Category: Audio Dharma Talks

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Audio Dharma Talks

A Buddhist Social Ethic For The New Century

Photo by GREGORY PAI

Bhikkhu Bodhi Social Ethics

Episode 1

1) A Theravadin response to the crisis of the world. 2) The first lesson: understanding phenomena at their deepest levels. The problem of egotism and selfishness. 3) A comprehensive view of problems as resulting from multiple levels of causality. 4) The primal importance of the Mind as the primary causal factor in our experience. The illusion of self as the basis for greed, hatred, and delusion. 5) The triumph of science and technology for the control of the external world vs. our inability to understand ourselves. 6) The power of the three defilements: greed, hatred, and delusion and their integration into the institutional structure of society. 7) The impact of the modern global economic order in the development of materialist consumer culture. 8) The underlying assumption: consumption is the key to happiness. 12) Applying Buddhist principles: Ignorance: the assumption that material consumption is the basis for happiness.

March 11, 2023

Episode 2

 1) Our failure to meet the basic needs of the people of the earth 2) The defilements: greed, hatred, and delusion: the roots of suffering 3) The social and institutional embodiment of the defilements in our lives. The role of national and international corporations in an unregulated free market system. The role of marketing and advertising in creating desire and greed 4) The underlying message: consumption is the key to happiness 5) The four distorting assumptions: that the impermanent is permanent, that the painful is pleasant, that the insubstantial is a self, that the ugly is beautiful 6) The Buddhist response: the Four Noble Truths. 7) The effect of capitalism on the fragmentation and polarization of society 8) The role of the Dharma in offsetting the impact of greed 9) Finding a path to reform for all the religious traditions.

18 March, 2023

Episode 3

1) The delusion that consumption brings happiness. 2) The role of Buddhist wisdom in counteracting ignorance: the law of karma, the benefits of generosity and ethical conduct. 3) The role of good desire: desire for the good and desire for truth. 4) Reinterpreting the idea of Nibbana as a means of defining an alternative social ethic in consonance with other religious traditions. 5) The Buddhist concepts of happiness, peace, freedom and security. 6) How we misconceive these attributes. We see sensual pleasure as a source of happiness; we see peace as the absence of conflict by subduing our opponents; we mistake freedom for license; we think of security from external harm through external defenses. 7) Acting in ways that counteract greed, hatred, and delusion. 8) Following the Noble Eightfold Path through virtue, concentration, and wisdom. 9) The inherently social nature of our personal spiritual evolution. 10) The two choices ahead of us: untrammeled development guided by science and technology or the use of technology for the betterment of humankind. We need a shift from external development to internal development. 11) The world today as a projection of our collective minds and the need for a transformation of consciousness. The need to heal ourselves. 12) the fundamental unity of all religions in the recognition of human dignity.

25 March, 2023

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Audio Dharma Talks

Life of the Buddha

Based largely on the work of religious historian Karen Armstrong

This series includes 30 episodes.
Introduction

1) Two ways of interpreting the life of the Buddha: the classical text based mythic narrative or the more historical, social and culturally based narrative. 2) The approach of Karen Armstrong. 3) The Buddha’s life as the classical narrative according to Ven. Piyadassi Thera. 4) The Buddha’s birth and early life. 5) The four visions of the Buddha. 6) The Buddha’s great compassion and its lesson for us in our daily lives. 7) Understanding compassion as the measure of self and other in our lives. 8) Defining what is sacred and profane within the context of morality and ethics.
1 April, 2023

Four Visions

1) The four visions of the young Buddha: sickness, aging, death, and the enlightened monk. 2) The thoughts of Siddartha as he departed his sleeping wife and child. 3) The sense of possible redemption from suffering in the celestial realms of antiquity and how it influenced the young Siddartha. 4) Gotama’s belief that redemption from suffering emanated not from the celestial realms but from the human realm. 5) How the culture dictated a more human centered spiritual path as opposed to a more theistically oriented spiritual path. 6) The oppressive presence of the law of Karma. 7) The inherent optimism of Gotama’s vision of enlightenment.
8 April, 2023

The Axial Age

1) The Buddha’s early life, the four visions and his decision to commit himself to the homeless life. 2) The Buddha’s true motivation for leaving his wife and child. 3) Understanding the Buddha’s life within the context of the Axial Age. 4) Characteristics of the Axial Age: the fall from grace in a time when men and Gods were as one. The struggle for resurrection and transcendence. 5) The causes of the Axial Age: the collapse of the great Bronze Age civilizations and the invasion of the nomadic Indo-European tribes of Central Asia. 6) The difference between pre-Axial religion and Axial Age religion. 7) The Buddha himself as an expression of the Axial ethos. 8) The role of Mara or our shadow self in hindering the path of the Buddha. 9) The significance of the Axial Age in rooting all the great religions of the world in one historical period and the common motivation and aspiration that drove their development and evolution. 10) The basis for understanding the common connection between all the great faith traditions of the world.
15 April, 2023

Life as a Young Monk

 1) The early stages of the Buddha’s going forth: the life of a bhikkhu. 2) The prevalent issue of the time: escaping from the endless round of rebirths or samsara. The role of craving. 3) The life of monks in sanghas of the day. 4) The prevailing doctrines of Brahman/Atman in the Advaita tradition and Purusa/Praktri in the Samkhya tradition. 5) Gotama’s training under Alara Kalama in the Samkhya tradition. Seeing the true Self or purusa through the veil of ignorance, or praktri: the power of the intellect. 6) The difficulty of “realizing” Alara Kalama’s teaching and Gotama’s introduction to meditation. 7) The power of yoga or meditation in taming our unruly, constantly distracted minds. The power of our unconscious impulses. 8) The importance of the “death of the ego” to realize the sacred in all the great Axial traditions. 9) The aspirations of Gotama in achieving a sense of unity with purusa or ultimate reality.
22 April, 2023

Siddhartha’s First Teacher

1. Gotama’s meeting with his first teacher, Alara Kalama. 2. The generally prevalent Hindu teachings of the time: Advaita Vedanta and Samkhya Vedanta. 3. The similarity between Samkhya and the idea of pure awareness in Buddhism. 4. The problem of realizing Purisha purely through one’s intellect….the difficulty of controlling one’s mind and the necessity for an alternative means of consciousness. The dangers of egotism. 5. The universal desire of the Axial sages to return to our original connection to the sacred…the return to Eden, or in Buddhist terms, the return to our original nature. 6. The importance of yoga or meditation as a means of attaining pure awareness. Establishing the basic foundation of morality and ethics….the five precepts. 7. Learning to control his body through asana or the still, motionless meditation posture. 8. Learning to control his breathing to calm and still the mind. 9. Learning the fundamental concentration practice or ekaggata. 10. The relevance of the Buddha’s training to our current practice: the five precepts and the Eightfold Noble Path, the development of our posture and breathing, the purpose of quieting our discursive thinking process.
29 April, 2023

The Introductory Disciplines

1). Gotama’s meeting with his first teacher Alara Kalama. 2). The introductory disciplines: The Five Precepts, the meditation posture, the control of the breath. 3). The teaching of one pointed concentration. The tendency to not see realittyas it is but through the lens of our subjective thoughts. 4). How medittion brings about a change of consciousness. 5). The jhanic meditation practices: the mundane and supra-mundane jhanas. 6). Why the Buddha could not accept his meditation experience as revealing the Absolute or Nibbana. 7). Buddha goes to Uddaka Ramaputta his second teacher to learn to attain the highest level of jhanic attainment, but is again disappointed. 8). The Buddha turns to asceticism to find Nibbana but only finds more suffering. 9). A testament to Gotama’s character in his radical sense of honesty, integrity, and persistence in his search for awakening.
6 May, 2023

Vision Under the Rose Apple Tree

1). The four chapters in the life of the Buddha: His early life, his period of training, the period of attaining enlightenment, and the period of his ministry. 2). The difference between the historical and scriptural versions of the Buddha’s life ane their importance in describing his enlightenment process. 3). The vision of Gotama as a child under the Rose Apple tree. 4). What happens to the brain during meditation. 5). The Buddha’s memory of his childhood experience and how it changed his attitude toward happiness and pleasure and the nature of Nibbana as something inherent in all of us….The Middle Way. 6). Gotama’s search for the means to cultivate meditative bliss…avoiding all mental states that impede enlightenment. 7). Cultivating the opposites of the five prohibitions: killing, lying, stealing, taking intoxicants, and sexual misconduct. 8). The cultivation of skillful action as the basis for the Noble Eightfold Path. 9). The taking of nutriment and leaving the ascetic life. 10). The Buddha’s questioning of the teachings of Vedanta and Samkhya of his time. The rejection of theism. 11). The ways in which Gotama developed what we know today as Mindfulness. His deepening understanding of the nature of suffering. 12). The pervasive nature of desire, craving, and hatred. 13). Understanding the Dharma in the context of Darwinian Natural Selection.
13 May, 2023

Crucial Insights that Laid the Basis for the Teachings

1). The four chapters or phases of the Budda’s life: a. his early life, b. his training, c. his going out on his own and achieving enlightenment, and d. his eventual ministry. 2). Gotama’s preparation in meditation and asceticism before setting out on his own path. 3). The importance of the third phase in setting the foundations for his eventual teachings. 4). Identifying the crucial insights in Gotama’s development that laid the basis for his later teachings. 5). The first insight: the liberation from suffering comes from one’s self and not through an external spiritual authority: the difference between theistic and non-theistic approaches to spirituality. The secular humanism of Buddhism. 6). The essential unity of purpose of all religions, both theistic and non-theistic: greed and the overcoming of the ego. 7). The rejection of hedonism and asceticism and the discovery of the “Middle Way.” 8). The development of mindfulness, 9). The significance and importance of mindfulness in freeing ourselves from suffering.
54 Minutes

Crucial Insights Part 2

 1. The seven insights of the Buddha that formed the basis of his teachings. 2. The fourth insight: How suffering runs through every aspect of our lives. 3. The fifth insight: the prevalence of greed and egotism as the central cause of suffering; 4. The sixth insight: the pervasive nature of impermanence; 5. The seventh insight: the importance of skillful actions or the practice of the Brahmaviharas.
54 Minutes

Journey to Bodh Gaya and Enlightenment

1). The four phases in the life of the Buddha; 2). The six major insights of the Buddha; 3). Using medittion to cultivate the skillful mindstates or the Brahmaviharas; 4). Gotama’s journey to Bodh Gaya where he attained his final enlightenment. 5). the Buddha’s realization of the Four Noble Truths; 6). the importance of the Noble Eightfold Path; 7). The Buddha’s statement on the intrinsic nature of reality as revealed in the fabric of the cosmos. 8). The nature of awakening as the realization of our re-connection with the fabric of nature and all sentient life on earth.
56 Minutes

Revelation of the Four Noble Truths

1). The four chapters in the life of the Buddha; 2). Gotama travels to Bodh Gaya for his final effort at enlightenment; 3). The Buddha’s revelation of the Four Noble Truths; 4). The Noble Eightfold Path as the method to attain Nibbana; 5). The difference between religion and spirituality; 6). Finding transcendance within our conventional lives; 7). Discovering the Four Noble Truths as emergent within ourselves. 8). Seeing the truth within the context of a deep samadhic state; 9). Two notions of self eradication during the Buddha’s time and the idea of the middle way or balance between conventional and absolute reality; 10). Finding peace and tranquillity in the midst of suffering. 11). Realizing and actualizing our connectedness to the fabric of the Cosmos.
10 June, 2023
50 Minutes

Mara and Psychological Struggle

 1) Gotama’s final attempt at awakening under the Bodhi Tree; 2) Understanding the historical vs. scriptual presentations of his chronology; 3) The internal psychological struggle of Gotama in the search for enlightenment; 4) The significance of the Buddha taking his place under the Bodhi tree, finding the Axis Mundi; 5) The appearance of Mara before Gotama;
6) The three visions of the Buddha; 7) Mara’s challenge to the Buddha; 8) The meaning of enlightenment in terms of our integration into the fabric of nature through the surrender of our self-centered ego;
9) The crucial decision to teach or to remain in seclusion; 10) The next steps in the Buddha’s dispensation; 11) Understanding the sense of moral engagement implicit in the attainment of Nibbana.

Buddha’s Enlightenment

1) The difference between the historical approach of Karen Armstrong and the more scholarly academic approach to the life of the Buddha; 2) The four chapters of the life of the Buddha; 3) Presentation of the scriptural version of the enlightenment of the Buddha; 4) The story of the minstel’s lute and Gotama’s awakening to the middle way; 5) Gotama sits under the Bodhi tree and begins his meditation; 6) Gotama’s attainment of the four jhanic states; 7) The first insight: the knowledge of past lives; 8) The second insight; knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of things; 9) The third insight: knowlege of the destruction of the taints, kilesas, suffering, the origin of suffering and the way to the end of suffering; the Four Noble Truths; 10) The appearance of Mara to challenge Gotama’s enlightenment; 11) The first insight: the middle way; 12) Revelation of the first watch: the concept of samsara; 13) Revelation of the second watch: how being pass away and arise due to their actions in life: the process of karma; 14) Revelation of the third watch: the seeing of suffering and the Four Noble Truths; 15) How the Buddha came to see the truth of suffering through his meditation; 16) Mara’s challenge to the Buddha and the development of mindfulness; 17) The Buddha demonstrates our connection to the earth and to the flow of nature. 

1 July 2023
63 Minutes

Buddha’s Decision to Teach

 1) The difference between the academic approach to the Buddha’s life and the historical approach of Karen Armstrong; 2) The four phases of the Buddha’s life; 3) The Buddha’s decision to teach; 4) The Buddha’s first attempt to teach; 5) The Buddha’s meeting with the five bikkhus; 6) The difference between direct knowledge and belief or faith; 7) The Four Noble Truths; 8) The teaching of Dependent Origination. 

8 July 2023

Buddha’s Rejection of Beliefs, Creeds, or Gods 

 1) The Buddha’s first attempt to teach; 2) The Buddha meets his former companions at the Deer Part at Isipatana; 3) The Buddha’s rejection of an external belief, creed, or God; 4) The importance of personal experience in achieving Nibbana; 5) The importance of personal accountability for the consequences of our actions; 6) Not holding on or clinging to concepts or beliefs; 7) How we get trapped in our egos; 8) Learning to see ourselves within the larger web of life; 9) The relevance of the Buddha’s teaching in today’s world. 

9 September, 2023
37 Minutes

Four Great Teachings

 1) The four great teachings of the Buddha: The Middle Way, The Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, and Non-self; 2) The essential teaching of Dependent Origination: the process of transmigration, how suffering arises, the role of karma, and how we create our personal realities; 3) The twelve steps of dependent origination; 4) The fundamental role of ignorance in perpetrating the chain of suffering; 5) the meaning of Sankhara or “karmic formation”; 6) the undoing of suffering through wisdom; 7) the power of karmic formations in our life; 8) the seven stages of spiritual development of Josha Bach; 9) Seeing the relationship between karma and spiritual awakening. 

09/30/2023
48 Minutes

The Revolutionary Aspect of the Buddha’s Teachings

1) The four essential teachings of the Buddha; 2) How the Buddha’s concept of anatta contradicted the prevailing spiritual views of the time…the revolutionary aspect of the Buddha’s teaching; 3) the teaching of the five aggregates: the prciess nature of existence and the absence of any fixed, immutable essence that can be called a self; 4) the ethical implications of the doctrine of anatta; 5) how knowledge of anatta frees one from suffering and opens the heart to compassion and love; 6) the advantages of a non-theistic vs theistic system of morality and ethics in terms of a non-egoistic form of behavior. 

7 October, 2023
46 Minutes

Heart Sutra and Quantum Physics

 1) Reflections on the emerging war in Israel. 2) The importance of the teaching of anatta or non-self in terms of its moral and ethical implications. 3) The five aggregates of clinging; 4) The original sutta on non-self; 5) Non-self as determined by the law of Karma; 6) The story of King Milinda ane the chariot;
7) The Heart Sutra and the meaning of emptiness; 8) The relationship between the Heart Sutra and quantum physics; 9) Josha Bach on how our conditioning creates our reality; 10) The three factors of non-self: Evolution, Composition, and Interconnectedness; 11) The moral and ethical implications of the teaching of anatta. 

14 October, 2023
67 Minutes

The Early Ministry

1) Summary of the Buddha’s life after the attainment of enlightenment; 2) The four great teachings of the Buddha to the five ascetics: The Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, and Non-self, or Anatta; 3) The Buddha’s first converts, Yasa and his father; 4) the value of a more historical presentation of the life of the Buddha; 5) How the Buddha was characterized during his ministry; 6) The nature of the sangha in the early years; 7). The Buddha’s meeting with 30 young men chasing a courtesan; 8) the Buddha’s visit with the Hindu ascetics at Uruvela; 9) the value of the Buddha’s teaching in this modern world of so much suffering. 

4 November, 2023

The Mind of a Buddha

1) Review of earlier chapters of the Buddha’s life; 2) The fact that not much is known about the personal life of the Buddha; 3) So, what is it like to be a Buddha? 4) Understanding the characteristics of an arahant; 5) Arahants are free from defilements, greed, hatred, and delusion; 6) Perfect wisdom, perfect compassion, perfect morality; 7) Minds that a unshakeable, calm, peaceful, and content; 8) Arahants are always mindful and compassionate; 9) The examples of Sariputtra, Mogallana, and Rahula; 10) Seeing the world as a mirror of our own minds as a way of understanding how our karma creates our personal reality; 11) Ways in which our minds can distort our perception of reality; 12) Changing our reality means changing our minds; 13) An arahant as one who is in the world but not of the world: the symbol of the lotus.

11 November, 2023
42 Minutes

The Fire Sermon

1) The Buddha’s actions after having attained enlightenment up to the formation of his sangha with his first 60 disciples; 2) The Buddha’s encounter with the Vedic monks at Uruvela; 3) His performance of psychic powers to the Brahmin yogis; 4) The Buddha preaches the Fire Sermon; 5) The actual sutra rendition of the Fire Sermon; 6) How we mistake pleasant feelings as the source of happiness in our lives; 7) the difference between desire as clinging and craving and desire as a positive motivation; 8) the global implications of our incessant individual pursuit of pleasure; 9) Learning how to find contentment in our lives. 

18 November, 2023
38 Minutes

Buddha’s Early Disciples

1) The early ministry of the Buddha; 2) The Buddha comes to Magadha and meets King Bimbisara; 3) The Buddha meets Sariputra and Mogallana, his two greatest disciples, for the first time; 4) The effect that Sariputra and Mogallana had on the development of Theravadin and Mahayana Buddhism. 5) The Buddha’s visit to his father in Kapilavattu; 6) The characteristics of the personalities of the Buddha and his disciples. 

25 November, 2023

The Contributions of the Disciples

1) The Buddha’s ministry up until the time he goes to Kapilavattu to meey his father Suddhodana; 2) His first meetings with Sariputra and Mogallana who were to become his two chief disciples; Ananda, who was to become his personal assistant; and Devadatta, who was to become his mortal enemy; 3) The story of Sariputra; 4) The story of Mogallana; 5) The impact of Sariputra and Mogallana on the historic development of Buddhism; 6) The story of Devadatta; 7) The implications of their lives for Buddhism today.

2 December,2023

The Sangha

1) The early career of the Buddha; 2) The Buddha’s meeting with Anathapindika the rich merchant from Savatti; 3) The development of “aramas” or parks to house the Buddha’s sangha in the cities of Rajagaha, Kapilavattu, and Savatti; 4) The origination of the tradition of the vassa or rains rereats; 5) The beginnings of a Buddhist communal life; 6) Learning to become more fully ourselves while becoming more compassionate, loving, and kind: the basis of the new monastic order.

9 December, 2023

Practice for Monks vs. the Laity

1) The evolving carreer of the Buddha, the establishment of the new Buddhist sangha order; 2) The difference between the esoteric and the exoteric in the evolving Buddhist sangha; 3) The difference in teaching and practice for monks and the laity; 4) The question of birth and re-birth; 5) The cultivation of the Immeasurables or the Brahmaviharas: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; 6) The difference between the meditation on the Brahmaviharas and Vipassana; 7) The implications of the teaching for lay people today. 

16 December, 2023
50 Minutes

Women in the Sangha

1) The beginnings of the Buddha’s ministry and the establishment of the monastic order; 2) The question of women in the Buddhist sangha; 3) The visit by Pahapati Gotami, the Buddha’s aunt, to join the sangha and Ananda’s entrieaties to the Buddha; 4) The Buddha’s eventual consent and the 8 rules for the bhikkhunis; 5) The Buddha’s misgivings about women in the sangha; 6) The position of women in Buddhism today; 7) The issue of sexual desire and attachment for men and women; 8) Bringing mindfulness to our most basic sexual desires so as not to cause suffering for ourselves and others; 9) The moral context within which the sexual act is performed: Love; 10) Coming to terms with our most basic unconscious drives: our biological imperative. 

23 December, 2023
30 Minutes

What it Means to be Enlightened

1) Review of the early establishment of the Buddhist monastic order; 2) the organization of the early Buddhist sangha; 3) the creation of the “patimokkha” or the common confession of faith; 4) the developing recognition and acceptance of the Buddhist order; 5) the natture of the Buddha’s personality; 6) understanding the personality of the Buddha by understanding the characteristics of arahants; 7) the world as a mirror of our own minds: the effect of karmic conditioning; 8) changing our relationship to our karma; 9) what it means to be enlightened. 

30 December, 2023

Schism in the Sangha

1) The Buddha begins to approach the later years of his life; 2) His relationship to King Pasenedhi; 3) The suffering of old age; 4) The rising schism in the Sangha, led by Devadatta, the Buddha’s brother-in-law; 5) The modern counterpart to the violence, egotism and suffering of the Buddha’s time; 6) The relevance of the Buddha’s message in this modern age of suffering. 7) Finding the relevance of the Buddha”s message within our own lifetimes. 8) What is the spiritual life within the Buddhist context?

January 13, 2024

Be An Island Unto Yourself

 1) The conditions of discord in society and within the Buddhist sangha in the Buddha’s later years; 2) The Buddha’s discouragement at the violence and conflict of the times; 3) The Buddha’s health begins to decline; 4) The question of succession arises; 5) The news of the deaths of Sariputra and Mogallana; 6) The Buddha teaches: be an island unto yourself; 7) The Buddha’s hint to Ananda of his possible immortality; 8) The Buddha consciously abandons the will to live; 9) The Buddha meets Cunda, the goldsmith and ingests his last meal; 10) The Buddha’s teaching of: be an island unto one’s self vs the idea that no man is an island. 11) The Buddha’s own sense of disappointment and despair at the social conditions of his time.

January 20, 2024

Parinibbana–the Final End of Suffering

1) The conditions surrounding the life of the Buddha in his last days; 2) What is meaning of parinibbana? 3) The Buddha’s last days as he approached Kusinara; 4) Ananda’s grief at the lost of his master; 5) The Buddha’s reasons for dying in Kusinara; 6) The Buddha’s final parinibbana ; 7) So what is parinibbana? What is that that runs through all things? The evolution of life on this planet. 8) The presence of evil on this planet. The anonymity of evil. 9) Understanding evil in the face of the truth of the Dharma.

January 27, 2024

Categories
Audio Dharma Talks

25 Beautiful Mind States

Within the Theravāda Abhidhamma tradition, there are fifty-two important factors which apprehend the quality of an object and have the ability to color the mind.  There is a category recognized as “beautiful” because they are mentally healthy, morally blameless, and result in pleasant consequences.
Confidence

1) Background of the teaching of the 25 Beautiful Mindstates in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. 2) The 52 mental factors 3) The meaning of confidence, the first of the beautiful mind states. 4) Two kinds of confidence: confidence in an external factor and confidence in ourselves. 5) The meaning of confidence in the Buddhist context: faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. 6) Confidence in our ability to do the practice and confidence in integrating the practice as a structure for how we live our lives. 7) Understanding the value that we embody in ourselves and for our community. 8) Confronting and overcoming obstacles in our lives. 9) Realizing better health for ourselves from a clear sense of moral and spiritual purpose. 10) Finding empowerment in our lives through the practice and the Dharma: being able to work directly with suffering and being able to understand how suffering arises.
7/23/2022

Mindfulness

1) Two definitions of Mindfulness 2) Varying descriptions of mindfulness: An alertness through the six sense doors; a heightened awareness of our internal and external environment; a sense of metacognition; the forces of automaticity and unconsciousness; the relation of mental health to physical health; the ability to discriminate between wholesome and unwholesome action; strengthening of our brains executive functions. 3) The basic premise of mindfulness: that we do not see the world as it actually is. The relationship between “bare awareness” and “associative thinking”. The subjective as opposed to objective nature of experience. Jeffrey Martin and our “narrative self”. 4) How does mindfulness work: Quieting the commenting judging mind. Attaining focused concentration, returning to a state of bare awareness or “pre-verbal” awareness; Seeing our experience clearly with a mind that is fully concentrated. 5) What is the result of mindfulness: Opening to the fullness of our experience through the five physical senses. Opening to the truth of our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. 6) Mindfulness and the concept of “flow”. 7) What are the benefits of mindfulness: liberation from suffering, the wisdom path. Achieving our fullest potential as human beings. Achieving a sense of presence in our lives. Seeing our interconnectedness with all other sentient beings. 8) The effect of mindfulness practice on the brain: the idea of neuroplasticity. The work of Richard Davidson. The work of Dan Siegal. 7) How mindfulness enhances our prefrontal cortex, the work of Dan Siegal. It increases our capacity for attuned communication, emotional balance, response flexibility, insight, empathy, fear modulation, intuition, and morality.
July 30, 2022

Shame and Fear of Committing Harm

1) The definition of shame and fear of harming: protectors of the world. 2) Two fundamental ideas as the foundation of the Dharma: the Law of Karma and the Principle of Ahimsa. 3) Understand shame and fear as guardians of the world by how they prevent us from performing harmful and unwholesome actions. 4) How the idea of non-self explains our interconnectedness with all other beings. 5) The nature of moral shame. 6) The nature of moral fear or dread. 7) The capacity to change our behavior. 8) The difference between consciousness and unconsciousness in Buddhist thought.
August 6, 2022

Non-Greed and Non-Hatred

) Alobha or goodwill or non-greed and Adosa or non-hatred. 2) Defining greed as excessively strong desire, reprehensible or evil. A greed that leads to craving and clinging. 3) Differentiating between wholesome and unwholesome desires: the moral and ethical implications of our pursuit of desire. 4) The difference between a need and a want: learning how to find contentment in our lives and avoid the obsessive pursuit of pleasure. 5) Overcoming the power of expectations, a more subtle form of greed. 6) What does greed feel like in the body? What does non-greed feel like in the body? 7) How to work with greed with mindfulness, acceptance and understanding. 8) What is adosa or non-hatred? First, defining hatred: an intense hostility or aversion resulting from fear of injury. 9) The meaning of adosa: a complete acceptance of one’s self and others: a state of trust, openness and acceptance…a sense of unity with all other beings, similar to what a child feels as it enters the world and how a sense of separate self develops through conditioning. 10) Understanding the mind of a child as an expression of Buddha Nature. Adosa is fundamentally a feeling of our Buddha Nature. 11) Bringing the quality of awakening to our Buddha Nature into our lives.
August 13, 2022

Composure and Buoyancy of Mind

1) Brief review of previous mindstates: confidence, mindfulness, shame and fear of harm, non-greed and non-hatred. 2) The qualities of the mind: composure, buoyancy, pliancy, efficiency, proficiency. The difference between composure and buoyancy, and pliancy, efficiency and proficiency. 3) Composure of mind: examples of an agitated, restless mind. 4) Attaining a sense of composure and peace through tranquility or concentration practice: the jhanic practices. 5) Understanding tranquility and peace as an elemental form of happiness. 6) Richard Davidson and his research on Gamma waves in meditators. The impact of meditation on producing gamma waves. 7) Buoyancy of mind: a lightness of mind and body and a sense of vividness and intensity, sleepiness and drowsiness. 8) The role of mental composure and buoyancy, not only as a measure of mental health, but also as a measure of intelligence. 9) How our mental health can impact our physical health.
August 20, 2022

Pliancy and Efficiency of the Mind

1) What is a healthy mind? A mind that is pliant, efficient, and proficient that results from meditation. 2) Pliancy: a form of cognitive flexibility, an elasticity of mental factors and consciousness. 3) Appreciating the usefulness of habits but not getting stuck in them. The importance of flexibility and adaptability to the survival of the human species. 4) Pliancy as the quality of fluidity of mind. 5) Learning how to be flexible and adaptive in unfamiliar circumstances like traveling or the recent pandemic. 6) Understanding flexible thinking as the key to creativity…the role of intuition or cognitive flexibility. 7) Rigidity as a foundation for mental disorders and suffering. 8) How does meditation encounter resistance and rigidity? The power of noting. 9) Efficiency of the mind : where the mind and body work effectively without struggle or effort…the effective operation of any system to produce an outcome with minimal effort and minimal waste. 10) The effect of meditation on young students and in improving intelligence…. understanding fluid intelligence. 11) Maximizing fluid intelligence as we age through meditation.
August 27th, 2022

Proficiency of Mind

1) The sequential and cumulative nature of the mindstates as they evolve through successive stages as a result of meditation. 2) Review of pliancy of mind: a sense of cognitive flexibility. 3) Review of efficiency of mind: a mind and body working together with minimal effort and minimal waste. 4) Proficiency of mind: the ability to integrate our mental and physical capabilities to bring a sense of skill and mastery to our lives. 5) Mental proficiency and the sense of being in a state of flow. 6) Having a proficient mind and the definition of intelligence. 7) The power of meditation in helping us understand how our minds actually work and overcome mental blockages. 8) The effect of the meditation practice in building awareness of the body and the mind.
September 3, 2022

Rectitude of Mind

1) The characteristics of the five states of Composure, Buoyancy, Pliancy, Efficiency and Proficiency of mind. 2) The difference between Rectitude of Mind and Pliancy, Efficiency, and Proficiency. 3) Rectitude of Mind: bringing our life into consonance with a vision that embodies our values in life. A sense of straightness and moral correctness. 4) By what standard is moral correctness defined? Within the social, cultural or religious context that one finds one’s self. 5) What is the Buddhist standard for moral correctness? The concept of ahimsa and the law of karma. 6) The moral and ethical dimension of the Dharma that is revealed in a state of pure awareness: the state of pure mindfulness. 7) Seeing our true reality and our common humanity with all other beings…coming to a new understanding of self and other and a new system of morality and ethics based on ahimsa and the law of karma. 8) Learning how to be selfless in our lives: moving toward selfless action as a lifetime practice. 9) The difference between the definition of rectitude within the Buddhist context as compared to rectitude as defined within most other social, political, cultural, or religious systems.
September 10, 2022

Right Speech

1) Brief review of the 25 Beautiful Mindstates. 2) Speech, action, and livelihood: the three abstinences based on the principles of ahimsa and karma. 3) The three forms of wrong speech: false speech or tale bearing, harsh and malicious speech, and vain speech or idle chatter. 4) The reason people tell lies. Small and big lies and their karmic consequences. 5) Understanding how to bring mindfulness into our everyday lives through right speech. 6) Malicious speech: speech that causes disharmony or hatred. 7) The problem of bullying and abusive speech in society. The reasons for abusive speech: stress, low self-esteem, low access to education, and peer pressure. 8) Understanding harsh speech. Learning how to live with conflict in our lives. The five conditions for right speech: the right time, is it factual, is it gentle or harsh, is it helpful, and is it kind. 9) Learning how to catch ourselves with mindfulness before uttering harsh words.
17 September, 2022

Right Speech Part 2

1) What it means to evolve spiritually. 2) The difference between traditional spiritual characteristics and the development of our physical mental health. 3) The five “neurobiological” qualities: pliancy of mind, buoyancy of mind, and pliancy, efficiency, and proficiency of mind. 4) The result of the development of these mental qualities in terms of how we actually live our life through speech, action, and livelihood. 5) The reason for the pre-eminent importance of right speech: because it is a direct reflection of our thoughts, and leads to actions that have consequences in the world. 6) Harsh speech: living up to the high standards of the Buddha. How to resolve conflict without suffering. 7) The five conditions for appropriate speech: the right time, based on facts, is my speech gentle or harsh, are my words helpful, are my words kind. 8) How to avoid automatic and unconscious reactions to our emotions. 9) Vain speech or idle chatter: how to speak appropriately in conventional social situations. Learning to manage gossip in our lives. 10) Understanding sila as the training in the abstinences…seeing our life as a training to attain spiritual purity in our lives. 11) Seeing the world with wisdom or seeing the world through our conditioning.
24 September, 2022

Right Action

1) Review of the 25 Beautiful Mindstates. 2) How thoughts, become speech, become actions that harden into habits and character: how the process of conditioning creates who we are. 3) Right action as articulated in the Five Precepts. To refrain from killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, and the taking of substnaces that cloud the mind. 4) the importance of contentment as a preventative to killing, stealing or lying. 5) What is right action: overcoming our inherent conditioning and habit patterns, overcoming automaticity and unconsciousness. 6) The power of mindfulness in showing how unconscious habit patterns can cause suffering… seeing the power of intentions. 7) Understanding intention as a link to our sense of personal agency and responsibility. 8) Learning how to practice right action in a world of greed, hatred, and delusion.
October 8, 2022

Right Action Part 2

1) The definition of right action: The Five Precepts. 2) Description of the three major precepts, not killing, not stealing and sexual misconduct. 3) The importance of acceptance and contentment in one’s life. 4) The definition of right action as positive, wholesome, morally ethical action. 5) Right action as a natural manifestation of wisdom or the knowledge of meditation and the Dharma. 6) Right action as an expression of sila, morality and living harmoniously with all other beings. 7) Right action as a manifestation of mindfulness: the five mindfulness teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. 8) Right action as a manifestation of compassion: the words of the Dalai Lama. 9) The radical nature of the Buddha’s teaching in erasing the barrier between self and other. 10) Defining right action within the context of our understanding of spirituality. 11) How we understand “spirituality” in contrast to what the Buddha teaches about spirituality as a moral and ethical teaching about who we are and how we behave in the world.
15 October, 2022

Right Livelihood

1) Brief review of 25 Mindstates. 2) The definition of Right Livelihood: living a balanced life. 3) Wrong livelihood: business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, business in poisons. 4) Understanding right livelihood as a vehicle for self actualization. Work that supports justice, equality, and ecological sustainability. Right livelihood as an expression of one’s sacred purpose in life. 5) Learning how to be compassionate in the workplace. 6) Finding meaning in work by separating productivity from income. Finding value in all forms of productive labor. 7) The Buddha’s teaching of earning and living and wealth: persistence, protection of one’s wealth, keeping good company, and balanced living. 8) How to manage wealth: remaining happy in one’s accomplishments; protecting one’s wealth; being generous in donating and supporting others. 9) Three forms of happiness: the happiness of accumulating wealth; the happiness of using one’s wealth in a meritorious fashion; the happiness of blamelessness or right action in building wealth. 10) How to cultivate right livelihood: right mindfulness; not clinging to self or me and mine; avoiding harm to one’s self and others; being blameless in thought and action. 11) The fundamental principles of ahimsa and the law of karma.
Oct. 22, 2022

Right Livelihood Part 2

1) The development of the mind states that lead to right speech, action, and livelihood. 2) The definition of right livelihood and wrong livelihood. 3) Developing an attitude of contentment or happiness with what one already has. 4) The great suffering in the world caused by our need to kill animals to eat. The consequences of our industrialized mass slaughter of animals for food. 5) Experiencing the consequences of eating an animal. 6) Finding peace and contentment through right livelihood. 7) Understanding the consequences of greed, hatred, and delusion for ourselves, our society, and our planet.
October 29, 2022

Right Livelihood Part 3

1) Speech, action, and livelihood, mental factors that result from the cultivation of the mind through meditation: a cumulative development from mental cultivation to how we behave in the world. 2) Finding a livelihood that connects how we behave with our spiritual evolution and how this is challenged by culture and changes in modern society. 3) The role of culture in defining our attitude to achievement in work: whether we emphasize highly individualistic and competitive values or more family or group oriented values. 4) Changes in contemporary American society: the fall in the American labor participation rate for young males, the decline of the role of men as primary breadwinners, and the social and political consequences. 5) Right livelihood as seen with the Judeo Christianic context. 6) Right livelihood in the Buddhist context as the arena where Absolute and Conventional Reality converge. 7) Understanding the crisis of identity and alienation in our population as a result of larger global trends and the consequences of these trends for our society.

5 November, 2022

Compassion

1) Review of factors leading up to compassion: the flowering of the heart that arises out of right speech, action, and livelihood: the Wisdom Path. 2) The definition of compassion: the heart that trembles in the face of suffering. 3) The personal and social benefits of compassion. 4) Why it is difficult to practice compassion: the impact of aversion. 5) Two personal stories about compassion. 6) Understanding compassion not as a concept but as a practice in our lives. 7) Understanding the equivalence between seeing suffering in others and seeing suffering in ourselves: understanding the Four Noble Truths. 8) The foundation for understanding our common humanity: the idea of non-self, our interconnection with all other beings, and how compassion is the expression of our bond.

November 12, 2022

Compassion Part 2

1) Understanding compassion as a practice. 2) Understanding the equivalence of compassion for others and compassion for ourselves. 3) How we fail to acknowledge our own suffering and in doing so fail to understand the teaching of the Four Noble Truths. 4) The far enemies of compassion: cruelty, emotional reactivity, demonizing others, and hostility. 5) The near enemies of compassion: complacency, seeing everyone as the same, and pity. 6) The role of mindfulness: the first component of compassion, the awareness of present moment experience. 7) How compassion facilitates self awareness of our own suffering.

November 19, 2022

Sympathetic Joy

1) Mudita: a pure joy in the well being of others, a joy unadulterated by any form of self interest. 2) The far enemy is envy or jealousy. 3) Rejoicing in the good deeds of others and sharing in the merit of those good deeds: the concept of spiritual merit. 4) The fundamental basis for mudita is our understanding of our basic interconnectedness in our human journey. 5) Trying to understand how it feels to feel jealousy or envy in the body and how it feels to feel joy in the happiness of others. 6) Understanding the role of conditioning in our lives in influencing our ability to feel compassion, love, and sympathetic joy. 7) Being able to feel joy for others depends on our ability to feel joy within ourselves. 8) Mudita as a form of generosity of spirit. 9) Why is it so difficult to feel happiness for the good fortune of others? 10) How to cultivate joy in our lives. Learning to appreciate our own qualities and find joy in our actions of kindness and empathy. Understanding the importance of gratitude and appreciation as a source of joy. 11) The relationship between sympathetic joy and lovingkindness and compassion. 12) Mudita as a form of concentration meditation. 13) Finding joy in our own lives as a foundation for finding joy in others. 14) Understanding the bliss that comes from direct contact with existence.

December 10, 2022

Metta or Lovingkindness

1) Definition of Metta: a sincere wish for the well being of others without any sense of self interest. 2) The Karaniya Metta Sutta: Buddha’s original statement on Lovingkindness. 3) The three parts of the Metta Sutta: the application of Metta in daily life, the cultivation of Metta through meditation, and the expression of Metta through all our human activities. 4) The concept of spiritual merit and how Metta brings our merit to fruition in our lives. 5) How Metta influences our behavior in terms of our psychology. 6) How, by loving others, we free ourselves of negative, hateful emotions. How spiritual “cleansing” allows us to truly love others and by loving others, we benefit ourselves. 7) The near and far enemies of Metta. 8) The methods of meditating on Metta: Radiating Metta to people and radiating metta to places. 9) The blessings that Metta bestows upon us. 10)The disparity between the Buddha’s teachings and the conditions in today’s modern world.

December 24, 2022

Equanimity

1) Definition of equanimity. 2) The six forms of equanimity according to the six sense doors. 3) The role of conditioning in biasing how we respond to our experience and the role of equanimity in freeing us from our conditioning. 4) The difference between the equanimity of a householder and a renunciant or monk. 5) Equanimity as an enlightenment factor. 6) The five factors that lead to equanimity. 7) Equanimity about formations: equanimity through the understanding of dukkha, anicca, and anatta. 8) Understanding how karma operates in an impersonal way and, therefore, why there is no “self” responding to our experience.

December 31, 2022

Equanimity Part 2

1) Brief review of the 25 Beautiful Mindstates. 2) What means to afhieve equanimity in our lives. 3) Equanimity as a culmination of the concentration practices and the journey through the sixteen stages of awakening. 4) Equanimity as the culmination of the four Brahmaviharas. 5) Equanimity as a state that embraces all phenomena and is free from bias or prejudice and operates through all our six sense doors. 6) The importance of conditioning on how we perceive reality and how we define our self. The distinction between the arahant and the householder. 7) Equanimity based on the knowledge of impermanence and suffering. 8) Equanimity as one of the Seven Factors of Awakening. 9) The nine insight knowledges leading to the experiential understanding of impermanance, suffering and non-self. Understanding the impersonality of karma and the absence of self. 10) Understanding the implications of non-self and the possibility for peace in this world.

January 14, 2023

Equanimity Part 3

1) Why equanimity is the culmination of the four brahmaviharas: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. 2) Why equanimity represents the epitome of spiritual wisdom: understanding the concepts of karma and non-self. 3) Understanding sankaras: what is a karmic formation? What is the role of conditioning. 4) If all our behavior is based on our conditioning, who is the agent of our actions? What is the pathway to freedom? 5) How our life depends not on what happens to us but on how we respond to our experience. 6) Understanding the impersonal nature of the karmic forces controlling us and the absence of a permanent “self”. Final liberation as the liberation from karma. 7) How ignorance drives us from lifetime to lifetime. 8) How we can see suffering as our friend and our teacher. 9)The wages of suffering in the world today.

21 January, 2023

Equanimity Part 4

1) Equanimity as the resolution of the question of karma and anatta or non-self. 2) The nature of sankhara or karmic formation as a process of cause and effect beginning with our thoughts and rippling out into the world. 3) So what are our thoughts? Thoughts are responses to our experience based on our conditioning. 4) But all of the conditioning influences in our life are impersonal. So, where is the “self” in terms of what we think and how we respond to our experience…that is the definition of “non-self”. 5) The illusion of self in terms of how we think that what we think is who we are. 6) But, if I am only my thoughts and my body which is non-self, who am I? 7) Who I am is the capacity for pure conscious awareness itself. That is the difference between pure conscious awareness and thinking? 8) Pure conscious awareness as basically mindfulness. 9) Prapanca, or the tendency to proliferate our thoughts around our experience. 10) What is the difference between thoughts and emotions? How are human beings different from animals? 11) How do we see the difference between thoughts and emotions, and what does it mean for awakening? 12) The role and purpose of meditation. 13) Understanding equanimity as the true gateway to final awakening.

28 January, 2023

Equanimity Part 5

1) Equanimity as the peace that comes from wisdom and understanding. 2) Understanding the relationship between absolute and conventional reality in our lives. 3 ) Understanding the process of karma, how it conditions how we respond to our experience, how we think, and our tendency to identify with our thoughts as our self….the illusion of self. 4) If there is no self, then who are we?….the capacity for pure conscious awareness. 5) Seeing experience clearly and seeing how the mind proliferates around our experience…how we suffer. 6) Equanimity as a feeling…neither pleasant nor unpleasant. How mindfulness helps us from being caught up in the cycle of desire and aversion. 7) How not to get attached to equanimity. 8) Equanimity as the culmination of the four jhanic stages. 9) The knowledge of the Buddha: the knowledge of the recollection of past lives, the knowledge of the arising and passing of all things, the end of greed, hatred, and delusion. 10 The mutual interaction between mindfulness and equanimity leading to final awakening.

February 11, 2023

Wisdom

1) The definition of wisdom: the ability to exercise judgment and good sense. The difference between wisdom and intelligence. 2) Wisdom in the Buddhist context: the ability to see the consequences of our actions and act accordingly. 3) The difference between the experiential realization of the teachings as distinguished from the theoretical knowledge of the teachings. 4) The three stages of wisdom: 1. theory, learning the doctrine; 2. reflection, assimilating the teaching; and 3. realization, personally experiencing the teaching through meditation. 5) How mindfulness links all these three stages together. 6) How mindfulness works to see thoughts as thoughts, dis-identify with our discursive thinking and see the karmic framework in which our thoughts occur. 7) Seeing craving, aversion, ignorance. Seeing our suffering and opening to the desire for liberation.

18 February, 2023

Wisdom Part 2

1) Review of the 25 Beautiful Mindstates. 2) The difference between intelligence and wisdom and the three stages of attaining wisdom. 3) What is the opposite of wisdom…ignorance. 4) The lack of conscience or concern for the moral and ethical implications of our actions. 5) The karmic chain of wrong view, wrong intention, wrong action, and wrong livelihood leading to wrong effort and mindfulness…the path to suffering. 6) Wisdom as the culmination of the Eightfold Noble Path and the Four Noble Truths. 7) The eight path factors: the wisdom factors, the virtue factors, and the concentration factors. 8) Right view as a mind initially lacking understanding and wisdom leading to a mind that can acknowledge suffering in our lives. 9) Right view as the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. 10) The process of recognizing and overcoming wrong view in our lives. 11) What is the source of wrong view? How does it drive our lives and keep us in ignorance?

25 February, 2023

Wisdom Part 3

1) Right view as the embodiment of the Four Noble Truths. 2) Right intention is the intention to abandon all wrong views, clinging and craving, and all that leads to suffering in the world. 3) The symbiotic relationship between right view and right intention. 4) A sharing of the fundamental concepts of the Dharma in a common sense sort of way. 5) The power of karma as a process of cause and effect and as an energy that moves through our lives. 6) The power of thoughts: how karma manifests in our mind as our thoughts and how these thoughts create a filter through which we view reality. 7) How our identification with our thoughts create a false sense of self. 8) The power of awareness to cut through the veil of illusion and that touches to the very nature of experience itself. 10) The Scylla and Charybdis of pleasure and pain. 11) The balance between our lives in the conventional world and our connection with the absolute in the world. 12) Summary of the major concepts of the teaching.

March 4, 2023

Categories
Audio Dharma Talks

Four Foundations of Mindfulness

The fundamental framework for the practice of mindfulness meditation.
Introduction

1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta: the Foundations of Mindfulness; 2) Reading of the introduction to the Maha Satipatthana Sutta; 3) Appreciating the simplicity of mindfulness meditation; 4) Different views on the role of mindfulness; 5) Review of essential terms in the Maha Satipattana Sutta.

May 16, 2015

Definition of Important Terms

1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Definition of “satipattana”: two ways of interpreting the process of meditation; 3) Understanding the concept of “dukkha” or suffering; 4) Understanding the quality of spiritual ardency.

Topics Include: 1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Definition of “satipattana”: two ways of interpreting the process of meditation; 3) Understanding the concept of “dukkha” or suffering; 4) Understanding the quality of spiritual ardency.

Topics Include: 1) Introduction to the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Definition of “satipattana”: two ways of interpreting the process of meditation; 3) Understanding the concept of “dukkha” or suffering; 4) Understanding the quality of spiritual ardency.

May 23, 2015

Importance of Spiritual Urgency

1) Review of the Four Foundations; 2) Strengthening and developing the quality of ardency and spiritual urgency; 3) Understanding the importance of our mind; 4) The rarity of connecting with the Dharma and the opportunity to practice; 5) Understanding the transient nature of phenomena.

May 30, 2015

Understanding Impermance and Change

1) What are the factors that stimulate a sense of spiritual urgency? 2) Understanding impermanence as a basis for spiritual urgency, 3) Experiencing joy and fullness as a result of knowing impermanence, 4) Understanding transiency in our life process. 5) Understanding the importance of actions and their consequences.

June 6, 2015

Clear Comprehension and Reflections on Mindfulness

1) Understanding clear comprehension or clear knowing; 2) Understanding the importance of mindfulness in the overall context of the Dharma; 3) Mindfulness and the quality of memory or wholesome reflections on the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha; 4) Discerning progress in our practice through subtle changes in our behavior; 5) Reflecting on the quality of our morality and ethical behavior; 6) Reflecting on our positive virtues as a true expression of our true moral selves.

June 13, 2015

Mindfulness and Bare Attention

1) Review of definitions of sati or mindfulness; 2) Understanding mindfulness as presence of mind or present moment awareness; 3) Understanding bare attention through the writings of Nyanaponika Thera.

June 20, 2015

Review of Concept of Mindfulness

1) A brief history of mindfulness meditation and the Maha Satipattana Sutta; 2) Mindfulness as remembrance: a) Reflections on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; b) How mindfulness can change our lives; c) Reflections on one’s inherent goodness; 3) Mindfulness as presence of mind or present moment awareness; 4) Mindfulness as a guardian of the sense doors; 5) Two kinds of mindfulness; 6) Prompted and unprompted mindfulness; 7) Innate mindfulness or the innate nature of mind.

July 11, 2015

Finding Joy in Meditation

1) The qualities that a spiritual seeker brings to the path; 2) Understanding freedom from covetousness and grief in the world; 3) Understanding samadhi as freedom from afflictive emotions; 4) The concept of “embodied presence” and the importance of relaxation; 5) Samadhi as the art of “refined enjoyment”: the joy of the present moment; 6) Morality and ethics as the foundation of the practice; 7) The importance of happiness and joy in the practice.

July 18, 2015

Developing Samadhi

1) Preliminary steps in developing concentration; 2) Focusing on a single object or multiple objects; 3) Understanding the transformation in the temporal and sensory realms in concentration.

July 25, 2015

Tools for Deepening Samadhi

1) Understanding the significance of the power of mental concentration in samadhi; 2) Feeling the aesthetic beauty of the present moment; 3) Understanding the power of intentions and the concept of nama and rupa, mind and body; 4) Developing the power of stillness and noting; 5) Finding our essential beauty and goodness.

August 1, 2015

Understanding Nibbana

1) Understanding the importance of samadhi in a mind free of covetousness and grief; 2) Review of the tools for attaining samadhi; 3) Seeing the beauty of who we are within ourselves; 4) Understanding philosophies of immanence versus transcendence; 5) Is Nibbana a place or a state of mind; 6) Understanding mindfulness as a basis for intelligence.

August 8, 2015

Understanding the Difference Between Conceptual and Experiential Knowledge

1) Removing covetousness and grief in the world: the state of samadhi or concentration; 2) The magic of the samadhi experience; 3) Samadhi and the difference between conceptual and experiential knowledge.

August 15, 2015

Understanding Self and Other

1) Interpreting the refrain: One abides contemplating the body, feelings and mind, internally and externally. 2) Awareness of others and the quality of metta or lovingkindness; 3) Right speech and lovingkindness; 4) Self and other and the concept of anatta or non-self.

August 15, 2015

Impermanence and Nonself

1) The importance of the concept of impermanence; 2) The relationship between impermanence and non-self; 3) The arousal of disenchantment and dispassion; 4) Seeing the deeper nature of reality within the context of our conventional daily existence; 5) A personal experience of impermanence.

August 22, 2015

Impermanence and Spiritual Liberation

1) The connection between understanding impermanence and spiritual liberation; 2) Appreciating the pervasiveness of impermanence; 3) The illusion of continuity and the illusion of compactness; 4) Understanding impermanence within the context of the stages of awakening in Buddhism.

August 29, 2015

Impermanence and the Sixteen Stages of Awakening

1) Defining the conceptual pathway to spiritual awakening in the Theravadin Sixteen Stages of Awakening and its connection to the concept of impermanence; 2) Description of the Sixteen Stages of Awakening; 3) Seeing the parallels between the Buddhist journey of awakening and the process of spiritual evolution in post World War II Europe.

September 5, 2015

Content and Process in Meditation and the Law of Impermanence

1) Modern socio-cultural examples of the psychological effects of the sixteen stages; 2) Understanding content and process in meditation; 3) Working with the content of our experience: the psychotherapeutic application of mindfulness; 4) Two ways of working with content in our experience: working with emotions directly and understanding the karmic conditions of our emotions; 5) Understanding explicit and implicit memory and the relationship to mindfulness.

September 12, 2015

Four Levels of Awakening and the Ten Fetters

1) The four levels of awakening: stream entry, once returner, non returner and arahant; 2) Spiritual transformation through the four levels of awakening and the eradication of the ten fetters: doubt, avariciousness; belief in rites and rituals; envy and jealousy; false views; sensual desire; ill will and anger; pride and conceit; ignorance; the desire for existence.

September 19, 2015

Lay Perspectives on the Enlightenment Process

1) Understanding the process of enlightenment as a framework for organizing our own practice and spiritual path: 2) Defining stream entry for a lay practitioner; 3) Cultivating the desire for consciousness; 4) Summary of modern psychoanalytical approaches and their relationship to the concept of karma.

September 26, 2015

Understanding Stream Entry from a Lay Perspective

1) Understanding enlightenment as a framework to understand our own practice as lay people, 2) Understanding the importance of stream entry in the overall process of spiritual awakening, 3) The qualities of a stream enterer and their relevance to lay people, 4) Embodying the spiritual virtues at the time of death, 5) Seeing awakening as a process and not as an achievement.

October 3, 2015

Bare Knowing and Continuous Mindfulness

1) Understanding bare awareness; 2) Feeling the joy of momentary awareness; 3) Understanding continuous mindfulness.

October 17, 2015

The Separation of the Knowing from the Known

1) Review of the basic concept of bare awareness and continual mindfulness; 2) Understanding the separation between knowing and the known; 3) Knowing the relation between the arising of the object and the knowing of the object as nama rupa; 4) The place of nama rupa within the context of the enlightenment process, 5) Understanding the nature of the knowing process; 6) Cultivating the development of pure awareness.

October 24, 2015

Perception, Language, and Cognition

1) Two basic ideas in mindfulness meditation; 2) Is there a God or not? What is sacred and what is secular? 3) Submission to the truth of reality; 4) The process of perception; 5) The value of concepts in spiritual awakening.

October 31, 2015

The Process of Noting in Meditation

1) Understanding perception within the context of abstract symbolic systems such as language. 2) Understanding reality in relation to abstract conceptual systems. 3) Appreciating language as a positive vehicle for awakening as exemplified by noting or mental labeling. 4) The functions of noting in the meditative practice. 5) The different role of noting in concentration practice and in mindfulness practice. 6) Experiencing joy and equanimity in the moment of embodied loving presence.

November 7, 2015

Perception and Noting, Concept and Reality

1) The importance of stopping all agenda based activities in the meditation process. 2) The nature of the feeling state in deep meditation. 3) The sense of context that is created in deep concentration. 4) The integration of understanding and affect in deep concentration. 5) Practicing mindfulness in our daily lives.

November 14, 2015

Importance of Sustained Focused Awareness in Meditation

1) The concepts of vitakka and vicara: grabbing and holding. 2) The importance of sustained focused awareness or our general ability to pay attention. 3) The dynamics of focusing on the breath as the object of concentration. 4) The co-relationship between the development of insight awareness and the development of the jhanic states. 5) Sustained focused awareness as the engine for the mindfulness process. 6) Applying the lessons of meditation to our everyday daily lives.

November 21, 2015

Understanding Gratitude in Terms of the Truth, Beauty, and Joy of our Everyday Lives

1) Contemporary events and their relationship to the concept of gratitude and spiritual awakening. 2) Understanding awakening in terms of truth, beauty, joy, and gratitude. 3) Understanding the constituent elements: concentration practice and the jhanic states. 4) Mindfulness practice: The sixteen stages of insight awareness. 5) Understanding the integration between the unfolding of awareness and jhanic bliss. 6) Integrating the sense of aesthetic beauty in present moment reality. 7) Experiencing the joy of simply being alive. 8) Understanding the transmutability of energy and matter and it’s implications for our human life. 9) Understanding Sat chit ananda.

November 28, 2015

Finding the Balance of Mind and Heart in the Spiritual Journey

1) Coming to find the meaning of our lives through the spiritual practice and an abiding sense of gratitude. 2) Finding the relationship between the heart and the mind through the concentration and the insight practice. 3) Finding balance in the continuous flow of mindfulness through the five faculties: faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. 4) Developing continuity of effort in the practice. 5) The benefits and pitfalls of noting in the practice.

December 5, 2015

Understanding Craving and Clinging

1) Understanding the fundamental importance of non clinging: the Second Noble Truth. 2) Three major areas of clinging in our lives. 3) Understanding the difference between craving and wholesome aspiration. 4) The relationship between craving and the illusion of self. 5) Gratitude, joy and awareness as antidotes to craving. 6) Understanding craving through Dependent Origination. 7) Breaking the chain of craving and attachment.

December 12, 2015

Craving and Clinging in a World of Conditioned and Unconditioned Reality

1) Reflections on the larger context within which clinging and craving arise. 2) Understanding why we do not see the world as it actually is. 3) Learning how to relate to the world of illusion. 4) From formlessness to form, from the unconditioned to the conditioned. 5) The original formation of matter from energy and the compounded nature of matter. 6) The evolution of mind and consciousness as the culmination of evolution. 7) The evanescent flicker of life in the flow of evolution. 8) The collateral existence of the unconditioned within our conditioned lives. 9) Coming to gratitude and joy within the brief time that we have. 10) Understanding clinging and craving within the context of our larger human reality.

December 19, 2015

Craving and Clinging in Our Daily Lives

1) Craving as “thirst” or embodied desire, seeing the difference between craving and wholesome aspiration. 2) Contemporary manifestations of desire in culture and society. 3) The three types of craving: the craving for sense pleasures; the craving for existence; the craving for non-existence. 4) The foundation of craving as the sense of self, within the context of unconditioned reality.

December 26, 2015

Reflections on Buddha Nature and the Craving for Sensual Pleasures

1) Reflections on the previous weeks guided meditation on the setting of intentions for 2016 and the concept of “Buddha Nature”. 2) Review of the concept of craving: the three forms of craving. 3) Forms of consumption as expressions of self or social status. 4) Understanding the quality of our mind in our actions. 5) The eight worldly dharmas. 6) Overcoming craving and desire with the power of mindfulness. Questions and Answers

January 9, 2016

Craving for Continued Existence

1) Understanding the thirst for life. 2) The process of becoming. 3) The problem of expectations: the cycle of hope and fear. 4) Understanding the difference between clinging and wanting and wholesome aspirations. 5) Holding the future self and the fear of death. 6) Confronting the delusion of self. 7) What is it that dies at the moment of death. 8) Find the balance between aspirations and present moment reality. Questions and Answers

January 16, 2016

The Craving for Existence–Dependent Origination and Absolute Reality

1) Understanding life and death through the teaching of dependent origination and absolute and conventional reality: dependent origination and idea of becoming. 2) Understanding becoming within the context of absolute and conventional reality. 3) Understanding the constituents of the mind and the illusion of time, space, and karma. 4) Appreciating the value of our illusory life and the true potential of the mind.

January 23, 2016

The Craving for Non-Existence: Self and Non-Self

1) Review of the three forms of craving. 2) Understanding the concept of self in the Buddhist teaching. 3) Seeing Self as a form of mirage. 4) What dies when we die? 5) The existential consequence of seeing the truth of ourselves. 6) Seeing the taking of one’s own life as act of delusion. 7) Understanding craving as a form of identification that leads to suffering. 8) Questions and Answers

January 30, 2016

The Dream of Self

1) Review of craving and attachment: the Second Noble Truth. 2) The concept of anatta or non-self and conventional and ultimate reality. 3) Understanding the reality of life and death in light of the truth of who we really are in terms of self. 4) The teaching of Don Miguel Ruiz and the Four Agreements. 5) The concept of the dream of self and ultimate reality. 6) The concept of the dream and life and death. 7) Understanding the Four Agreements. 8) Coming to terms with our lives as dreams in an affirmative way.

February 6, 2016

The Cosmic Dance of Shiva: Illusion and Reality, Self and Non-Self

1) Understanding craving in terms of the concept of non-self and its relation to illusion and reality and life and death. 2) How to we differentiate between illusion and reality, what is the definition of wisdom and ignorance. 3) Seeing the relationship between reality and illusion as a cosmic dance, the Dance of Shiva. 4) Seeing the relationship between illusion and reality in dependent origination. 5) Understanding suffering and awakening as a result of how we process our experience. 6) Overcoming our narratives to realize our true original nature.

February 13, 2016

First Foundation of Mindfulness:
Mindfulness of the Body
Mindfulness of the Body

1) Reading of the First Foundation of Mindfulness; 2) The benefits of mindfulness; 3) Finding the appropriate location.

February 20, 2016

Mindfulness of the Body–Posture

1) Considerations in our meditative posture. 2) Effects of samadhi on our meditative posture. 3) The importance of relaxation in meditation. 4) The relation between formal and more relaxed postures. 5) Understanding the importance of long, slow, deep breaths at the beginning of the sitting.

February 27, 2016

Mindfulness of Body–Breath

1) Establishing mindfulness on the object of awareness. 2) Choosing the object as a function of the level of concentration. 3) Deepening the quality of awareness in mindfulness. 4) Understanding the difference between concentration practice and mindfulness practice. 5) Seeing the dynamics of understanding that lead to personal transformation and freedom from suffering. 6) Meditation as a conscious, intentional process. 7) Understanding the progressive degrees of the breath experience. 8) The breath object as the vehicle to Nibbana. 9) Understanding the importance of mindfulness at the moment of death.

March 5, 2016

Mindfulness of Breathing Part 2

1) Introduction to the forms of breath contemplation. 2) Understanding meditation as a transition to an alternate state of consciousness. 3) Seeing the qualitative nature of the breath as a pathway to a deeper consciousness. 4) Experiencing the whole body of the breath. 5) Understanding the nature of the object and the difference between samatha and vipassana practice. 6) Using the breath to calm the body. 7) Understanding the breath in concentration practice and mindfulness practice.

March 19, 2016

Mindfulness of Breathing Part 3

1) Stages in the investigation of the breath as stated in the Maha Satipattana Sutta. 2) Contemplating the breath internally and externally and its relationship to conditional and unconditional or absolute reality. 3) Contemplating the arising and the passing away of the breath and its opening to the awareness of impermanence and change.

April 2, 2016

Mindfulness of Posture

1) Seeing the essence of the Dharma in our meditative postures. 2) Understanding the fundamental mechanics of walking meditation. What does it mean to know you are walking? 3) Understanding non-self in the process nature of reality.

April 9, 2016

Mindfulness of Posture–Experiencing Pure Awareness

1) What is the relationship between posture and awakening? The story of Ananda. 2) The seeing of the three characteristics of existence: impermanence, non-self, and suffering. 3) Understanding the relationship between posture and the three characteristics. Attaining pure awareness. 4) Seeing the relationship between postures and suffering. 5) The seeing of non-self or nama rupa.

April 30, 2016

Understanding Flow and Nonself

1) Understanding mindfulness as indicative of the Absolute, inherent in every moment in time and space. 2) Seeing the three characteristics of existence: impermanence, non-self, and suffering. 3) Understanding non-self in terms of the process nature of reality and pure awareness. 4) Introducing the psychological concept of flow and the idea of non-self. 5) Introducing the concept of emptiness. Knowing the nature of mind as pure awareness itself.

May 7, 2016

Three Characteristics of Existence

1) Understanding the concept of postures as how we dispose ourselves in everyday life. 2) Experiencing joy and beauty in our moment to moment experience. 3) Understanding the self as a conditioned phenomenon. 4) Three views of non-self: 1. the process nature of reality (nama rupa); 2. pure awareness; 3. the concept of flow. 5) The experience of reality as an aesthetic experience. 6) Overcoming boredom and unfulfilled expectations. 7) Achieving personal transformation through the attainment of pure experience.

May 14, 2016

Bringing Enlightenment into Our Everyday Lives

1) The revelation of ultimate truth in our everyday movements. 2) Understanding the relationship between the enlightenment experience and our everyday behavior in the world. 3) Deconditioning our identification with the body through knowledge of the postures. 4) Operationalizing the transition from enlightenment experiences to everyday behavior.

May 21, 2016

Four Forms of Clear Comprehension

1) The four forms of clear comprehension. 2) Understanding the relationship between behavior, morality, ethics, and karma. 3) Clear comprehension of motivation. 4) Clear comprehension of suitability. 5) Clear comprehension of self restraint. 6) Clear comprehension of non-delusion. 7) Understanding the provisional and operational nature of self.

June 4, 2016

Contemplation of Body Parts

1) Review of the four trainings in clear comprehension. 2) Seeing the truth of the body and the source of delusion. 3) Benefits of the contemplation of the body parts. 4) Understanding how we are “enchanted” by our bodies. 5) Avoiding disgust, aversion, and repulsion of the body. 6) Finding the middle way between lust and aversion. 7) Finding the balance between our culturally conditioned world and our understanding of the truth of our bodies.

June 11, 2016

The Four Elements

1) Definition of the four elements as metaphors for our subjective experience of our body. 2) Differentiating our perception of the body as an object or concept from seeing it as a dynamic energy field. 3) Separating our objective perception of sensations and our emotional reaction to them. 4) Seeing sensations as the gateway to our emotions. 5) Understanding the duality of perception as a way to understand our idea of self or ego.

June 18, 2016

Parts of the Body

1) Understanding our bodies from two levels of perception of reality. 2) Encountering the concept of voidness and emptiness as a manifestation of ultimate reality. 3) Understanding relative and ultimate truth as a way of understanding reality.

June 25, 2016

Relative and Ultimate Reality

1) Understanding the difference between conventional and ultimate reality. 2) The concept of the void or emptiness. Understanding the two aspects of reality. 3) Seeing the world as an “optical illusion.” The fallacies of continuity and compactness. 4) Understanding the idea of non-self from the ultimate point of view. 5) Understanding ultimate and conventional reality in the mental and physical realm. 6) Understanding wisdom as the balance between conventional and ultimate reality.

July 2, 2016

Distinguishing Conventional and Ultimate Reality

1) Understanding how we perceive our body in relative and ultimate terms. 2) Seeing the world as an optical illusion: a world dictated by language and form. 3) Ultimate reality as the reality underlying the world of perception. The ambiguities of quantum mechanics. 4) Understanding emptiness and non-self at the level of ultimate reality. 5) Examples of the interwoven nature of conventional and ultimate reality. Our physical and mental bodies.

July 9, 2016

Second Foundation of Mindfulness
Mindfulness of Feelings
Mindfulness as a Feeling-Based Practice

1) Why we meditate: working with our feelings. 2) Mindfulness as a feeling based practice. 3) The benefits of sensitivity to feelings at the physical and mental levels. 4) Physical sensations as a gateway to emotional awareness. 5) Mindfulness as a gateway to health and wellness and spiritual liberation. The teaching of the two darts. 6) Appreciating the importance of feelings in our practice.

July 16, 2016

Mindfulness of Feelings–The Classical Teachings

1) Understanding “feelings” as the fundamental teaching of the Buddha in terms of liberation from suffering. 2) Understanding “embodiment” as the capacity to embody our feelings. 3) Understanding the physical and mental components of feelings. 4) Understanding feelings as pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. 5) Understanding the roots of pleasure and pain in our lives.

July 23, 2016

Recognizing Likes and Dislikes

1) Understanding afflictive emotions in our relationship to suffering and the Buddha’s teaching. 2) Defining feeling in the Buddhist context: vedana. 3) Feeling as the conditioning factor for actions. 4) Understanding desire, aversion and delusion. 5) The teaching of the two darts. 6) Seeking pleasure to avoid pain. 7) Addressing the process of addiction in the mind.

July 30, 2016

Sources of Our Likes and Dislikes

1) Understanding feelings as pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral and their consequences. 2) Understanding the sources of our likes and dislikes through our conditioning process. 3) Patterns of social and cultural conditioning. 4) Patterns of psychological conditioning. 5) Patterns of biological conditioning. 6) Understanding likes and dislikes as hardwired into our brains and behavior. 7) Learning how to recognize and work with pleasant and unpleasant feelings.

August 6, 2016

Identification with Feelings and the Illusion of Self

1) Working with feelings as the path to self realization and fulfillment. 2) Understanding the importance of pleasant and unpleasant feelings and their karmic implications. 3) The difficulty of recognizing pleasant and unpleasant in our experience. 4) The teaching of the two darts. 5) The problem of identification with our experience and the illusion of self. 6) Experiencing extreme emotions in the dream state.

August 13, 2016

Finding Our Feelings

1) Understanding feelings as the foundation of the Buddha Dharma. 2) Seeing the impermanent and ephemeral nature of feelings. 3) Working with our feelings with wisdom and spaciousness.

August 20, 2016

Unworldly Feelings

1) Understanding the difference between worldly and unworldly feelings. 2) Seeing the suffering inherent in indulging in sense pleasures. 3) Defining unworldly pleasurable feelings. 4) Understanding the realms of unworldly pleasant feelings in the Buddhist teachings.

August 27, 2016

The 25 Beautiful Mindstates

1) Understanding the various forms of unworldly feelings. 2) The 25 beautiful mind states: confidence; mindfulness; shame and fear of harming others; non attachment; goodwill; equanimity; composure; buoyancy; pliancy; efficiency; proficiency; rectitude; right speech, action, livelihood; wisdom; compassion; sympathetic; and lovingkindness. 3) The behavioral model of an enlightened being.

September 3, 2016

Cultivating Unworldly Feelings

1) Review of unworldly beautiful mindstates and the qualities of an enlightened being. 2) Distinguishing the qualities of worldly and unworldly feelings. 3) The beautiful mind states, the conscious/unconscious dichotomy, and the cultivation of intelligence.

September 10, 2016

From Health and Wellness to Freedom from Suffering

1) Understanding the tension between MBSR and orthodox Buddhist teaching. 2) Defining “enlightenment” in practical terms. 3) Redefining our understanding of suffering. 4) Redefining our understanding of the spiritual path: the spiritual continuum. 5) The components of afflictive emotions: the emotion, the context, the actors. 6) Embracing the energy of our emotions: relationship to emotional management or MBSR. 7) Freeing ourselves from suffering: understanding the actors and the context: the concept of “karmic alignment.” 8) The wisdom path and awakening from suffering.

October 8, 2016

Third Foundation of Mindfulness
Mindfulness of Thought
Mindfulness of Consciousness

1) The significance of thoughts in determining our destiny. 2) The Third Foundation of Foundation of Mindfulness. 3) “Knowing” our mind states and their consequences. 4) Knowing the unwholesome roots and their opposites. 5) Morality and ethics as the foundation of the Dharma. 6) Thoughts and the problem of self judgement. 7) The problem of identification. 8) The inherent nature of thoughts: the pathway to awakening.

October 15, 2016

Consciousness of Thoughts

1) Knowing how to “know” our mind states. 2) The fundamental function of meditation as the refinement of our capacity to perceive our sensate experience. 3) Cultivating the wholesome skillful mind states. 4) Finding ethical balance in our lives through the awareness of our skillful and unskillful mind states. 5) Understanding unwholesome mind states as not innate to the mind or the mind as inherently clear, pure, and luminous.
October 22, 2016

Consciousness of Meditative States

1) Awareness of unwholesome and wholesome mind states as a way of cultivating choice in the path to freedom. 2) Cultivating depth of sensitivity and perception in perceiving our thoughts. 3) Knowing the mind that is constricted and scattered. 4) Cultivating the five faculties of enlightenment. 5) Understanding the power of bare attention of our mind states: when you see it, it disappears.

October 29, 2016

Consciousness of Awakening

1) Articulation of states of consciousness related to awakening. 2) Understanding the eight mundane and supra-mundane levels of concentration or jhana. 3) Understanding the classical teachings on enlightenment. 4) Attaining momentary or neighborhood concentration. 5) The ability to accept whatever occurs in the mind. 6) Building a relationship with our thoughts and emotions. 7) Understanding the difference between awareness and thoughts.

November 19, 2016

Consciousness of Self and Other

1) Understanding the four foundations in terms of the relationship between self and other, the fundamental importance of morality and ethics. 2) Contemplating the body, feelings, and consciousness internally. 3) Contemplating the body, feelings, and consciousness externally: insight by inference or induction.

November 26, 2016

Consciousness of Reactivity

1) Understanding how our conditioned patterns affect our relationship with others. 2) The dynamics of reactivity and projections in our response to the feelings of others. 3) Steps to become aware of how we react to others. 4) The power of judgment and its relationship to greed. 5) Contemplating both internally and externally, understanding anatta in both self and other.

December 3, 2016

Consciousness of Impermanence

1) impermanence and the three characteristics of existence. 2) Understanding impermanence as the path to insight and awakening. 3) Seeing the arising and passing away of mind states from moment to moment.

December 17, 2016

Impermanence and the Path of Awakening

1) Introductions to the Sixteen Stages of Awakening. 2) Understanding the arising of phenomena. 3) Understanding the passing away of phenomena: fear, anguish and disgust, the desire for deliverance. 4) Relationship of the path of awakening to the concept of impermanence. 5) Understanding the relationship between renunciation and the joyful acceptance of present moment reality.

December 24, 2016

Impermanence and Bare Awareness

1) Modern existentialism and the classical Dharma. 2) Understanding bare awareness. 3) The nature of conditioned illusion. 4) The effortless nature of bare awareness.

December 31, 2016

Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness
The Five Hindrances
Introduction to the Five Hindrances

1) Defining dharmas in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness. 2) Defining the five hindrances. 3) Understanding the hindrances as personality types. 4) The simile of the bowl of water. 5) Seeing how the hindrances lie behind our patterns of dysfunctional behavior.

January 21, 2017

The Five Hindrances and Neuroplasticity

1) How our thoughts create our behavior patterns and personalities. 2) Understanding the causes of suffering and the possibility of awakening: the concept of neuroplasticity. 3) Seeing enlightenment not only as spiritual transformation, but biological transformation. 4) The basic misperception of what causes happiness.

February 11, 2017

Overcoming the Five Hindrances

1) Review of the five hindrances, the way they express our personality traits, and the five ways of working with our hindrances. 2) Seeing craving and desire as surface manifestations of deeper psychological issues. 3) How mindfulness makes the hindrances disappear. 4) Using wise reflection to see the consequences of our actions. 5) Seeing the deeper causes of our psychological needs.

February 18, 2017

The Five Hindrances and Personal Transformation

1) The relationship between the hindrances and deeper behavioral patterns in our lives. 2) How our personality changes from childhood to old age and its relationship to a stable unchanging self. 3) Understanding our capacity of behavioral change in a positive way: the possibility of awakening. 4) The five ways of working with our hindrances. 5) Knowing how to avoid the future arising of the hindrances.

February 25, 2017

Aversion

1) Understanding the significance of aversion in our lives. 2) Seeing the conditioned selfless nature of phenomena. 3) Understanding the relationship between aversive states and hatred. 4) The significance of self hatred and afflictive emotions. 5) The five ways of working with aversion. 6) The corrosive effect of expectations in creating suffering. 7) Understanding physical pain.

March 4, 2017

Physical Pain

1) Coming to terms with pain as a process of compassionate engagement. 2) Working with dental pain. 3) Working with the limits of medical pain. 4) Working with emotional pain.

March 11, 2017

Emotional Pain

1) The relationship between trauma and emotional pain: the work of Bessell Van der Kolk. 2) The function of mindfulness in accessing our sensate experience. 3) The difference between naming and feeling a mental state in our body. 4) Working with our mental states through the meditation process: the three levels of awakening.

March 18, 2017

Understanding Aversion

1) What is a thought? The sequence of cognition, thought and emotion. 2) How thoughts trigger emotions. 3) The nine kinds of aversive thoughts. 4) How aversive thoughts arise even in meditative settings. 5) The basic cause of aversion: not getting what we want.

March 25, 2017

Working With Emotional Pain

1) Review of the Four Foundations and the Five Hindrances. 2) Working with afflictive emotions that have arisen. 3) RAIN: recognition, acceptance, investigation, and non-attachment. 4) Why do emotions disappear when they are noticed. 5) Using the power of investigation. 6) The power of conditioned habitual thinking. 7) Skillful means of working with emotional pain. 8) My personal relationship with anger.

April 1, 2017

Wise Reflection

1) Understanding the relationship between meditative insight and wise reflection. 2) Who suffers when we experience afflictive emotions? 3) Understanding righteous anger: is our purpose to be right or to be free? 4) How do we live lives of purpose and moral efficacy in the face of injustice in the world. 5) The importance of patience. 6) Knowing when to let go.

April 8, 2017

Loving Kindness

1) Understanding loving kindness as an antidote to emotional pain: learning how to love ourselves. 2) Seeing and understanding our own suffering as a way to understand the suffering of others. 3) The relationship between insight and lovingkindness: the Wisdom Path. 4) The unconditional nature of lovingkindness. 5) How hatred can “objectify” the other. 6) Experiencing the “dark night of the soul” as a positive aspect of our practice.

April 15, 2017

Sloth and Torpor

1) Definition of sloth and torpor. 2) Understanding sloth and torpor as indications of deeper psychologically rooted behavior patterns. 3) Understanding the function of the unconscious in influencing our everyday life decisions. 4) Henry Grayson and the three factors that influence our unconscious motivations.

April 22, 2017

Arising of Sloth and Torpor

1) Giving unwise attention to our thoughts and how they lead to sloth and torpor. 2) Understanding boredom. 3) Avoiding difficult emotions that might arise. 4) The problem of over-eating. 5) Understanding the balance between energy and concentration.

April 29, 2017

Working With Sloth and Torpor

1) Understanding how mindfulness works with sloth and torpor. 2) Additional measures to counteract sleepiness: adding touch points, developing radiance of mind. 3) Understanding the notion of mindful presence. 4) Last measures to avoid sloth and torpor.

May 6, 2017

The Preciousness of Human Existence

1) Reflections on the preciousness of human existence. 2) Reflection on impermanence and death. 3) Developing good friends and profitable talk.

May 13, 2017

Restlessness and Worry

1) Definition of restlessness and worry. 2) Obvious and subtle forms of restlessness. 3) The metaphor of the train of thought. 4) Seeing cause and effect and having compassion for ourselves. 5) The difference between thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

May 20, 2017

Causes of Restlessness and Worry

1) Understanding the chain of causality that creates suffering. The relationship between thoughts and emotions. 2) The teaching of the Dharma in the knowing the truth about one’s self. 3) Seeing restlessness as a basic imbalance of energy in the body. 4)
Giving unwise attention to the content of our thoughts. 5) Getting lost in thought as a form of vanity. 6) Question: What is the Buddhist teaching on suicide?

May 28, 2017

Understanding Thoughts

1) Thoughts as the cause of emotions and actions and how they can trigger suffering. 2) How anxiety and worry can arise by giving unwise attention to our experiences. 3) Disquietude as a form of vanity. 4) The relationship between thoughts, feelings, and emotions. 5) Restlessness and worry over past unskillful actions.

June 3, 2017

Causes of Agitated Thoughts

1) Learning to work with difficult situations in our lives that require our attention and action but then to evoke emotional reactions. 2) The problem of restlessness as a form of vanity. 3) Understanding the resolution of restlessness as a means to achieve equanimity and peace in our lives. 4) Working with restlessness with mindfulness. 5) Taking a wider more spacious view or taking a more focussed microscopic view of the mind states. 6) Question: Is self hatred a form of vanity? 7) Question: Does mindfulness work for good emotions as well as bad emotions?

June 10, 2017

Working with Restlessness

1) Basic mindfulness of our agitated states. 2) Reflecting on the purpose of our practice. 3) Reflecting on our basic goodness and its roots in our Buddha nature. 4) Reflecting on fundamental awareness.

June 17, 2017

Understanding Dhammas

1) Three different interpretations of the word “Satipattana”. 2) Definition of “dhammas” in the fourth foundation. 3) Seeing the connections between the small dramas and the overall Dhamma. 4) Suffering as form of disconnection. 5) Seeing dramas in the fourth foundation as categories of mind states according to their function. 6) the fourth foundation as translations from concept to direct perception and experience.

June 24, 2017

Skepticism and Doubt

1) Recognizing when doubt is present. 2) The damaging effect of skepticism and doubt. 3) Differentiating between conventional and absolute reality. 4) Doubt about the teachings of the Buddha. 5) The question of reincarnation and rebirth and the importance of this present life. 6) The question of the relevance of the Buddha’s teaching today.

July 1, 2017

Working With Doubt

1) Doubt about one’s ability to do the practice. 2) Coming to understand the benefits of the practice: developing basic emotional intelligence. 3) Understanding the difficulty of mindfulness practice. 4) Seeing how we personally benefit from the practice. 5) Ninety percent of our afflictive emotions are about not getting what we want.

July 8, 2017

Antidote to Doubt–The Benefits of Mindfulness

1) Feeling moments of deep relaxation and peace. 2) Clarity and focus of mental concentration. 3) Gaining insights into one’s suffering. 4) Learning how to have compassion for one’s self. 5) How to get out of the mind and into the body. 6) Gaining an understanding of natural pain and self created suffering. 7) Finding energy and commitment to move forward in one’s life.

July 15, 2017

Overcoming Doubt

1) Developing basic mindfulness of doubt and the distracted mind: learning how to recognize thoughts and letting them go. 2) Appreciating the empowerment of developing awareness of our thoughts and their implications. 3) Learning to recognize when doubt is not present 4) Understanding the causes of doubt and how to remove them when they arise. The problem of unwise attention. 5) How to prevent future un-arisen doubt from arising. 6) Freeing ourselves from “the movies in our mind.”

July 22, 2017

Categories
Audio Dharma Talks

The Heart of Buddhist Meditation

Understand the Mind

This series includes 5 episodes.
Our Legacy and Lineage

1) Understanding the importance of legacy and lineage in our spiritual practice. 2) A brief review of the lineage of leading American teachers through Mahasi Sayadaw of the Burmese Theravadin tradition. 3) The role of Mahasi Sayadaw in the spread of meditation and the Dharma in Burma. 4) The importance of Bhikkhu Bodhi and the Theravadin lineage of Sri Lank: Nyanaponika Thera and Nyanatiloka Mahathera. 5) A brief biography of Nyanaponika Thera, the author of The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. 6) A reading of Nyanaponika’s Heart of Buddhist Meditation: The Way of Mindfulness. 7) What is Mindfulness: the stages of perception: initial attention, associative and abstract thinking, and right mindfulness.

May 28, 2022

Bare Attention

1) Understanding Buddhism as a kind of “mind science” in terms of understanding how the mind works to create suffering and how by understanding the mind we can free ourselves from suffering. 2) The concept of “bare attention”: the clear and single minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us. 3) Learning how to stay with bare awareness and eliminating the self referential associative thinking that comes with initial awareness. 4) How, because of our associative thinking, we do not see the world as it actually is. 5) The goal of knowing the mind: the attainment of lucidity and penetrative insight. The example of microscopic research. 6) Learning how to see interconnectedness and developing beginner’s mind.

June 4, 2022

Shaping the Mind

1) The three goals of Mindfulness meditation: Knowing the mind; Shaping the mind; and Freeing the mind. 2) Nyanaponika’s contribution in terms of connecting mindfulness with our modern idea of psychology. 3) Knowing the mind: examining the mind through a microscope. 4) Seeing karmic linkages and connected phenomena. 5) Mindfulness and “beginner’s mind.” 6) Mindfulness and the seeing of the three characteristics: impermanence, suffering, and non-self. 7) Seeing the mind as an infinite process of change and flux. The illusion of continuity. 8) Confronting the reality of impermanence: How we suffer because of our attachment to permanence and continuity. 9) Mindfulness and non-self or impersonality: the work of Sir Francis Crick: The Astonishing Hypothesis. 10) The relationship of mindfulness to science. 11) Mindfulness and shaping the mind: the value of mindfulness in avoiding unconscious reactive behavior. 12) Bare attention and the importance of the present moment, not the past or the future.

June 11, 2022

Freeing the Mind

1) The influence of Nyanaponika Thera on the spread of the Dharma in the West. 2) The three goals of mindfulness: to know the mind, shape the mind, and free the mind. 3) Review of knowing the mind. 4) Shaping the mind: slowing our reactions down so as to respond with wisdom and common sense. 5) Living in the present and not being lost in the past or the future. 6) The power of mindfulness to lead to a healthier mind: the beautiful mind states. 7) Liberating the mind: finding a sense of peace and spaciousness in our daily lives: the art of letting go through the seeing of the three characteristics of existence: impermanence, suffering, and impersonality. 8) Understanding our spiritual journey.

June 18, 2022

Two Forms of Buddhist Meditation

Topics Include: 1) What are the two primary stages of Buddhist meditation? 2) Samatha or concentration practice: clearing the mental filters through which we generally see reality; 3) Vipassana or mindfulness practice: seeing our experience with a mind that is completely still; 4) What do we see in mindfulness? 5) The two legs of practice: samatha leading to the jhanic states and vipassana leading to wisdom; 6) Seeing our experience as “layers of experience”: the four foundations of mindfulness; 7) The role of intuition and feeling; 8) Experiencing ourselves as “energy flields”; 9) So what is awakening?

February 21, 2026