(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This talk explores the freedom that comes from letting go of our attachments to ideas. As the 3rd Zen Patriarch of China said, "Do not search for the truth. Only cease to cherish opinions."  What benefit can there be when we truly let go of thinking we know how things really are?

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This talk explores the freedom that comes from letting go of our attachments to ideas. As the 3rd Zen Patriarch of China said, "Do not search for the truth. Only cease to cherish opinions." What benefit can there be when we truly let go of thinking we know how things really are?

James Baraz: Letting Go of Knowing: Loving The Mystery:

I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.

I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves.  I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing.

The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening.  I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing.  It is accessing this dimension of our being that  becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear.  We have everything we need inside ourselves.  We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.

Religion & Spirituality

Buddhism

I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet. I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves. I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing. The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening. I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing. It is accessing this dimension of our being that becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear. We have everything we need inside ourselves. We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.

Share James Baraz: Letting Go of Knowing: Loving The Mystery:

Sign up to save your podcasts

James Baraz: Letting Go of Knowing: Loving The Mystery:

James Baraz: Letting Go of Knowing: Loving The Mystery: