes this moment as “now-ness”, a sense of complete awareness of the ever-changing nature of reality all around us, and one which can be understood though Viapassana practice.
The transcript is available from Lion’s Roar here:
https://www.lionsroar.com/beyond-present-past-and-future-is-the-fourth-moment/
The theme of today’s Sangha was the five aggregates – with emphasis on their relevance in the context of right view. To aid this discussion, Margaret used excerpts from two talks, listed below.
Joseph Goldstein:
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/96/talk/27189/
And Ayya Santacitta:
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/278/talk/25971/
Margaret also referenced an excerpt from John Burdett’s Bangkok Tattoo, which we’ve seen at Sangha before:
Bored with Pisit today, I switch to our public radio channel, where the renowned and deeply reverend Phra Titapika is lecturing on Dependent Origination. Not everyone’s cup of chocolate, I agree (this is not the most popular show in Thailand), but the doctrine is at the heart of Buddhism. You see, dear reader (speaking frankly, without any intention to offend), you are a ramshackle collection of coincidences held together by a desperate and irrational clinging, there is no center at all, everything depends on everything else, your body depends on the environment, your thoughts depend on whatever junk floats in from the media, your emotions are largely from the reptilian end of your DNA, your intellect is a chemical computer that can’t add up a zillionth as fast as a pocket calculator, and even your best side is a superficial piece of social programming that will fall apart just as soon as your spouse leaves with the kids and the money in the joint account, or the economy starts to fail and you get the sack, or you get conscripted into some idiot’s war, or they give you the news about your brain tumor. To name this amorphous morass of self-pity, vanity, and despair self is not only the height of hubris, it is also proof (if any were needed) that we are above all a delusional species. (We are in a trance from birth to death.) Prick the balloon, and what do you get? Emptiness. It’s not only us-this radical doctrine applies to the whole of the sentient world. In a bumper sticker: The fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of the fear of letting go. Here’s the good Phra in fine fettle today: “Take a snail, for example. Consider what brooding overweening self-centered passion got it into that state. Can you see the rage of a snail? The frustration of a cockroach? The ego of an ant? If you can, then you are close to enlightenment.”
Like I say, not everyone’s cup of miso. Come to think of it, I do believe I prefer Pisit, but the Phra does have a point: take two steps in the divine art of Buddhist meditation, and you will find yourself on a planet you no longer recognize. Those needs and fears you thought were the very bones of your being turn out to be no more than bugs in your software. (Even the certainty of death gets nuanced.) You’ll find no meaning there. So where?
Patrick guided our reflections this Sunday on the topic of Right (or Wise) Speech and Wrong (or Unwise) Speech, and insights into the inner and outer effects of each. The discussion was anchored with excerpts from a talk by Shalia Catherine.
From Dharmaseed:
Speech is given particular importance in the Buddhist path because wrong speech can be the cause of tremendous harm, and right speech can be profoundly beneficial. The practice of right speech is given emphasis because it’s a very vivid way that we can bring our practice off the cushion and into our daily life. When our life is conditioned on delusion and greed, our intention usually is to benefit ourselves. While when our life is conditioned on delusion and hatred, our intention is usually to harm others. Even when we choose to lie because it will cause less harm than the truth, we still should be aware of the karmic consequence of our action.
The talk is here:
This Sunday, Sam guided our reflections, continuing with the theme of Emptiness from last week, which lies at the root of so much Buddhist practice.
Excerpts from talks by Sally and Guy Armstrong, as well as a guided meditation led by Guy anchored the presentation.
The talks were from the recent retreat “Emptiness” at IMS. We are currently unable to provide links to the talks which Sam played specifically, but here’s a list of the publicly available talks from that retreat: http://dharmaseed.org/retreats/3150
