Archive of Talks

  • The space of presence

    A great gift of practice is the ability to cultivate presence, a space in which we can meet our experience with a real attention that brings deep connection and fulfillment. This Sunday, Andrea guided our reflections, drawing on Tara Brach’s exploration on this topic. Tara’s talk is available here: https://www.tarabrach.com/gift-to-the-soul-the-space-of-presence-4/ During the talk, Tara read a poem… Read more

  • Dharma in our wider world

    Matters like COVID, political uncertainty, police violence and the like often seem remote from the meditation cushion and the world view of the Buddha. And yet the connections between dharma, pain, grief, effective action, and social challenges can be clearly drawn, as they are in an end-of-retreat dharma talk by Michele MacDonald and Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey… Read more

  • Selfing – moment by moment creation

    The Self, so often thought of as a thing, is, from a Buddhist perspective, an activity that arises under certain conditions, which can be seen and seen through.  Sam guided our reflections this week, and drew upon several teachers in the Early Buddhist tradition, including Andrea Fella, Guy Armstong, and Susie Harrington (who also offers  a guided… Read more

  • Buddhism, Racism, and Independence

    This week Jeff H guided our reflections, returning to the topic of racial justice from a Buddhist perspective, and anchoring the discussions with a podcast titled “Racism and Independence” by Jack Kornfield that seems to have been recorded this year but was in fact from the 1990s. Jack starts with the context of our celebration… Read more

  • Evil: a Buddhist perspective

    This Sunday, Jeffrey provided an overview of Stephen Batchelor’s key ideas in his book, Living with the Devil, followed by a talk by Batchelor. He rejects the dualistic conception of Mara or Satan or The Devil as embodiments of pure evil; and of Buddha as pure good, to instead tease out the subtle nature of… Read more

  • Living a Meaningful Life

    The Buddha said that he taught the nature of suffering and the end of suffering.  But many have found that his teachings take us far beyond that, and into shaping lives that are more meaningful to us — and even to others.  And some have discovered, along the way, a relation with continuing suffering can be… Read more