Archive of Talks

This past Sunday Payton guided the discussion around the thinking mind. To quote Matthew Brensilver, whose talk we heard: I think, therefore I am slightly ashamed The talk touched on the most common misconception about meditation: that we should somehow be banishing thought. The talk is here: http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/6448.html Read more

This past Sunday, Margaret revisited the idea of Samadhi, and its role in Buddhist practice. Although Samadhi is often simply translated as concentration, this perhaps does not fully capture the notion. With no intention of exploring Samadhi in the context of Jhanas, we reflected on the role of pleasure in Samadhi. She used excerpts from… Read more

Payton led the discussion this past Sunday on the topic of Freedom: Relief vs. Release. The discussion was centered around a talk by Gil Fronsdal, available here: http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/6816.html Gil brought up the social/philosophical tensions that exist in all our lives and how perhaps the “middle way” isn’t just choosing a place on that spectrum. Just… Read more

This past Sunday, Mike shared parts of a dharma talk by Sean Feit on the original Buddhist ideas of hiri and ottappa – sometimes translated as Conscience and Concern. Called “The Guardians of the World”, often these terms are translated as Shame and Moral Dread, which perhaps accounts for how little they are discussed in the… Read more

This Sunday, Joey played a wonderful talk by Norman Fischer. Norman discussed the Tibetan Buddhist practice of using “Lojong” slogans to bring mindfulness to daily life. Mostly the focus in the talk was using the slogans in relation to anger, but also how they are applicable to many other situations. The talk is here: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/134/talk/21034/ Joey… Read more

Rebecca led a active discussion this Sunday based on reading another chapter from Joseph Goldstein’s book, Mindfulness. The topic was aspects of Right Thought, including how to interpret the Precepts and how that leads to Right Livelihood. Read more