Dharma Seed: dharma talks and meditation instruction

(Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC) This guided practice has a short period of relaxing the body, and establishes the breath as a home base for attention. We practice arriving again and again, deepening the pathway of homecoming. The meditation ends with lovingkindness for ourselves and our world.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We review briefly the basic perspectives that we've explore in preceding sessions: the importance of active "doing" in meditation and daily life, the importance as well as receptivity and "not-doing" in meditation and daily life, and ways in which to inquire into our more fixed identity as a "doer." We then look at two broad perspectives on a doing coming out of a deep not-doing: (1) in "flow" experiences and the experiences of "experts" in a given area, with examples from art, music, sports, and everyday life; and (2) in spiritual traditions, with a particular emphasis on Taoist and Buddhist sources.

Then there is a second guided meditation, about 20 minutes long, and beginning at 35:55, grounded in the earlier guided meditation before the talk, in which we explore a progressive letting-go of both more gross and more subtle dimensions of meditative doing, opening up to a deeper non-doing, which can be the basis for the "doing coming out of a deep not-doing" we explored in the talk.

Finally, we have open discussion.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) About a 30-minute guided meditation emphasizing the balance of more active "doing" and more receptive awareness (a kind of "not-doing") in meditation. We start with intentions and then settling of attention and awareness, followed by opening up to what is predominant, integrating both more active and more receptive dimensions of practice.

This session is followed by a talk on the theme of doing and not-doing in meditation and daily life, and a second guided meditation, which goes more deeply into not-doing.

(Common Ground Meditation Center)

(Common Ground Meditation Center)

(Common Ground Meditation Center)

(Common Ground Meditation Center)

(Dharma Realm Buddhist University) How to take the teachings seriously but not make them into causes for suffering; strategies for non-compulsiveness when writing; how to skillfully relate to regret and remorse over our past actions; advice for living with the constant conditioning of the world that does not support a harmonious way of living; role of being a teacher seems to make the inner tyrant virus worse – any advice?

(Cittaviveka) Although Dhamma practice is often geared to dissolving the sense of being a person, ‘the person’ is a required entity in the everyday world. The firm center and open awareness developed in Dhamma practice work together to support this person. They provide stability and allow duties, purpose and engagement to arise straight from the heart rather than from mental habits, or from the idea of a person. Then the beauties, steadiness and generosity of Dhamma practice and Dhamma fruitions arise in our everyday lives.

(Dharma Realm Buddhist University) We are engaging in a world that is innately unsatisfactory. Yet, within that it’s important to find an accurate sense of purpose, ethical orientation and belonging. These are areas where the self-critical ‘inner tyrant’ quality will inevitably be activated. The Tyrant’s ‘I’m not good enough’ message can be recognized as a program rather than a meaningful description of ‘who I am’. Through the practices of disengagement, embodiment and goodwill, the program can be dismantled.