Category: Audio Dharma Talks

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Audio Dharma Talks

Buddhism and Quantum Physics

Photo by Gregory Pai
Emptiness and quantum physics


Topics Include:   1)  The relationship between Buddhism and quantum physics: understanding the scientific truth of the Dharma;   2)  The evolution of the teaching of non-self to the teaching of emptiness;   3)  The relationship between the teaching of emptiness and modern quantum physics;   4)  Albert Einstein on the relationship between science and Buddhism;   5)  Understanding emptiness or sunyatta: the law of interdependence ;   6)  How ignorance creates suffering in our lives;   7)  Quantum physics:  wave/particle duality, the observer effect, and the collapse of the wave function;   8) The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, quantum entanglement, and quantum field theory;   9)  What is the nature of illusion?  10)  The remarkable connection between Buddhism and science: bringing a sense of morality and ethics into our understanding of reality.  

31, May 2025

EMPTINESS AND QUANTUM PHYSICS (Part 2)

Topics Include:   1)  Evolution of the series on non-self to the series on Emptiness or Sunyatta and Quantum Physics;   2)  The importance in spirituality of truth: the truth of how things actually are, not beliefs or faith;   3)  The definition of Emptiness or Sunyatta;  4)  The truth of interdependence;   5)  Quantum physics as opposed to classical physics:  wave particle duality;  the observer effect;  the uncertainty principle;  quantum entanglement;  quantum field theory;  and the observer effect;   6) In Buddhism, why we don’t see the world as it truly is;  7)  The central importance of interdependence;   8)  The importance of the observer effect;   9)  Learning how to see our experience as it really is:  the role of mindfulness.  

14 June, 2025

EMPTINESS AND QUANTUM PHYSICS (Part 3)

Topics Include:   1)  The relationship between Buddhism and science;   2)  Review of emptiness or sunyatta in Buddhism;   3)  Review of quantum physics:  wave/particle duality;  the observer effect;  quantum entanglement;  and quantum field theory;  4) Understanding interdependence;   5)  The observer effect;   6)   Practical implications of the convergence of Buddhism and quantum physics;  7)  How we don’t see reality as it truly is;   8)  What is consciousness?  The two kinds of consciousness in Buddhism;   9)  Finding absolute reality in meditation;  10)  Finding the final link between Buddhism and quantum physics.  

21 June, 2025

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Audio Dharma Talks

Ego and the Self

"Craving Visits All Beings" by Ron Kodama

Buddhist Interpretation of the Ego

Understanding our Ego and our Sense of Self

Topics include:  1) How we tend to repress negative emotions as a way of defending our sense of self;   2)  What is the ego, what is non-self: the importance of understanding our mind;   3)  Understanding the stages of evolution of the ego;   4)  The Buddhist interpretation of the ego;  5)  Seeing the ego formation process as a process of conditioning or karma;  6)  How our karma plays out through our thoughts and create a sense of our narrative self: the work of Jeffrey Martin;   7)  The untoward effects of our attachment and identification with a false sense of a narrative self;   8)  Understanding our connectedness with all life on this earth;   9)  Meditation as the vehicle for self understanding and wisdom;  10)  Seeing this wisdom within the world of suffering we see today.  

February 15, 2025

 

Development of a Healthy Ego

Topics Include:  1) The fundamental basis of Buddhism: understanding our mind;  2)  The healthy development of a self and the Buddhist concept of non-self;  3)  Modern psychological studies in the development of a healthy sense of self and ego;  4)  How the way our life unfolds is fundamentally a process of cause and effect or karma;   5)  Seeing our ego as a “social construct”;   6)  The difference between “conventional reality” and “absolute reality”;  9)  How identification with the ego can lead to suffering;  10)  How to reconcile our ego-centric self with our interconnectedness with all other beings;  11)  The Buddhist rejection of a fixed, unchanging, permanent soul or God;  12)  How non-self seen in the Five Aggregates: form, feelings, sensations, mental formations, and consciousness;  12) Understanding what holds us in common with all other sentient beings.  

February 22, 2025

A Healthy Ego and Buddhist Non-self

Topics Include:   1)  What is the relationship between a healthy sense of self or ego and the Buddhist concept of non-self;  2) How modern psychology and neurobiology validate and confirm the Buddhist concept of non-self;  3)  the early stages of ego and self development in children;  4)  Seeing the self as a construct, constantly changing and evolving, not something permanent, unchanging or eternal;  5)  Building a strong sense of self in psychological terms, while seeing our relationship to all other sentient beings:  the difference between conventional and absolute reality;   6)  How identifying with our karma can become our ego in a negative way;  7)  Common ways in which we become identified with our ego in a negative way:  self talk; being attached to our identity;  the need to be right all the time;  being overly sensitive to praise and criticism;  constant comparison and envy;  fear of vulnerability;  our tendency toward control and resistance;  defining our ego by our material and social status in the world;  8)  the role of mindfulness;  9)  Seeking happiness in the wrong places: the basis for greed, hatred, and delusion;  10)  Finding a life of balance and peace: the middle way;  11)  What is enlightenment?

March 8, 2025

Modern Neurobiology and Buddhist Non-self

Topics Include:  1)  The question is who am I, if not my self?  2)  How modern psychology and neurobiology defines the self;  3)  The mind as a construct or a collection of processes happening in the brain;  4)  The illusion of continuity;   5)   The default mode network;   6)  Memory reconstruction;   7)  My sense of body ownership;   8)  The process of temporal binding;   9)  Emotional consistency;   10)  Confabulation and narrative;  11)  Predictive processing;  12)  The final question:  Who am I in the light of what modern neurobiology tells me? 

March 15, 2025

Non-Self and the Five Aggregates

Topics Include:  1)  Buddha’s fundamental premise: it is selfish, self-centered behavior that causes suffering in the world;  2) the origin of the Buddha’s teaching on non-self;  3)  How modern psychology and neurobiology have come to affirm the Buddha’s teaching;  4) Review of modern psychological research: the reality of karma;  5) Review of modern neurobiological research;  6)  The Buddha’s teaching on non-self:  the five aggregates: form, feeling, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness;  7)  The analogy of a candle flame, or a river;  8)  The story of King Milinda;  9)  Two ways of understanding non-self: as a collection of parts and a system of processes: how we are interconnected with all other phenomena in this world.

22 March, 2025

Non-Self and Dependent Origination

Topics Include:  1)  The underlying premise of the Buddha’s teaching: our preoccupation with our self;  2)  The basic premise of non-self;  3)  Review of modern psychology and neurobiological research;  4) The Buddha’s teaching of non-self:  the Five Aggregates of Clinging;  5)  Non-self from the perspective of Dependent Origination:  6)  Non-self from the perspective of Co-dependent Origination;   7)   Understanding the web of interconnection;  8)  The teaching of Thich Nhat Hahn and  Interbeing;  9)  How we can understand the world through the lens of interdependence.  

29 March, 2025

Non-Self in Daily Life

Topics Include:  1)   Importance of the Buddha’s teaching of non-self or anatta;  2)  How do we bring this understanding of non-self into our everyday lives?   3)  Review of modern psychology;   4)  Review of contemporary neurobiology;   5)  Review of the Buddha’s teaching on the five aggregates of clinging and dependent origination;  6)  What does the truth of non-self mean for me in terms of how I live my life?   7) How can I live a life with a sense of no solid self?  8)  How does non-self affect my relationships?  9)  Realizing non-self in my daily activities;   10)  Understanding non-self in our moral interactions with others;  11)  How non-self liberates us from suffering;  12)  What happens when the illusion of a self falls away?  13)  What is awareness?  14) What are the larger implications of the illusion of self and it’s impact on human kind?  

12 May, 2025

From Non-Self to Emptiness

Topics Include:  1)  Why the concept of non-self is important in the Buddha’a teaching;   2)  What psychology and neurobiology say about the self;  3) What the Buddha teaches us about the sense of self: the five aggregates and dependent origination;    4)  How the teaching of anatta or non-self becomes the teaching of sunyatta or emptiness in Mahayana Buddhism;  5)  The final teachings of the Buddha to Ananda on non-self in his final moments;   6)  Extending the idea of non-self to the concept of emptiness:  The Heart Sutra;  7) The teaching of Nagarjuna: all phenomena are empty of inherent existence:  8)   All phenomena are comprised of parts, processes, and mental labels and therefore have no intrinsic essence to them;  9)  How we use mental labels as words to objectify our environment;  10) How words constitute our thoughts and create abstract maps of reality but not that reality itself;   11) So, what is wisdom?  Do we really see reality as it truly is?  12)  So, what is reality?  Nagarjuna’s teaching on the Middle Way.    13)  What is the moral and ethical implication of not seeing reality the way it really is?  

26 April, 2025

From Non-Self to Emptiness (Part 2)

Topics Include:  1)  Why the concept of non-self is important in Buddhism;   2)  The revolutionary nature of the idea of non-self;  3)  How the self is seen modern psychology and neurobiology;  4)  The Buddha’s teaching on non-self:  The Five Aggregates and Dependent Origination;   5)  The historical transition from the teaching of non-self to the teaching of emptiness or sunyatta;  6)  Nagarjuna and the concept of emptiness;   7)  The three basic concepts of emptiness:  parts, processes, and conceptual designations;   8)  Nagarjuna’s teaching of the Middle Way;  9)  How we see the world as objects and what that means in our lives;  10)  Nagarjuna’s teaching on conventional and absolute reality;  11)  What is the result of realizing the two truths?   

10 May, 2025

From Non-Self to Emptiness (Part 3)

Topics Include:  1) A brief review of the series: the importance of non-self in the Buddha’s teaching; the verdict of modern psychology and neurobiology; the teaching of non-self; and transition to the teaching of emptiness after the death of the Buddha;   2)  Nagarjuna and the teaching of emptiness;   3)  Parts, processes, and mental labels:  the components of all reality;  4)  What is a conceptual designation?   5)  Nagarjuna’s teaching of the Middle Way;   6)  Nagarjuna’s teaching on conventional and ultimate truth;   7)  Examining the concept of “emptiness of emptiness”;   8)  The meaning of Zen: direct experience vs conceptual knowledge;   9)  Emptiness in Tibetan Buddhism;   10) How do we describe ultimate reality?

17 May, 2025

   

Emptiness or Sunyatta and Ordinary Life

Topics Include:  1) Summary of the teachings of emptiness or sunyatta and how we can bring this understanding into our everyday lives;   2)  Nagarjuna’s definition of emptiness;   3)  The two realities: conventional and absolute reality;   4)  The role of mental constructs;   5)  Letting go of views and beliefs: achieving a sense of non-clinging wisdom or spacious openness;   6)  Bringing this wisdom to our everyday experience;   7)  Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche’s “reference points” or ways we depend on to define ourselves and make sense of the world;   8)  The creation of “cocoons” to hide us from the reality of our experience;  9)  The consequences of relying on our reference points;   10)  What is our “basic goodness”?  11) Overcoming our “reference points”;   12)  The “Sacred Warrior” and the “Universal Monarch”;   13)  Finding “magic” in our experience;   14)  Reflections on Trungpa Rinpoche;  15)  What is our true connection to ultimate reality?

24 May, 2025

Categories
Audio Dharma Talks

The Buddhist Unconscious

Bringing the Light of Wisdom to Darkness

Introduction: The Vital Lie

Topics Include:  1)  How suffering arises both consciously and unconsciously;   2)  Our mind as a storehouse of information out of which our emotions arise when the conditions are right, our alaya vijnana;   3)  Working with suffering consciously through the Four Noble Truths;  4)  Ways in which suffering can be unconscious or denied by our conscious mind;   5)  the psychological mechanism of mental projections;   6)  The work of William Waldron in his study of the Buddhist Unconscious;   7)  The definition of “self” and our continual attempts to deny it;   8)  How we create a world of “objects” that we use for our pleasure and survival;  9)  The creation of an illusory world of objects and a “self” to enjoy them; the world of subjects and objects: the essential duality of life;   10)  The creation of the world of duality as a fundamental tool of human evolution;   11)  The fundamental problem according to the Buddha:  a discordance between perceived and actual reality, the fear of non-existence, and our struggle to affirm our sense of self and the world;  12) our unconscious sense of self and how it informs all our conscious actions;   13)  The “vital lie” that underlies our existence in the world;  14)   How our constructed and artificial sense of self and the world becomes the content of our unconscious mind;  15)   How our unconscious mind becomes the source of both conscious and unconscious forms of suffering:  the role of mental projections.  

December 14, 2024

 

Mistaking the Map for Reality

Topics Include:  1)  Our relationship to suffering and our mind;    2)  Building a conceptual framework:  reality as a symbolic construct and the basis for suffering;   3)  How suffering can play out in ways that are unconscious: The role of mental projections.  4)  The pioneering work of Sigmund Freud;  5)  Example:  Blaming others out of our own sense of guilt;  6)  Example:  Envy of other people’s success;  7)  How our mind creates our emotions;   8)  How do we know when we are suffering;  9)  How to work with negative emotions.

December 21, 2024

Projecting Our Suffering to Others

Topics Include:   1)  The gradations of suffering that we experience;   2)  Our conscious and unconscious mind;  3) Alaya Vijnana or “storehouse consciousness”  4)  How we use our mind to protect our “self”;  5) How we often deny negative emotions and “project” them to others unconsciously;  6)  The work of Carl Jung and it’s relationship to Buddhism;   7)  A story about anger;   8)  The story of the angry man and the Buddha;  9)  Working with our unconscious negative emotions.  

December 28, 2024

The Buddha’s Teaching on the Unconscious

Topics Include:  1)  The nature of the conscious and unconscious mind;   2)  Our mind as the repository of our karma;  3)  The nature of mental projections;   4)  How we create a sense of self and an objective world around us;   5)  Our grand “Faustian Bargain”: how we create an abstract symbolic universe which we call “reality”;  6) How we use different strategies to deny our emotions;  7)  The Buddha’s teaching on mental projections;   8)  How our emotions shape our perception of reality;   9)  How we learn to process our emotions;   10)  The constructed nature of perception that clouds our perception of reality;   11)  The Dalai Lama on emotional management;   12)  Joseph Goldstein on understanding our thoughts.

January 11, 2025

Working with Our Unconscious Projections

Topics Include:   1)  We live in a mind that is karmically determined;   2)  How our karma creates a sense of self;   3)  Our default mode network;  4)  Our “storehoue consciousness”;  5)  How projections are an unconscious form of “self” defense;  6)   How are mental projections harmful?   7)  How do we know when we are projecting?   8)  How do I overcome projections?   9)  Everything we experience begins within our self.  10)  Can we embrace our suffering?   11)  Learning to truly understand suffering:  why do I suffer?  

January 18, 2025

The Buddhist Perspective on Projections

Topics Include:  1)  The nature of unconscious  emotions;  2)  Understanding our mind as the foundation of our life;  3)  How our mind is formed out of the circumstances of our life, our karma;  4)  How our circumstances determine our sense of “self”: our identity;  5)  How we use defense mechanisms to protect our sense of self;  6)  How this plays out in our thoughts: the role of mindfulness;  7)  The Buddhist perspective on suffering: how it plays out through our thoughts;   8)  How we don’t experience reality as it truly is:  the concept of “beginner’s mind”;  9)  A story about jealousy;  10)  A story about perfectionism.

January 25, 2025

Buddhist Concept of Mind: Alaya Vijnana

Topics Include:   1)  The nature of conscious and unconscious suffering;   2)  How Buddhism, in its essence is really about our mind;   3)  The Buddhist concept of the mind: the Alaya Vijnana;  4) The mind as the source of everything we are;   5)  The mind as the source of our sense of self;   6)  How do we work with the suffering that comes from our karmic conditioning?   7)  How our karmic conditioning determines rebirth and our sense of self;   8)  Achievement of the Unconditioned and the Deathless;   9)  The Buddha’s teaching on conventional reality and absolute reality;   10)  Understanding projections:  how our reactions to our emotional experiences tend to defend our sense of self;   11)  Examples of unconscious projection;   12)  Overcoming projection in our lives;   13)  Coming to final awakening.  

February 8, 2025

Categories
Audio Dharma Talks

Questions and Answers

July 11, 2026
July 11, 2026
  • How is ego or sense of self created by our thoughts?
  • Are we an illusion living in an illusory world?
  • How does illusion create the basis for suffering?
  • How can we fully embrace our experience?
  • What is our interconnection with all life on this planet?
  • What is Conventional Reality and Absolute Reality?
  • What is karma and does it influence negative self judgement and self harm?
  • How do we come to an acceptance of life as it is and to find joy and happiness in who we are?
July 4, 2026
  • What is our relationship to our ego or our sense of self?
  • The relationship between the ego, thoughts, language, karma and our perception of reality
  • We are an illusion living in an illusory world
  • How we are interconnected with all life on this earth
  • The relation between conventional and absolute reality
  • What are emotions?
  • How to respond to expectations
  • What is our relationship to our ego?
  • We are part of the process of nature itself
  • Summary: being in the world but not of the world
June 13, 2026
  • Understanding boredom
  • Thoughts, the self, and karma
  • Conventional and absolute reality
  • Description of the meditation process
  • Mindfulness as an aesthetic experience
  • Mindfulness as a psychological state of flow
  • The classical Theravadin definition of mindfulness
  • Three ways of working with negative emotions
  • Mindfulness and psychology
  • What is the difference between emotions and feelings?
  • Why we don’t see reality as it truly is
  • What is absolute reality?
  • Summary
June 6, 2026
  • Accepting illness with a sense of mindfulness
  • How our life unfolds in spite of our desires and expectations
  • How our life unfolds in spite of our desires and expectations
  • Feeling gratitude when confronted with frailty and a sense of mortality
  • How thoughts separate us from reality
  • Working with negative emotions
  • Opening to the energy of our bodies
  • Thought as an abstract symbolic system
  • The process of meditation practice
  • The classical definition of insight awareness
  • Three ways of working with negative emotions
March 7, 2026
  • How do we know when our mind is constantly rehearsing the future?
  • How do we know when our mind is or is not clear?
  • How do I know the relationship between samadhi or concentration or vipassana or insight?
  • Is it OK to just want to be a human being?
  • How do I deal with my responsibilities if I only live in the moment?
  • How do I learn to be responsible for my own thoughts, emotions, and actions?
  • What is the true meaning of the Four Noble Truths?
  • How does suffering lead to awakening?
  • How does addiction arise as an unconscious attempt to avoid suffering?
  • What is the true meaning of awareness?
february 7, 2026
  • What is Samsara and the 31 realms of existence?
  • Are the various realms metaphors for moment to moment mind states that we experience in daily life?
  • How does our predominant mind states determine the nature of our rebirth?
  • If there is no self, what is it that transmigrates to the next life? 
  • How does karma create the sense of an identified self?
  • What is it that transmigrates from lifetime to lifetime?  
  • What are the two primary levels of meditation? 
  • What do we see in mindfulness? 
  • How can we structure our insight or understanding:  the four foundations of mindfulness?
oct 4, 2025
  • What is the difference between Theravadin and Mahayana Buddhism?
  • Can activities we engage in like swimming, gardening or sports be considered a form of meditation?
  • How do I work with “wanting” to achieve samadhi in my meditation practice?
  • What are the consequences of ignorance in the world today?  
september 6, 2025
  • Do we ever stop observing reality through the lens of our personalities and “feel” the world around us consistently with an empty mind?  
  • When we observe our thoughts in meditation, what is the “I” that is doing that?
  • What is the reality of pure awareness in our lives?  
  • How do you describe the stages of development in the meditative process?
  • How do you embrace those from other religious perspectives?
  • What is the illusory sense of self that creates suffering in the Four Noble Truths?
  • What is it that unites Buddhism with the other faith traditions of the world?
  • What is the power of awareness?  
August 2, 2025
  • What is the connection between meditation and physical health, especially forms of cancer?
  • How do we work with our emotions?
  • How does everyone travels their own karmic journey? 
  • What is the definition of the Dharma?
  • What is it that moves through all sentient beings? 
  • How do we define what is scared and what is profane?  
  • How does Buddhism differ from the theistic traditions of the world?  
july 5, 2025
  • Why is the idea of rebirth or reincarnation in the cycle of samsara not a belief?
  • What is the willing suspension of disbelief?
  • What is Pascal’s wager? 
  • If there is no self, who is the “I” who is observing my thoughts and emotions?
  • What is our “basal” and “discursive” consciousness?
  • How do we find our basic commonality with all sentient beings?
  • How do we deal with “others” in our life?   
  • How do we come to a deeper understanding of our oneness with all sentient life?  
June 7, 2025

  • What is samsara or the cycle of rebirth?
  • How is samsara rooted in the human condition: the Darwinian imperative?
  • How to overcome the ten fetters?
  • How to release from samsara: stream enterer, once returner, non-returner, and arahant?
  • What is the difference between the body and the mind in terms of our spiritual evolution?
  • What is the evolution of meditation from concentration practice to mindfulness practice? 
  • What is the important difference between what we feel and what we think?
  • How can we discover impermanence, suffering and non-self?
  • Can we ever feel the world around us consistently with an empty mind?
  • How to understand the world of our bodies and the world of our minds?  
APRIL 5, 2025
  • What is Vipassana meditation? 
  • The story of the birth of mindfulness; 
  • How we don’t see reality as it truly is; 
  • Understanding the truth of who we are: understanding our mind;  
  • What is the part that observes what is arising in the mind?
  • Can meditation be an aesthetic experience?  
  • How do we handle strong emotions in meditation? 
  • The importance of compassion is seeing our suffering
  • The principle of ahimsa in our meditative practice;
  • The question of morality and ethics and parallel question of self and other.  What is the definition of non-self that the Buddha teaches us?  
March 1, 2025
  • What are the two forms of meditation: concentration practice and mindfulness practice?
  • How do we bring conscious awareness to our suffering?
  • What do we do when we meditate? 
  • What is the difference between a thought and an emotion?  
  • Why do thoughts and emotions disappear when we look at them? 
  • Why is it that we don’t see reality as it truly is?  
  • What is enlightenment?  
  • How do we know we are being controlled by our karma? 
  • Can I respect different views and opinions that come from different patterns of karma?  
February 1, 2025
  • What constitutes a breakthrough in meditation?  
  • How can we become aware that we’re thinking?  
  • How are we different from the thoughts in our mind?
  • What are the effects of attaining deep tranquility?
  • What is the illumination of the sense doors?  
  • How do clear moments of insight help us overcome our afflictive emotions (kilesas)?
  • How can we overcome our kilesas so they don’t control us any more?  
  • What is the concept of Samvega or spiritual urgency?  
  • How can we confront the suffering of the world without succumbing to cynicism, pessimism and despair? 
  • How is spiritual urgency an opening of the heart to the suffering of the world and an opportunity for spiritual transformation?  
December 7, 2024
  1. Can meditation help us “disconnect” from our feelings about the Trump election?
  2. How do we work with the fear, racism, and misogyny in the recent election?
  3. How can we fight for the rights of women in our current political landscape?
  4. How do we understand and resolve our differences as human beings?
  5. Is reincarnation simply another form of belief?
  6. Is desire for liberation a form of greed or craving?
  7. How do we let go of striving for liberation?
  8. How can we understand Buddhism and the Dharma as a powerful message of affirmation?
  9. How do we realize our fundamental connection to Nature?
September 7, 2024
  1. How do we bring a sense of dedicated spiritual commitment into our lives?  
  2. How can I overcome a sense of despair and disconnectedness?
  3. What is the difference between feelings and thoughts?
  4. How do thoughts create a sense of self based on our Karma?
  5. How can I work with expectations in my life? 
  6. How do beliefs and habits can lead to a life of unconsciousness? 
  7. How does mindfulness help us see our basic goodness and innate capacities?
august 3, 2024
  1. What are the differences between the Buddhist traditions including Theravadin Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism? 
  2. How do we let go of judgments? 
  3. Why is judging a form of suffering?
  4. What are the dangers of judging ourselves?
  5. How is the concept of forgiveness as understood in the Christian tradition and in Buddhist philosophy different?
  6. How to address the question of agency:  who is living my life?
July 6, 2024
  1. What does it mean to see suffering through impermanence? 
  2. How do I realize my inner potential while striving for enlightenment? 
  3. How can we live lives of wisdom and compassion while clinging to our religious traditions? 
  4. How do we manage extreme pain?  
  5. How do we avoid hopelessness and despair in the face of the current political situation?  
June 1, 2024
  1. Review of a misleading newslatter on Mindfulness: how mindfulness can be interpreted as a health hazard;
  2. What is the importance of friends in the Dharma practice?
  3. How can the dharma help with loneliness?
  4. How do you respond to Christians who accuse you of apostasy, or leaving the faith?
May 4, 2024
  1. Understanding the meditation process
  2. What should we look for in bringing the practice into our lives?
  3. What is right action?
  4. What is the role of emotions in spiritual practice?
  5. How do we skillfully manage intimate relationships?
  6. How do we as spiritual practitioners orient to this world of suffering?
April 6, 2024
  1. What is the role of social activism in the Dharma?
  2. How to come to terms with the suffering in the world today?
  3. How to understand the idea of non-self?
  4. Is there free will?
  5. What does ahimsa or non-harming mean?
  6. Explain a moment of mindfulness is a moment of freedom.
  7. How does our karma is played out in our lives through our thoughts?
  8. How can I manifest as a loving, compassionate human being?
  9. What is a brief history of Buddhist social activism?
  10. How can I find my role in the world?
  11. How can I do long meditation retreats?
  12. What is the 16 Stages of Insight in the Theravadin tradition?
March 2, 2024
  1. Explain the best posture and the importance of relaxation.
  2. How can we see our body as a bio-electric field?
  3. How can I understand the jhanic states?
  4. How is our sense of self is embodied in our thoughts?
  5. How do our thoughts create our identity?
  6. How is our sense of self an illusion?
  7. How can we free ourselves from the prison of karma or conditioning?

Categories
Audio Dharma Talks

Noble Eightfold Path

The Fourth Noble Truth

Suffering as the Spiritual Path

 1) Introduction to the idea of suffering;   2)  Suffering as the basis for the spiritual search;  3)  Three criteria for a path leading out of suffering;  4)  The range of suffering;  5) Dukkha, or the definition of suffering in this life and lives to come;  6)  The suffering of unresolved expectations in life: emotional suffering;   7) The unresolved tension between self and others in our lives;  8)  The balance between self interest and the benefit to others:  the Middle Way;  9) Bringing mindfulness or moral clarity to our actions.  10) Finding the balance between conventional reality and absolute reality in our lives.  

The Causes of Suffering

 1)  Introduction to the work of Bhikku Bodhi;   2)  The basic roots of suffering:  greed, hatred, and delusion;  3)  The fundamental root of ignorance;  4)  The development of wisdom;  5)  The difference between wisdom and intelligence;  6)  Finding happiness in the wrong places;  7)  How the Darwinistic impulse drives suffering in the world;  8)  How wisdom can be cultivated;  9)  The Noble Eightfold Path as an expression of the Middle Way;  10)  The two extremes of sensual pleasure and self mortification;  11)   The great gift of being born a human being.  10 February, 2024

Right Understanding: Karma and Free Will

1)  Introduction to the eight path factors:  right understanding,  right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.   2)  Discussion about the sequence of the path factors:  morality and ethics, meditative concentration, and wisdom.  3)  the importance of values and aspirations in determining our life choices;  4)  the difference between right view and wrong view;  5)  the two levels of right view:  mundane right view and supra-mundane right view;  6)  right view: understanding the Law of Karma: right view of the ownership of action;  7)  karma as volitional or intentional action;  8) the relationship between karma and free will;  the work of Robert Sapolsky;  8) the impact of conditioning and our false sense of agency;  9) the balance between the larger conditioning factors in our life and our ability to make morally appropriate decisions;  10)  the reality of our “self” as being a reflection of our conditioning and therefore representing a “false sense of agency”.  11) Understanding the moral implications of karma.  

17 February, 2023

Right Understanding: Karma and Moral Wisdom

1)  The fundamental role of karma in organizing our lives;  2)  The work of Robert Sapolsky and definition of free will in the face of karma;  3)  The definition of karma as volition or intention;  4) The distinction between morally wholesome and unwholesome behavior;  5)  The roots of volition: greed, hatred, and delusion or their opposites;  6)  Consequences or the ripening or fruits of our actions;  7)   Contrasts of morally subjective or morally deterministic approaches to life;  8) The Buddha’s standard of a morally objective code of ethics;  9)  The contrast between the western principle of moral absolutes and the Buddhist idea of moral relativism.  10) Understanding how our conditioning can lead to destructive moral self judgement.  

24 February, 2023

Right Understanding: Supramundane Right View

Topics Include: 1) The central importance of karma as part of right understanding; 2) Parallels with the work of evolutionary biologist Robert Sapolsky; 3) Defining our degrees of freedom where we can exercise free will; 4) The idea of moral agency and the defining characteristic of ahimsa or nonharming in the Buddhist canon. 5) How the Dharma allows increasing degrees of freedom from our conditioning; 6) the limitations of mundane right understanding and the goal of supramundane right understanding: complete freedom from karma or conditioning; 7) the power of karma in conditioning our lives; 8) The significance of the Four Noble Truths; 9) The two ways of understanding the Four Noble Truths, conceptually and through revelation; 10) The first Noble Truth: the inherent unsatisfactoriness of existence; 11) The Second Noble Truth: desire as the cause of suffering; 12) The third Noble Truth: the elimination of craving; 13) The difference between conceptual understanding and realization; 14) Attaining realization through meditation; 15) Right understanding as the beginning and the end of the spiritual journey. 16) Awakening as a release from the rounds of samsara as well as an expansion of awakening and freedom in our current lives.

March 9, 2024

Right Thought: Mind and Body

Topics Include: 1) The difference between right thought and right intention: the second path factor; 2) the transformative power of knowledge in terms of changing how we behave in the world; 3) the three forms of right intention: renunciation, good will, and harmlessness; 4) the corresponding wrong intentions: greed, ill-will, and harmfulness; 5) The role of intention as a link between thoughts and actions; 6) The consequences of wrong intentions and right intentions; 7) How understanding the Four Noble Truths inclines the mind toward renunciation, good will and harmlessness; 8) Seeing our common humanity with others; 9) Confronting greed, hatred, and delusion by cultivating their opposite qualities; 10) Learning how overcome greed and craving in our lives.

March 16, 2024

Right Thought: Pleasure and Suffering

Topics Include: 1) The difference between right thought and right intention: the second path factor; 2) the transformative power of knowledge in terms of changing how we behave in the world; 3) the three forms of right intention: renunciation, good will, and harmlessness; 4) the corresponding wrong intentions: greed, ill-will, and harmfulness; 5) The role of intention as a link between thoughts and actions; 6) The consequences of wrong intentions and right intentions; 7) How understanding the Four Noble Truths inclines the mind toward renunciation, good will and harmlessness; 8) Seeing our common humanity with others; 9) Confronting greed, hatred, and delusion by cultivating their opposite qualities; 10) Learning how overcome greed and craving in our lives.

March 23, 2024

Right Thought: Dependent Origination

Topics Include: 1) Review of the eight path factors: the importance of the intention of renunciation; 2) overcoming desire through understanding; 3) understanding Dependent Origination as the basis for understanding suffering: why the Buddha felt that no one would understand it; 4) Dependent Origination: the evolution of our psycho-physical response to the world; 5) Contact: that point where our senses contact our experience; 6) Feeling: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral; 7) Craving, or the point at which clinging and attachment begin to arise: the beginning of suffering; 8) Clinging turns into becoming, or creating actions to get what we want; 8) Becoming leads to birth, old age and death. 9) Transcendent Dependent Origination: the road to awakening: the first step: consciousness of suffering in our lives; 10) Faith, or the arising of spiritual urgency; 11) the stages of joy, rapture, equanimity and bliss: the jhanic practices in meditation; 12) The attainment of insight into phenomena and disenchantment leads to dispassion, or the letting go of desire and craving; 13) Some tips to manage tanha or craving.

March 31, 2024

Right Thought: Dependent Origination Part 2

Topics Include: 1) Review of the eight path factors: right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration; 2) Right thought as right intention; 3) the three forms of intention: renunciation, good will, and non-harming; 4) Understanding renunciation in terms of the overcoming of craving: dependent origination; 5) ignorance: not seeing the reality of things as they are; 6) volitional impulses to get what we want; 7) understanding how we are embodiments of karmic or sankharic formations; 8) Consciousness: the awareness of the sensations that enter through the sense doors; 9) Mind and body: the constant ongoing interaction between consciousness and our material actions; 10) The six sense doors: the means by which we experience the world; 11) Contact: the moment our sense doors meet our experience: how we create our own realities by how we perceive our experience; 12) Feeling: our pleasant, unpleasant or neutral responses to our experience; 13) Craving: when pleasant or unpleasant feelings turn into craving or aversion: the beginning of suffering; 14) Clinging: what follows after craving; 15) Becoming: the acts we perpetuate to get what we want; 16) Aging and death: the inevitable result of all births: all things pass away. 17) How dependent origination is playing out in the world today.

April 13, 2024

Right Thought: Transcendental Dependent Origination

Topics Include: 1) The relationship of dependent origination to right intention or the second path factor of the Noble Eightfold Path; 2) How transcendental dependent origination, continues from the knowledge of suffering all the way to final enlightenment; 3) the twelve steps: suffering, faith, joy, rapture, tranquillity, bliss, concentration, knowledge and vision of things as they truly are; disenchantment; dispassion; liberation from suffering; and knowledge of the destruction of the cankers or defilements; 4) coming to an awareness of suffering as a basis for faith; 5) faith leads to joy or gladness: the first beginnings of the meditative path: the training in morality and ethics; 6) training in the four jhanic states; 7) Coming to knowledge of things as they truly are: the stage of insight or wisdom; 8) Examining the five aggregates: form, feeling, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness; 9) The three characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and non-self; 10) Disenchantment: the process of disengaging from phenomena; 11) Dispassion: a growing detachment and renunciation; 12) the seeing of the Four Noble Truths; 13) Emancipation: the stage of spiritual fruition; 14) the behavior of an arahant: the attainment of the deathless; 15) Knowledge of Destruction of the Cankers: the final acknowledgment.

April 20, 2024

Right Thought: Good Will and Harmlessness

Topics Include: 1) Review of the Noble Eightfold Path; 2) Understanding right thought as right intention: 3) the intentions of renunciation, good will, and harmlessness; 4) renunciation, or the overcoming of craving: the teaching of dependent origination and transcendent dependent arising; 5) achieving personal enlightenment through renunciation and transforming one’s relationship with others through good will and harmlessness: the wisdom path; 6) The basis of love and kindness: the idea of no-self; 7) How the renunciation of craving leads to good will and harmlessness; 8) The intention of good will: metta or lovingkindness; 9) The intention of harmlessness or compassion; 10) Seeing renunciation, good will and harmlessness as the conceptual framework for spiritual development.

April 27, 2024

Speech, Action and Livelihood: The Meaning of Sila

Topics Include: 1) Introduction to the Noble Eightfold Path; 2) the importance of morality and ethics as a foundation for the spiritual life; 3) the difference between Buddhism and other theistic traditions in terms of the redemption from suffering; 4) Morality not only as a set of behavioral constraints, but as the foundation for liberation: how it purifies the mind; 5) Contrasting with western ethics: the Ten Commandments; 6) The fundamental meaning of Sila as Harmony or Coordination; 7) the four meanings of Sila: social cohesion, psychological, karmic, and contemplative.

May 25, 2024

Right Speech: Our Inner and Outer Manifestation

Topics Include:  1) Introduction to the Noble Eightfold Path;  2)   Review of the importance of morality and ethics in Buddhism and its difference from Judeo Christianic tradition;  3)  Abstaining from false speech;  4) Intention as the determinitive karmic factor behind any transgression;  5) The personal consequences of lying;  6)  Truthful speech as an external expression of our internal understanding of reality as it truly is: the importance of congruity.

June 8, 2024

Right Speech: The Primacy of Speech as a Reflection of Our Mind

Topics Include:  1) Introduction to the Noble Eightfold Path;  2)  The primary importance of right speech compared to actions and livelihood;  3)  The relationship of right speech to wisdom:  the inner and outer modalities of what is real;  4)  the definition of an arahant:  a person whose words reflect the nature of reality as it truly is in the Dharmic context;  5) how our understanding of the nature of things as they really would inform the words we use;  6)  slanderous speech: speech that causes division and hatred;  7) Harsh speech:  speech uttered in anger, intended to cause pain:  the story of Sariputra;  8)  Idle chatter:  idle talk that lacks purpose or depth:  the impact of modern social media and disinformation;  9) the karmic consequences of skillful or unskillful speech.  

15 June, 2024

Right Action and Right Livelihood: From Individual to Society

Topics Include:  1) Comparison of Speech, Action, and Livelihood to the Five Precepts:  Not killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct and the taking of substances;  2)  Understanding morality and ethics as a framework for living the spiritual life;  3) Seeing the relationship between our individual selves and our relationship to everyone else in the world;  4) Right Action: abstaining from the taking of life;  5) Abstaining from what is not given or stealing;  6)  Abstaining from sexual misconduct;  7) Right livelihood:  earning a living in a righteous way.  8)  The Buddha’s prescription of right behavior as a model for a new and different social order;  9) Moral and ethical behavior as the alignment and consistency between what we know, what we think, what we say, and what we do: the moral integrity of a spiritually evolved being.  

June 22, 2024

Right Effort: Overcoming Sensual Desire and Ill-Will

Topics Include:  1) Review of the Noble Eightfold Path;  2)  Why do we meditate?  The signification of meditation in out spiritual journey.  3)  The primacy of concentration as the means to wisdom;  4)  The supporting factors of right effort and right mindfulness;  5)  The factor of energy;  6)  Taking responsibility for our own spiritual development;  7)   Preventing the arising of unarisen unwholesome states;  8)  The five hindrances: sensual desire, ill-will, dullness and drowsiness, reslessness and worry, and doubt;  9) the various forms of sensual desire and ill-will;  10)  dullness and drowsiness;  11) restlessness and worry;  12)  doubt;  13)  the karmic source of our suffering;  14) how we process sense experience;  15)  how we restrain the defilements from arising;  16) how greed and hatred are triggered through the apprehension of objects;  17) the fundamental importance of meditation:  the true meaning of power.  

29 June, 2024

Right Effort: Overcoming Unwholesome Mental States

Topics Include:  1) Review of the Noble Eightfold Path;  2)  Right effort: how to work with negative emotions and encourage positive emotions;  3) How to prevent unwholesome states that have not yet arisen;  4)  How perception occurs and how it can trigger the hindrances;  5)  How to observe the object and restrain the hindrance: the role of mindfulness;  6)  How to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen;  7) Seeing impermanence when desire arises;  8)  Lovingkindness as an antidote to anger; 9) Overcoming sloth and torpor;  10)  Breathing to calm an agitated mind;  11) Overcoming doubt about the practice;  12) Five ways of overcoming unwholesome mental states;   13) Why noting can cause hindrances to disappear.  14) Mindfulness as a form of mental training.  

13 July, 2024

Right Effort: Encouraging Wholesome Mental States

Topics Include:  1)  The four different kinds of right effort;  2)   How to arouse wholesome emotions that have not yet arisen; the Seven Factors of Enlightenment;  3)  Coming inro mindfulness;  4)  The penetrative power of investigation;  5)  How energy arises;  6)  Rapture: a sense of pleasure in seeing;  7)  Tranquillity, a settled sense of quietness then follows;  8)  Insight: the analogy of discovering and processing a diamond;  9) Concentration: a sense of one-pointed unification of mind;  10)  Equanimity:  inward poise and balance;  11) How insight is an instanteous process;  12)  Drinking orange juice.  13) Maintaining wholesome states that have already arisen.  14)  How our moments of epiphany build our path to awakening.  

July 20, 2024

Right Mindfulness: Understanding Mindfulness

Topics Include:  1)  The basis of right Mindfulness:  the fathom long body;  2)  Understanding the Dharma as the fundamental structure of the universe;  3)  The quality of “bare attention”  4)  How we bring a subjective filter to our experience and don’t see the world as it actually is;  5)  The ways our mind interferes with our experience;  6)  The two paths of mindfulness: deep serenity or wisdom;  7) How the Buddha used mindfulness to understand suffering;  8)  The difference between concentration practice and mindfulness practice;  9) The transformative power of mindfulness.  

27 July, 2024

Right Mindfulness: Living Efficiently and Productively with Clear Comprehension

Topics Include:  1) The original teaching of mindfulness: the Maha Satipattana Sutta;  2) The definition of right mindfulness;  3)  Mindfulness of breathing;  4)  the various forms of breath awareness;  5)  Why how we breathe is a direct reflection of what is happening in our body and in our mind;  6)  Seeing impermanence in the rising and falling of the breath;  7)  Seeing the feeling of the breath rather than the form or shape of the abdomen;  8) Clearly perceiving the entire breath body;  9)  Calming the bodily functions as the concentration deepens;  10) Extending the mindfulness to other postures:  seeing the interaction of intentions and actions in our activities: nama and rupa;  11)  Mindfulness and clear comprehension: Understanding the purpose of an action; the suitability of an action; the range of meditation; and understanding without delusion;   12) Learning how to live more productively and efficiently through clear comprehension.  13)  How we bring ourselves as gifts to ourselves and to our community.

August 10, 2024

Right Mindfulness: True Mindfulness of the Body

Topics Include:  1)  Structure of the Maha Satipattana Sutta: The Great Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness;  2)  Mindfulness of the body;  3)  What is true mindfulness?  4)   Meditation on the unattractiveness of the body: meditation on the 32 parts of the body;  5)  Seeing the body as an object and not a process;  6)  Seeing the body as composed of four primary elements: earth, water, fire, and air;  7) Seeing our bodies as composed of various energy fields;  8)  How we suffer based on our ignorance of what our body really is;  9)  The cemetery meditations;  10)  Clinging to the idea of permanence because we cling to our lives;  11) Feeling gratitude for being in this body.  August 17, 2024

Right Mindfulness:  Mindfulness of Feelings

Topics Include:  1)  The fundamental importance to feelings as the foundation of our experience and human beings:  Freud’s Pleasure Principle;  2)  The relationship of the Pleasure Principle with the Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection;  3)  The simultaneous arising of feeling with consciousness;  4) Contact: the process of how feeling arises;  5)  How pleasure and pain can trigger suffering;  6)  How our experience is conditioned by our karma;  7)  The basis of the teaching of feelings on the teaching of Dependent Origination;  8)  Separating the experience of pleasure from the arising of craving;  9) Not identifying with our feelings: creating a sense of self;  10)  Seeing impermanence in our feelings;  11)  Knowing when pleasure turns into addiction of greed;  12) Understanding how karma affects our likes and dislikes;  13) learning to find freedom within our karmic selves.  14) understanding non-self or anatta within the context of our karmic conditioning.  15) Realizing true wisdom and freedom in our lives.  

August 24, 2024

 Mental Formations and Consciousness:  The Basic Structures of Consciousness

Topics Include:  1)  The Four Foundations of Mindfulness;  2)  Review of Feelings;  3)  The basic concept of mind: a permanent enduring faculty or an ever changing process;  4)  Citta: the basic act of consciousness;  5)  Cetasika: the coloring of our basic consciousness that creates our mind states;  6)  What is the purpose of mindfulness meditation?  7)  Seeing the relationship between cittas and cetasikas:  the process of mindfulness;  8)  The fourth factor:  Consciousness or dhamma.  9) understanding our alienation from the Dharma or the Law of Nature and rediscovering a sense of alignment;  10) Working with the Five Hindrances and the Seven Factors of Enlightenment: holding back the hindrances and developing the enlightenment factors;  11)  How to understand the process of insight;  12) the development of intelligence;  13)  Bringing the innocence of a child into our consciousness.  

August 31, 2024

Right Concentration:  The Power of a Concentrated Mind

Topics Include:  1)  Concentration as the foundation for the meditation process;  2)  Concentration as an intensified form of consciousness: one-pointedness of mind;  3)  Citta (bare awareness) and Cetasika (awareness colored by emotion);   4)  The process of perception: citta to cetasika: how we create a “self” out of how we see our experience;  5)  Defining mindfulness as a “spiritual” practice:  What is the purpose of mindfulness?   6)  RAIN: recognition, acceptance, non-attachment and non-attachment;   7)  Experiencing our experience with pure awareness and karmic  understanding;   8)  Sustained concentration and a sense of “centeredness”;   9)  The two forms of concentration: Samatha, or jhanic concentration, and Vipassana. or insight concentration;  10)  The Buddha’s journey from Samatha to Vipassana meditation;  11)  Setting the conditions for meditative practice;  12)  Bringing a true sense of intentionality to our meditation practice.  

September 14, 2024

Right Concentration:  Understanding the Meditation Process

Topics Include:   1) The logic linking the wisdom, morality and ethics, and meditation groups together of the eight Noble Path factors;   2)   the definition of concentration or Samadhi;   3)  the difference between pure concentration practice and insight or mindfulness practice;   4)  Setting the right conditions for meditation;   5) the 40 different objects used in the meditation practice;  6)  the ten kasinas: the four primary elements;  the four colors of the spectrum;  light and space;   7)  the ten unattractive objects:  dead corpses in varying degrees of decay;   8)  the ten recollections:  the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha;  the meditation on morality and generosity;   the potential for divine-like qualities in ones self;  mindfulness of death;  meditation on the unattractive nature of the body;  mindfulness of breathing;  10)  a meditation on peace;  a meditation on Nibbana;   11)  the four Brahmaviharas: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity;   12)  the four immaterial states: infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception;   13) reflection on the repulsiveness of food;  14)  reflection on the body as comprised of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air;  15)  Uses of different objects in the meditation process;   16)  Developing a sense of spaciousness and flexibility in our practice;  17)  What does it take to be a “spiritual” person?  

September 21, 2014

Right Concentration:  Concentration Practice and Mindfulness Practice

Topics Include:   1)  The two legs of the meditation process:  Concentration practice and mindfulness practice;   2)  How our thoughts subjectively color our experience;   3)  The importance of quieting our minds before attaining mindfulness;   4)   Description of the basic meditation process;   5)  The five hindrances: sensual desire, ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and agitation, guilt;  6) The five absorption factors: initial application of mind, sustained application of mind, rapture, happiness, one-pointedness of mind;   7)  Evolution of the object from preliminary object to the learning sign to the counterpart sign due to deepening concentration;   8)  How mindfulness amplifies our experience of our experience;   9)  The eight mundane and supra-mundane jhanas;  10)  The definition of mindfulness;  11)  The difference between mindfulness that is content oriented and process oriented.  12)  What is the state of Nothingness?  

September 28, 2024

The Four Stages of Awakening

Topics Include:  1) The difference between conceptual wisdom and “realized” wisdom;   2)   Understanding the process of awakening:  the four stages of awakening:  3) What is the historical meaning of “spirituality” in the Buddhist context:  escaping the round of birth and rebirth; realizing the “sacred”;   4)  the four stages of awakening defined in terms of the number of rebirths and the refinement of our character;  5)  the ten “fetters” :  doubt,  avariciousness,  belief in rites and rituals;  envy and jealousy;  false view:  the first five fetters overcome in the first stage of awakening (sottapanna or “stream enterer”);  6) sensual desire and ill-will are reduced in the second stage  (sagadagami or “once returner”) and eliminated in the third stage (anagami or “non returner”);  conceit, ignorance, and desire for rebirth are eliminated in the fourth and final stage (arahant);  7)  How do you know where you are on the spiritual path?  

November 23, 2024

The Four Stages of Awakening (Part 2)

Topics Include:   1)  The beginning of awakening:  the three characteristics of existence:  impermanence, suffering, and non-self;    2)  The culmintion of insight: attaining awakening;   3)  Understanding the deathless and the unconditioned;  4)   Overcoming the ten defilements or “fetters”;  5)  The four stages of awakening: the first stage, Stream Entry or Sotapanna;  6)  The second stage: Once Returner or Sagatagami;  7)  The third stage:  Non-returner or Anagami;  8)  The fourth stage: the Arahant;   9)  Achievement of the final deliverance:  full comprehension of the Four Noble Truths;  10)  The final epilogue.  

November 30, 2024