James Baraz's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge)

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) For many, wishing well and extending metta to others can come relatively naturally. The hard part is not sending out love, but letting it in. This is one of the most supportive practices for counteracting self-judgment and developing kindness and metta for ourselves. This talk will explore this topic and practice together.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The Buddha said as much as possible the one reflection to keep in mind is impermanence which leads to letting go, equanimity and liberation. This talk explores the gift of opening and embracing impermanence.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Instructions on working with the breath and body.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Wise Effort as an important issue in practice. This talk explores finding the balance between too much and too little as well as understanding the four classical Wise Efforts described in the teachings.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This talk explores an important topic that James has not spoken on before. We often think of practice as simply noticing our experience in the present moment. However, the Buddha explicitly pairs heedfulness (appamada) and wise attention (yoniso manasikara) as the two primary internal factors responsible for giving birth to the Noble Eightfold Path. This talk discusses how these two qualities are applied in our practice on and off the cushion.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Adam will give the talk. Over the past seven months, Adam traveled through Bali, Nepal, and Japan on a pilgrimage that became both an outer journey and an inner exploration. At the heart of this journey was a simple question: What allows a human being to feel truly at home within themselves?

Drawing from meditation, spiritual pilgrimage, and somatic practice, Adam reflects on how love transforms shame and restores our innate dignity and belonging. He will share how he sees the journey through the lens of the five elemental stages of SomAwaken that he teaches.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Margaret is the author of the just released book, Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly through the Power of Equanimity. In this she leads in an exploration on this key quality that is so needed in these times.

As a therapist, Margaret facilitated psycho-social support groups for cancer patients and their loved ones for over 30 years. She has led research studies on the impact of contemplative programs, co-developed the Compassion Cultivation Training with Thupten Jinpa at Stanford University. Margaret is the founder of Compassion Corps, a program which brings compassion programs to underserved populations around the world. She has been a meditation practitioner for over 40 years.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) In this talk James introduces Nina Raddy, a member of our IMCB community, who shares from her own experience of community practice and helping build Community Village, a vibrant, peer-led meditation community for people in their 20s and 30s in the Bay Area. She'll explore how generosity, wholesome friendship, and simply showing up for one another can themselves become profound practices.

Buddhist teachings place great emphasis on spiritual friendship and sangha — the community of practitioners — as essential supports for the path. Yet in a culture that often emphasizes individualism and disconnection, sangha can seem like a good idea but not something we truly experience to the extent we wish we had. Data from the U.S. Surgeon General emphasizes that lacking social connection carries a mortality risk comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, making community engagement a biological necessity rather than a comfort. Community acts as the vital antidote to the modern public health crisis of isolation, transforming deep-seated loneliness into a foundation for emotional and physical survival. What does it mean to practice community?

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Practice can sometimes feel complicated with so many different techniques and instructions on how to extricate oneself from identifying with our experience. Using approaches from Tibetan Dzogchen and other non-dual teachings this talks explores the profound simplicity of letting go of all trying as a way to come back to our true nature.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) James has been offering reflections on the Dhammapada, the Buddha's collection of pithy teachings, and how they can be practically applied in our lives. Dhammapada Verse #165 emphasizes that individuals are responsible for the direction of their own spiritual unfolding. No external force or person can do it for us. This talk explores the implications.