Archive of Talks

  • Willingness to Feel; Courage to Awaken

    This Sunday, Joey guided our reflections, drawing material from a recently attended retreat titled “Strengthening the Heart.” One of the retreat’s most inspiring and illuminating dharma talks, by Owen J Sofer, will be used to help frame our discussion. The talk is available here: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/248/talk/39919/ During the talk, there is a reference to a video… Read more

  • Wise Action in Challenging Times

    This Sunday, Joey led a timely discussion on how to deal with the challenges of acting with wisdom when the whole world (or even just one event) seems set against us. She played excerpts from talks given by Pema Chodron after the September 11th attacks which may be just as relevant today. The talks were… Read more

  • Aversion

    This Sunday, Margaret led a discussion on the topic of Aversion. She used excerpts from a talk by Steve Armstrong: http://media.dharmaseed.org/cache/DS/19971016-Steve_Armstrong-IMSRC-aversion.mp3 Steve suggested a five step process for dealing with this challenging Hinderance: – Recognize – Restraint (from acting out the aversion) – Reframe – Reveal characteristics (explore the subtle differences between different forms of… Read more

  • Emotions and Moods

    This Sunday, Rebecca led a discussion centered around a talk by Pascal Auclair entitled “Instructions on working with emotions, moods and mind states”. The talk is available here: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/198/talk/38452/ Read more

  • Mindfulness of Emotions

    Today, Payton led the discussion on mindfulness of emotions, as defined by Gil Fronsdal in his talk of the same name. The talk is available from Audio Dharma here: http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/7306.html Gil spoke about using the acronym “RAFT” to pause and work with strong emotions as they appear in our minds and bodies. The acronym refers… Read more

  • Reflections on Happiness

    This Sunday, Zac led a discussion by exploring the concept of Happiness as it is understood in Buddhist philosophy and practice. Some questions which were explored: What does happiness mean in the Buddhist context? What are various ways it is understood in the teachings? What is the “highest happiness”? Why is there so much emphasis on… Read more