Spirit Rock Meditation Center: dharma talks and meditation instruction

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) After setting the context of the Winter Solstice, in terms of the earth and the history of many varied cultures which have had rituals and ceremonies at this time, we explore, through teachings, stories, and poems, five ways that we open to the dark:

(1) We stop and become still, like the earth.

(2) We learn to be more able to be skillfully with difficulties and challenges..

(3) We become more comfortable and skillful in conditions of not knowing, as we open to the unknown, the mystery, and shadow areas, both individual and collective.

(4) We come to experience darkness as generative and fertile, creative and dynamic.

(5) We come to experience darkness as luminous, as generating light, as opening us to the light.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We review some of what we've covered in previous sessions, including the Buddha's teachings on views, the core of the problem being reactivity (grasping and pushing away) in relationship to views--not views themselves, and three ways of practicing with views. We then introduce one of the three forms of deeper inquiry into views mentioned, the approach of Nagjarjuna (c. 150-250 C.E.), the "second Buddha." Nagarjuna demonstrated a method of showing how any reactively-held views, including Buddhist views, leads to contradictions and absurdity.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We continue to explore the important, complex, and often challenging theme of practicing with views (or beliefs)--a central theme of individual practice and a vital area in the contemporary collective context. We first review the teachings of the Buddha on views, mentioning several key texts in which it's clear that he takes a highly pragmatic approach to views; views are helpful if they are conducive to awakening and traditional Indian metaphysical views are both not helpful and not ultimately resolvable in terms of their validity. An approach to views is unskillful if based on reactivity, on grasping or fixating, on the one hand, or pushing away in aversion, on the other. We also explore how many social views are the result of manipulation and control, as in propaganda and the social construction, often for reasons of manipulation, of many of our most central concepts and views. In the last part of the talk, we explore several ways of practicing with views, including (1) developing mindfulness of views, (2) inquiring into fixed views (we outline a number of methods), and (3) cultivating listening and empathy. The talk is followed by discussion, with comments and questions.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The Buddha famously said, “I have dukkha and the end of dukkha.” Yet it can be confusing to know what the Buddha might have meant. One reason for the confusion is that there are multiple accounts of dukkha in the discourses; we explore four of them, finding that, for the first three, it doesn't make sense to speak of the "the end of dukkha." Only for the fourth sense of dukkha, which we find both in the teaching of the Two Arrows (or Darts) and in the teaching of Dependent Origination does "the end of dukkha" make sense. On this basis, we then explore the nature of dukkha, interpreted especially as reactivity, which we find in two forms--grasping and pushing away. We lastly explore eight core ways of practicing with dukkha.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Do you experience the painful effects of self-judgment, or hurt from your mind's harsh attacks on yourself? If you wish to be free from the torment of the inner critic, then this day is for you.

During our time together, you will learn to work with self-judgment with clarity and skill and develop greater self-acceptance, self-compassion and forgiveness as antidotes to criticism. The day will include a combination of talks and interactive exercises, mindfulness and kindness techniques. This will be a practical and experiential day retreat, taught with lightness, compassion and humor and the need to not take ourselves too seriously!