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Ajahn Sucitto's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley)
Ajahn Sucitto's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) episodes
- 2 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Guided Meditation – Rhythm and Energy of Breathing(Cittaviveka) Deal with the compulsions of becoming by tackling energy in the body. Thoughtful breathing becomes comfortable and soothing. Its rhythm moderates the floods, diffusing stressful energies and psychologies. Heart and body draw close in the enjoyment. From this place of samādhi you can stand back from the most fundamental flood of becoming.43 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Day 1 Q&A(Cittaviveka) Can we chant just in the heart, without sound; Buddhism’s view on healing with energy; how to work with various energy blocks and imbalances; feeling disoriented when letting go of a topic and giving attention to body energies; what importance to give to thought; how does one cultivate absorption, to be with intense emotions; when only eating before noon does hunger become an object of meditation.45 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Guided Meditation – Body Energy Fields(Cittaviveka) In standing, sitting and free movement postures, exercise an attitude of goodwill, sympathy and encouragement to invite body channels to open. Energies know what to do – body wants to wants to arrive at wholeness.24 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Establishing Firm Ground(Cittaviveka) To stand against the tide of the floods we need firm ground. Established first in the body, mental/heart energies pick up the same theme of stability and core presence. This is the process of samatha – calming, stabilizing, giving one firm ground.43 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Precepts – A Way to Cross the Floods(Cittaviveka) Determining to keep precepts is a way to cross the floods. They help check and restrain urges of gratification, malice and escapism. Coming from a place of ethics and mutuality naturally gives rise to pleasant states of being, giving us an orientation we want to remain with rather than following the immediate pull of inclination.48 min
- 6 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Puja and Chanting(Cittaviveka) Puja means honor or praise. It’s an important gesture to cultivate – the sense of rising up to something beautiful, something worthy. Making offerings, bowing, chanting and meditating are steadying and calming acts that massage the energies of body, heart and mind.49 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Q&A(Cittaviveka) Please explain why you got the COVID vaccine as I am hesitant; can meditation help with IBS; can’t exhale completely because in breath rushes in; does it matter if formal practice/meditation is less; is manas an impediment to citta or can it be used beneficially; how to get over the pain of divorce; how to ask someone to leave a community due to ethical reasons; when desire is abandoned how is avijja eliminated; elaborate on terms samādhi, atammayatā, nibānna.37 min
- Ajahn Sucitto: Guided Meditation - Fountain of Feeling(Cittaviveka) The cycle of saṃsara develops from feeling. Perceptions then form that stimulate particular actions that can be stirring, disturbing, exciting. Investigate these from the stillness and stability of presence. What’s needed?18 min
About Ajahn Sucitto's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley)
From the publisher's feed
As a monk, I bring a strong commitment, along with the renunciate flavor, to the classic Buddhist teachings. I play with ideas, with humor and a current way of expressing the teachings, but I don't dilute them.
Sitting in a field of fifty to eighty people really starts my mind sparking. Since I don't prepare my talks ahead of time, I find myself listening to what I'm saying along with everyone else. This leaves a lot of room for the Dhamma to come up. Just having eighty people listening to me is enough to engage me, stimulate me, and create a nice flow of energy. The actual process of teaching evokes ideas that even I did not realize were being held somewhere in my mind.
Different teaching situations offer their own unique value. In retreat, you are able to build a cohesive and comprehensive body of the teachings. When people are not on retreat and come for one session, it opens a different window. They are more spontaneous and I'm given the chance to contact them in ways that are closer to their "daily-life mind." This brings up surprises and interesting opportunities for me to learn even more.
I'm continually struck by how important it is to establish a foundation of morality, commitment, and a sense of personal values for the Vipassana teachings to rest upon. Personal values have to be more than ideas. They have to actually work for us, to be genuinely felt in our lives. We can't bluff our way into insight. The investigative path is an intimate experience that empowers our individuality in a way that is not egocentric. Vipassana encourages transpersonal individuality rather than ego enhancement. It allow for a spacious authenticity to replace a defended personality.
I normally incorporate Qi Gong instruction in my retreats. They are not suitable as audio files but you can watch the nine videos here: https://tinyurl.com/Sucitto-qigong