Tea with Mara

"Tilting Toward Happiness" is a Dharma talk offered at Two Hands Sangha on a concept in gaming called being “tilted.” Something goes wrong, frustration takes over, and suddenly we’re so focused on the outcome we want that we start behaving in ways that make it even harder to get there. Turns out, we do this all the time outside of games too.

In traffic. In relationships. At work. With our health. Even in our meditation practice.

In this Dharma talk, we look at a piece of gaming advice that sounds surprisingly Buddhist: “Tilt is just being overly attached to the outcome.” The Buddha taught that whatever we frequently think about and dwell upon becomes the inclination of our mind. Which makes the pertinent question: "Which direction are we training ourselves to tilt?"

I hope you find this talk useful. Enjoy!

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"Do You Even Train, Bro?" is a Dharma Talk and brief guided meditation on spiritual bypassing and the ways we can sometimes use Buddhist teachings to avoid the very things our practice is supposed to help us face. We cover how sometimes, acceptance can become resignation, equanimity can be mistaken for indifference, letting go can become avoidance, and even meditation can become a place to hide. The Dharma isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about learning to see clearly what is actually happening and responding with wisdom and compassion. Sometimes that means sitting with what is. Sometimes it means letting go. And sometimes…it means getting the water. I hope you find this helpful in some way. Enjoy!

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"True Story" is a Dharma talk and brief guided meditation about learning to separate what actually happened from what the mind adds to it, how papañca (mental proliferation) can turn one unpleasant moment into an entire bad day, and how gratitude can help us see everything that is true about an experience without denying what hurts. We don’t always get to choose what happens to us. But we can practice choosing what we carry away from it. I hope you find the talk useful. Enjoy!

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"Who Do You Think You Are?" is a Dharma talk and brief guided meditation on Imposter Syndrome and something the Buddha called Māna. I saw Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in tears in an interview because he didn't feel like he was good enough for the players he wanted to play with on his solo album. I saw Matt Dinniman, who wrote the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, talking about how he keeps thinking someone will figure out he sucks, while in the month of july alone he sold around 16 million books. And I thought about all the ways we don't feel good enough. So this talk is for anyone who has ever felt like that. I hope you find it useful.

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

“Never Be Lonely Again” is a Dharma talk offered at Two Hands Sangha exploring the difference between loneliness and being alone.

You can be physically alone while carrying a whole room full of people around in your head. You can be surrounded by people and still feel completely lonely. And, in a deeper sense, the Buddha taught about a kind of “aloneness” that has nothing to do with how many people are around us at all.

So what does it mean to be truly alone? When does solitude become isolation? And how do we find the Middle Way between learning to be comfortable with ourselves and recognizing that we genuinely need one another?

That’s what we explore in this talk. Enjoy!

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"Welcome Back, Stay Awhile" is a Dharma talk and brief guided meditation offered in the MindfulnessVR community on the Four Right Efforts. The Buddha taught that our practice isn't simply about finding our way back when we've wandered off the path. We can learn to recognize what pulls us away, let go of what isn't serving us, intentionally cultivate what is wholesome, and protect the good that is already growing. In this talk, we'll explore the Four Right Efforts as a practical way of tending the mind every day to help us stay on the path when we've returned. This is a nice followup to last weeks talk on coming back to the path. Enjoy!

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"Only A Step Away" is a Dharma talk and very brief meditation suggested in the 11th hour in MindfulnessVR by one of our community members. I walked into our gathering without a Dharma talk planned and moments before we started, someone asked about finding your direction again after letting other people pull you away from your path.

So we talked about wandering, distraction, relationships, boundaries, personal responsibility...and beginning again.

Getting distracted isn't failure, it's simply a part of the practice.

And no matter how far you think you've wandered, the path is never more than one step away. I hope this is helpful for you. Enjoy!

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"Pillars of Thought" is a Dharma talk offered at Two Hands Sangha on the topic of Intentions, and of moving from stagnant thoughts (Pillars of thought) to actions which have an arc or a lean toward action. How many things in your life have you been meaning to do? Sometimes what we think is an intention may actually just be a pillar of thought. It may be important, but it’s standing perfectly still. Genuine intentions lean toward action.

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"The BuJu Buddha" is a Dharma talk offered at Two Hands Sangha on the oddly aligned topics of Bullet Journaling and the teachings of the Buddha, and Mahasi Sayadaw's method of Noting Practice. As I recently turned to physical journaling using the BuJo method as a way to escape the bonds of electronics in a portion of my life, I was surprised to find that the practice popularized by Ryder Carroll was surprisingly similar to noting practice in the Dharma. And here we are. :) I promise I'm not trying to sell you on the idea of journaling or BuJo specifically...even though it might sound like it. I am only offering that there is great value in reflecting on your day, noting your experience, and beginning again. Enjoy!

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com

"No, I Am My Father" is a Dharma talk and brief meditation offered in MindfulnessVR on why Disney holds such a powerful allure for adults? Most assume it's about escaping reality. But maybe it’s about our very human longing for joy, wonder, story, connection, and a world intentionally designed around happiness. In this episode, we explore the surprising Dharma hiding beneath the magic: why stories matter, why wonder matters, how our surroundings shape the mind, and why even the most carefully crafted “happiest place on Earth” can’t create happiness for us. What if the happiest place on Earth isn’t a place at all.

https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com