Spirit Rock Meditation Center: dharma talks and meditation instruction

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Guided Meditation opening to boundless unconditional quality of Metta, Compassion, Supportive Joy and Equanimity

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is immediately followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Includes meditation and dharma talk.

(Group discussion has been omitted.)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) A main way to understand generally our practice is by seeing it as combining (1) avoiding “unskillful” or “unwholesome” actions and states of mind (and knowing how to practice when they arise), and (2) developing skillful or wholesome qualities. We explore different aspects of this way of seeing our practice: Understanding its relationship to the teaching on wise effort; seeing the core unskillful quality as reactivity (dukkha) in its two forms as grasping after the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant, each in myriad ways; and developing positive qualities like concentration, mindfulness, kindness and compassion, generosity and the other paramis, and the Seven Factors of Awakening. We examine some of the complexities of practicing with reactivity, with a main one being that reactivity is often enmeshed with discernment; I can be judgmental and caught in reactivity, for example, as an activist who sees injustice clearly, with discernment. This calls therefore for transforming the reactivity, so we can make use of the discernment skillfully. We also look into some examples of both forms of practice, both in meditation and in the flow of daily life. The talk is followed by discussion.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We begin with a brief introduction to the theme of this evening’s talk on the foundations of our practice—avoiding “unskillful” or “unwholesome” actions and states of mind (and knowing how to practice when they arise), on the one hand, and developing skillful or wholesome qualities, on the other. There is then a guided practice, linked with the talk theme, focused on developing (1) concentration (samadhi), (2) mindfulness (sati), and (3) awareness of reactivity, developed in part by noticing how we relate to what is moderately pleasant or unpleasant.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The Buddha placed patience first when he summarized the whole path (Dhammapada 184) as the felt texture of wise effort. The question is what is the heart is doing while the time passes. With the hen who warms her eggs, Sona's lute, and an old trumpet player in the desert; a talk on how the heart opens: not by pushing, but by keeping something warm.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)