Burlington Buddhist Sangha

This morning’s extended meditation session, and discussion, was hosted by Philip and anchored in a guided meditation on gratitude by Larry Yang, dharma teacher and psychotherapist, to be found here:

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/107/talk/21789/

This morning, Joey guided our reflections on Dharma and Relationships.  The approach was grounded in the practice of Insight Dialogue, as examined in the talk by Matthew Brensilver: Mindfulness in Close Relationships.  http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/496/talk/24457/

The approach is based in the Insight Dialogue work of Gregory Kramer, and the words that are most often recalled from encounter with his work are pause, relax, open, trust emergence, listen deeply, speak the truth.

This morning, Wendy guided our work with our shared tendency to turn to doing rather than reflecting or simply being – the ways in which we compulsively turn t activity rather than investigating our states of mind.  As a prompt for discussion, we listened to excerpts to this talk by Tara Brach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e23nUp3a9R8&feature=youtu.be&list=UUE3E-d8dUieqIbKYIO5-pFg

This Sunday, Jessica guided our reflections, with a focus on Compassion.  There are many ways of relating to the suffering of others, some skillful, many not so skillful.  Compassion, the second of the Brahma Viharas, is the fullest, most intimate and open-hearted way.  Excerpts from Mark Coleman’s Dharma talk and guided meditation on Compassion anchored the presentation and discussion, and can be found at

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/115/talk/20876/

Payton led this the discussion this past Sunday on the topic of Anxiety, based around a talk by Matthew Brensilver.

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/496/talk/24441/

Some other good talks on the topic include a talk by Donald Rothberg and one by Michael Grady.

Today, Michael brought our series on the 12 links of dependent arising to its conclusion, examining the ways in which Craving and Clinging lead almost inevitably to Becoming (taking on a personality style, which we then defend), Birth (inhabiting that style of being so completely that we can’t imagine seeing beyond it), and finally Old Age & Death (the rigidity and shutting down that results from such identification).  If your belief system accommodates rebirth and multiple lifetimes, these psychologically nuanced descriptions for our current secular age can be set supplemented by the literal meaning of the names of these links in the chain.

This Sunday, Nancy led our investigation of the Four Great Elements of Nature and their relation to our own fundamental nature, Anatta.  As part of our exploration we spent time quietly and fully taking in the gardens outside the Studio, the wind, the sounds, the earth beneath our feet.

Michael guided our reflections as we explored Craving and Clinging, the next links in the chain of Dependent Arising.  Here we enter the real thicket of what makes for unsatisfactoriness in life.  The Buddha went well beyond the usual commonplaces here, distinguishing three different kinds of craving, and four distinct types of clinging.  Not only do we often not see these subtler developments, but once we do see them, we realize that we’ve been trying to cure one kind of suffering by introducing another.  How, then, to move beyond all of them?

Paticca Samuppada, here translated Dependent Arising, is also often translated as Inter-Dependent Co-Origination, Dependent Origination, Inter-Dependent Co-Arising, etc., etc.

Since we are exploring the Buddha’s key teaching of Dependent Arising at a number of our meetings, it may be of some use to those who wish to re-trace the ground or explore more widely, to have some reliable guides at hand.

The Wikipedia article offers a standard overview of the 12 nidanas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Nidānas

One of the several places that the chain of Dependent Arising is given in full in the canon is in the Maha-nidana Sutta: The Great Causes Discourse, in the Digha Nikaya #15, pts D ii 55

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.15.0.than.html

IMS teacher Nikki Mighafori’s hour long talk on Dependent Origination covers all 12 nidanas sequentially, and can be found at http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/555/talk/21420/

An in-depth view, including considerable quotation from many suttas, plus explanation and commentary, can be found in Ajahn Thanissaro’s book “The Shape of Suffering,” offered in its entirety on line at

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/shapeofsuffering.pdf

To request a printed copy of this book, please write to: Metta Forest Monastery, P.O. Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082, USA.

This Sunday Joey guided our reflections on the dharma through a guided meditation by Guy Armstrong on expansive awareness and an excerpt from his talk on fear and fearlessness.

the guided meditation is about 45 minutes long and can be found at

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/79/talk/22397/

and the complete talk on Fear and Fearlessness can be found at

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/79/talk/22258/

Rebecca led our reflections this morning, centering them around readings from Joseph Goldstein’s new book, Mindfulness.