Archive of Talks

This Sunday Zac prompted our reflection and dialogue with the story of the Four Divine Messengers. The tale holds truths about initiatory experiences, setting forth on the path, catalysts for transformation, and reveals a particular archetype of the spiritual path. The talk and discussion focused on the divine messengers in our lives today. Read more

Michael guided our reflections today with a talk on Stream Entry, the first definitive stage of Awakening, after which there is really no turning back. A variety of canonical readings on Stream Entry can be found at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/search_results.html?cx=015061908441090246348%3Adj4lxnh4dda&cof=FORID%3A9%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=stream+entry&sa=Search The story of Siddhartha’s bowl floating upstream can be found in The Buddhacarita  or  Acts of the… Read more

Joey guided our reflections this past Sunday as we focused on Wise Speech, drawing from several sources including Joseph Goldstein and Gregory Kramer. Here is the talk by Joseph Goldstein: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/96/talk/28657/ Read more

This Sunday Payton guided our discussion around one organization of the Eightfold Path: Sila, Samadhi, and Panna, or, Ethics, Concentration, and Wisdom. With the addition of a recorded talk by Christopher Titmuss (listen to the talk here) we had a lively conversation about the ways in which the “Three Trainings” influence one another in a way… Read more

Although Westerners often begin their engagement with Buddhism with items listed at the end of the Eightfold Path – Mindfulness and Concentration – the Buddha put Right View and Right Intention at the beginning, and considered them foundational. Wendy guided our reflections this week, using portions of a dharma talk by Sally Clough Armstrong to… Read more

Payton led the discussion centered around the idea of Papancha, or Mental Proliferation. The seminal sutta on this topic is the “Honeyball Sutta”, where it’s explained as: first there is the coming together of three things, an object, a sensory organ, and consciousness. The meeting of these three is “contact”. Contact leads to feeling tone (Vedana),… Read more