Archive of Talks

Patrick guided our reflections this Sunday on the topic of Right (or Wise) Speech and Wrong (or Unwise) Speech, and insights into the inner and outer effects of each. The discussion was anchored with excerpts from a talk by Shalia Catherine. From Dharmaseed: Speech is given particular importance in the Buddhist path because wrong speech… Read more

This Sunday, Sam guided our reflections, continuing with the theme of Emptiness from last week, which lies at the root of so much Buddhist practice. Excerpts from talks by Sally and Guy Armstrong, as well as a guided meditation led by Guy anchored the presentation. The talks were from the recent retreat “Emptiness” at IMS.… Read more

Michael, Margaret, and Sam recently attended an IMS retreat on Emptiness led by Guy Armstrong, Sally Armstrong, Brian LeSage, and Suzie Harrington. This Sunday’s offering was anchored by excerpts from a talk by Suzie Harrington, a teacher new to many of us. The topic was “Atammayata”, or “Not made of that”, a little-discussed concept in… Read more

This Sunday, Mike B led the discussion on the topic of the third Factor of Enlightenment, Viriya, usually translated as “Energy”, “Diligence”, or “Effort”. Here is a talk he played by Joseph Goldstein: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/96/talk/24770/ The Pali word Viriya means “courageous energy” Some translations: strength, courage, vigor, vitality, perseverance, effort… Joseph suggested we ”put all of… Read more

“If asked / the nature of Chanoyu [tea ceremony] / say it’s the sound / of windblown pines / in a painting.” – Sen Sotan, translated by Dennis Hirota, Wind in the Pines This Sunday Payton replaced our usual Dharma talk with a mindful tea ceremony and spoke about tea as a meditation practice. Language… Read more

This Sunday, Margaret led an excellent discussion on the first “mark of existence”, Impermanence. She played a talk by Joseph Goldstein which emphasized that while it’s easy to say the words and understand them intellectually, our practice is really to find a deep and visceral understanding of the saying, “everything changes”. Here is the talk… Read more