Archive of Talks

What does it mean to have your life become the practice and the practice to become your life? How do you do that? Leslie Booker gives a talk about how she has incorporated sila and the Five Precepts to be her north star and how living from the mindset of sila embodies a life lived… Read more

Almost everyone in our sangha has been practicing long enough to hit a dry patch, where meditation becomes dull and routine.  But then something happens that renews our practice. We go on retreat; we change our method in big ways or small.  Perhaps we take a vow, or discover an ancient mantra’s power.  Someone close to us… Read more

How do we process and respond to increasing societal oppression and violence? What helps us transform the energies of fear, hatred and delusion. To help shed light on this discussion, this week Ron drew on a talk by Tara Brach, which you can view at the link below. Read more

At the Sangha this week we explored the meaning of the terms consciousness, perception, mindfulness and wisdom, and reflected on their role in the dharma and Buddhist practice. The counterparts of these terms in Pali have very precise meanings. By way of contrast, there is no correlate in Pali for the word “awareness”, although it… Read more

Mindfulness, or sati, is a term that has saturated American society and beyond.  We as meditators may consider ourselves to have a deeper or more authentic understanding of what this term means, potentially even proclaiming it the driver of our practice.  When we find ourselves lost in the fast pace of modern life though, there… Read more

In some dharma teachings, doubt is seen as the great opportunity to plunge into awakening. In others, it is understood as the last obstacle to overcome. How do doubt, faith and perseverance show up in your own practice — a help or a hindrance? Can they be both? This Sunday, Jane presented a talk by… Read more