Archive of Talks

  • The Mula Sutta

    The Mula Sutta is a very concise teaching by the Buddha about the root (mula) of all the diversity of human behavior, and the insight by which we may wake up in virtually any situation. Guiding our session this Sunday, Ellen used a talk by Thanissara to frame our conversation. You can listen to the talk here:… Read more

  • Embodiment

    Drawing on the work of poet, naturalist, translator David Hinton, Sam guided our reflections on the role of the body as a key stage for the first Noble Truth (dukkha), and for the fourth Noble Truth, the Path to liberation, as well. In addition to Hinton’s translations from the great Daoist Chuang Tzu, Sam shared excerpts from several dharma talks… Read more

  • Suffering: What can be avoided and what cannot

    A big part of the Buddhist teachings concerning suffering is the discovery that real life has pain, discomfort, sadness, and other events that we cannot avoid. The other part is the discovery that suffering coming from our relation to these events is often larger than the experience itself. But it seems so natural to fear… Read more

  • Living in the cycles of Deep Time

    This Sunday Ron guided our reflections, launching our discussion from a talk by Jack Kornfield, who offers us the invitation to change the perspective in which we view the phases of our lives, and the ways we discover and re-shape meaning as time unfolds. As he so often does, Jack reframes our approaches to our… Read more

  • Skillfully shifting the balance of practice

    While the past couple weeks we’ve discussed the elevated ideas about the nature of self, it is important to remember the importance of turning our concepts into intuitive wisdom.  To borrow a phrase from the yogic tradition:  lifting energy combined with groundedness leads to spaciousness. Dharma Teacher Michelle Macdonald explores this shifting balance in an insightful talk, excerpts… Read more

  • How to move beyond the suffering “self”

    At last week’s Sangha, we reflected on the notion of non-self in Buddhist thinking. This Sunday Margaret guided our continued exploration of this teaching, drawing on talks by Joseph Goldstein and Christina Feldman. We reflected on ways that recognizing the fabricated and shifting nature of what we think of as the self can lead us… Read more