Archive of Talks

The world is messier than we would like, so we live in delusion, trying to make it the way we would like it to be. We tend to interact with our ideas about people and things, rather than with people and things as they really are. This leads to alienation and to suffering. In Part… Read more

Intentions and motivations. Why do we do what we do? The Buddha highlighted this impulse that connects body and mind calling it “intention” [Pali “cetena”] — the urge that gives rise to all we do. Every action of body, speech, and even every thought, is preceded by this impulse.  Attending to this factor and investigating it… Read more

It is a commonplace among Buddhists that the suffering which the dharma may help us avoid is self-generated psychological suffering, the kind of ruminative thinking that can get us in so much trouble. But the Buddha himself was well aware of physical pain; he listed sickness, old age, and death as major causes of suffering, and… Read more

Last week we discussed the ways in which our illusory sense of self is reinforced by papanca, the mind’s tendency to proliferate thought unceasingly.  To anchor this week’s reflections, Eveline has chosen a talk by Mark Nunberg on ‘Establishing and Trusting Awareness.’         Awareness can reveal the ever-shifting conditions from which all experience unfolds,… Read more

Buddhist teachings point to “papanca” [pah PAHN chah], the naturally-occurring tendency of the mind to generate endless thoughts about one’s self. Joseph Goldstein offers a particularly penetrating in-depth analysis of papanca’s sources. The first is “craving”, the sense of “mine” (my thoughts, my feelings and so on). The second is “conceit,” the felt sense of “I am… Read more

On this first Sunday in the new year, we reflected on our aspirations. Remember when you first encountered the dharma? What was it that drew you in? What seemed valuable, useful, practical? What was your goal, your aspiration? Has that changed? Has it evolved? Were you looking for something new, something better, something more exciting… Read more