Archive of Talks

Experiences we have and thoughts that we think can trigger strong emotions in our minds and bodies. Some of these feelings can be overwhelming. Paradoxically, these sensations can make it extremely difficult to notice the overwhelm, instead causing us to react in increasingly unskillful ways. In this week’s Sangha, Payton explored the challenging practice of… Read more

Refuge is a central concept in the path of liberation. Today Zac focused on the experience of refuge through personal experience and an exploration of teachings. The talk we listened to was an excerpt from an audio book called “Truly Seeing” by Thich Nhat Hanh. Here’s a link to the audio book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Truly-Seeing-Thich-Nhat-Hanh/dp/1888375396. The five… Read more

Jack Kornfield, founder of Spirit Rock meditation center and one of the principal bringers of vipassana meditation to the west, once found himself having to explain, at length, to the Dalai Lama how it could be that, in the West, an individual could not like himself, could find herself unworthy of others’ love, or could… Read more

Today we have available a wide range of sitting meditation practices. Although what each practice emphasizes may vary, they usually begin with the instruction to take one’s seat and assume one’s meditation posture:  we begin by tuning into our bodies. This past Sunday, Denise guided our practice, taking us deeper than we may be accustomed… Read more

This Sunday’s sangha continued our dialog on the important theme of race which has been a deep topic of the past few weeks. Jeff H shared a recent talk by Tara Brach titled “A Courageous Presence with Racism.” Jeff says, The topic is important to me. I have black family members and coworkers about whom I… Read more

Jeffrey followed Mike B.’s presentation of Reverend angel Kyodo williams’ talk on the theme of Practice, Justice, and Social Change with a continued focus on racial justice and the experience of being white. We watched the video Color of Fear, in which a multi-racial group of men confront a white man’s blindness to his own… Read more