Archive of Talks

Patience is one of the ten paramis, or perfections of character. Patience is also something lacking in our society. Symptoms of impatience include same day delivery on everything and the expectation that everybody will instantly reply to our messages. Patience is a powerful antidote to negative emotions, including anger. Jeff facilitated this week’s exploration of patience.… Read more

In the beauty and poignancy of spring we can become deeply aware of the beauty of the changes around us. Can we take in this beauty in a way that helps us accept the natural changes of our mind-body and the mind-bodies around us as another deeply beautiful process? One that could bring us to… Read more

In the Buddha’s opinion, the practice of gratitude and generosity, while not always easy, is “beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle, and beautiful in the end.” The variety of forms that gratitude takes can be remarkable.  Giving to a charity or to a person on the street may be what first come to… Read more

Meditation offers us many benefits, and at the top of the list are Wisdom and Energy.  Wisdom may come in small increments or spectacular insights.  But in either case it requires sustained energy.  Wisdom may reveal to us that energy is finite and fluctuant, and needs to be shepherded carefully and cultivated with patience and… Read more

Forgiveness is not a parami or a brahma-vihara. However, forgiveness is an important skill for us to develop along the Buddha’s path. Forgiveness requires love, compassion, joy and equanimity. As part of the human experience we will naturally be hurt and hurt others. If we cannot forgive others or cannot forgive ourselves, our suffering will only continue the… Read more

Eveline guided our reflections this Sunday, exploring how we can learn a lot about being equanimous by investigating our interbeing with the earth.      The Buddha often remarked that the earth accommodates everything that happens to it without reactivity: it is whole and equanimous.  We often feel we need to find our way back to the… Read more