Dharma Seed: dharma talks and meditation instruction

(Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC) We resist reality by tensing our body and contracting into thoughts. This meditation guides us into letting go of resistance by surrendering over and over into the aliveness and presence that is right here.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The Buddha encouraged us to reflect on the fact that death could come at any time. This sobering reflection, when used in the right way, brings sharpness and clarity as to what is important in our lives

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Mindfulness of the breath, endings, and the nearness of death

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) A talk on Maranasati ~ Recollection of Death

(London Insight) With the recognition of the ending of this session, consider birth: what we’ve been through is receding, nothing new yet has begun, and we’re not going back to the same old thing. Birth is arising into that which we’re not yet entirely clear about. Nourish the potency of arising with mental qualities of goodwill, compassion, celebration and equanimity.

(San Francisco Insight Meditation Community)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Those who are familiar with the practice of mettā, or lovingkindness, know that it is one of four divine abidings of the heart according to the Buddha’s teachings. One way that this quality can be cultivated—as traditionally and so frequently taught—is through the recitation of phrases. However, without a deeper understanding or familiarity with the subtle expressions of mettā, or the alternate doorways into cultivating this profound and limitless quality, lovingkindness meditation can mislead us to binary thinking, as in: "I am loving and kind” or “I am not loving and kind."

In our daylong together, we will explore the various doorways into cultivating mettā, as well as the spectrum in which it can come alive in our daily lives. All levels and experiences welcome.

(London Insight) Where is the experience of bodily energies found in the suttas; what is the source of Ajahn’s ‘forensic precision’; how to us somatic presence with the 3rd and 4th foundations of mindfulness; please help with insomnia; experiencing resistance to standing meditation; grief and pain experienced with ‘Future and Past’ exercise; how to deepen into the ‘neither/nor’ space; is samādhi developed by sustaining sati; how to deal with overactive citta; how did you deal with the fear of death when being robbed in India?

(London Insight) Open up the currents to other people – mistakes, grudges, hurt feelings – and listen. You can’t forgive if you’re still wounded. Use the brahmavihāra to open the heart towards others. Then you have not just cleared the floods, but have been enriched by the relational experience.