This is the first talk in a speaker series titled Fundamental Buddhist Principles 2015. Buddha was a human being, whose mind opened to the truth of things, to the nature of life. He understood the causes of suffering, and developed a path of teaching that enables others to realize the truth of things for themselves. He was awakened, which means greed, hatred, and delusion were uprooted from his mind. So when we meditate, we examine our mind with the goal to understand what is really happening in our encounter with experience. What happens in our seeing, hearing, smelling, or tasting? What happens when we feel with our body? What happens when we think or feel emotions? Is that encounter affected by greed, hatred, or delusion? Or are we seeing the nature of these experiences arising and passing away, with a mind free of clinging? This talk also includes basic Buddhist teachings such as the Four Noble Truths, the Three Training (virtue (sila), meditation (samadhi) and wisdom (panna)), and the Three Primary Contemplative Skills that support meditation (concentration, mindfulness, and investigation).

This is the fourth talk in a speaker series titled Fundamental Buddhist Principles 2015. As we observe our daily and meditative experience, the mind naturally begins to notice "universal" qualities of experience: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dhkkha), and emptiness (anatta). These three - especially impermanence - are gates to spiritual freedom. It's how we relate and react to these three characteristics that determine whether we suffer or be at peace.

This talk by Bob Stahl is the fifth in a speaker series titled Fundamental Buddhist Principles 2015. The Three Poisons are greed, hatred and ignorance. They are called the three poisons because they fuel suffering. For example, the nature of desire keeps us wanting something that we can’t quite get. The suffering is the misconception that we need to get that something outside of ourselves in order to be whole. Fortunately, the antidote is simply the relinquishment of the poison. By relinquishing greed, in its place arises contentment. By relinquishing hatred, in its place arises open heartedness. By relinquishing ignorance, in its place arises clear seeing into the nature of things and into the causes of suffering and the path to freedom.