Archive of Talks

This Sunday, Payton guided the Sangha discussion. We continued the theme of noticing the space between our experience and our reaction, by trying to become more aware of Vedana, or the Feeling Tone (pleasant, unpleasant, or neither) that happens just as our senses make contact with the world. More specifically, we discussed trying to feel the sensation… Read more

This past Sunday, Margaret led our Sangha discussion on the topics of volition (intention),  the underlying motivations for intentions, and how kharma is related to those underlying motivations. We based this discussion on: The first 8 and a half minutes of a talk by Joseph Goldstein: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/96/talk/24781/ A reading from the section “The factor of volition”,… Read more

Payton led a very lively discussion this Sunday on what choices we have around the moment between stimulus and response. Specifically, the chain of experiences as described by Christina Feldman: What we contact, we feel [this is Vedana or Feeling Tone]. What we feel, we perceive. What we perceive, we think about. What we think… Read more

This past Sunday Zac led our discussion on the topic of Right (or “Wise”) View. He played excerpts from two talks: Lama Surya Das 2012-01-17 32:07 Right View Insight Meditation South Bay – Silicon Valley: Tuesday Talks—2012 http://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/283/22760.html Rob Burbea 2006-12-31 56:58 Views In Practice (…They make all the difference) Gaia House: New Year’s Retreat… Read more

This Sunday, Rebecca led our gathering by reading the transcript of a talk given by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa Rinpoche describes a “Fourth Moment” beyond what we consider the three concepts of relative time: past, present, and future. He describes this moment as “now-ness”, a sense of complete awareness of the ever-changing nature of reality… Read more

The theme of today’s Sangha was the five aggregates – with emphasis on their relevance in the context of right view. To aid this discussion, Margaret used excerpts from two talks, listed below. Joseph Goldstein: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/96/talk/27189/ And Ayya Santacitta: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/278/talk/25971/ Margaret also referenced an excerpt from John Burdett’s Bangkok Tattoo, which we’ve seen at Sangha… Read more