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Dharma Talks
given at Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2021-03-09
Refraining from Sexual Misconduct
35:21
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Shaila Catherine
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This talk addresses the third ethical precept — refraining from sexual misconduct. Practicing with the precepts involves becoming mindful of our actions, recognizing the effects that our actions have on ourselves and others, learning to respond to our thoughts and feelings with wisdom, kindness, and restraint, and honoring our commitments. This precept provides opportunities to work with the movement of sexual desire and sensual lust. The views of sexuality that were prevalent in ancient India differ from contemporary norms, however, we can apply the underlying intention toward non-harming to contemplate and purify our own conduct. Shaila Catherine offers suggestions forgiving past unskillful actions, and strengthening our capacity for restraint.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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In
collection:
Ethics, Action and the Five Precepts
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2021-02-17
Living a Dharma Life
32:37
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Ying Chen
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In this talk, we explore how walking the Dharma path involves all aspects of our lives. To engage in dharma practices is to live a Dharma life, nothing excluded. When we open our dharma practice up to include all aspects of our lives, our relationships, our work, our chores, our inner being and our outer being, we allow Dharma to guide us in life.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2021-02-02
Finding Freedom from Habitual Patterns
60:53
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Robin Boudette
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In the chaos of our everyday lives, we often run on auto-pilot finding ourselves caught in unhealthy habit patterns. In our attempts to help ourselves, we might watch too much news, plan for every possible situation, reach for our favorite comfort food or engage in other unhealthy behaviors, unwittingly feeding our anxiety and making things worse. Fortunately, mindfulness provides practices and skills that can help us change unhealthy habits and live in greater harmony with life. But how? The Buddha taught that disenchantment is key. In this evening session, we will explore self-reflections to illuminate habit loops and explore how we can tap into the direct experience of disenchantment.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Tuesday Talks
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2021-01-26
Buddhist Insights from Encounters with Homelessness
35:25
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Cathy Small
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This talk looks at the intersection of practice and life through the issue of homelessness. Based on her book, The Man in the Dog Park, co-authored with a homeless man, Dr. Cathy Small (a cultural anthropologist and meditation teacher) explores how social issues can become part of our practice, and how her decade-long journey with people experiencing homelessness offered Buddhist lessons about love and fear, self and other, and compassion and equanimity.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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Attached Files:
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When We Meet Suffering
by Cathy Small
(PDF)
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2021-01-19
Speech from the Heart
36:18
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Kim Allen
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From where does speech originate? How does our speech feed back to affect our own heart (in addition to other people)? These are worthy investigations in Buddhist practice. Speech ties back to the three unwholesome roots of greed, hatred, and delusion, as well as the three wholesome roots of non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. Our choices in this realm have a major impact.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2020-12-08
A Householder's Vinaya
52:35
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Allan Cooper
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Author Allan Cooper speaks on making lay life one’s practice instead of trying to fit practice into lay life. His book, The Householder’s Vinaya, is an accessible step by step ‘how to’ manual for anyone wishing to create an everyday life of meditative development. These new ways help cultivate and deepen meditative wisdom and establishes a deeper and more textured baseline when returning to the retreat center or monastery.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2020-10-27
Confidence, Uncertainty and the Five Aggregates
46:00
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Maria Straatmann
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In times of uncertainty we tend to reinforce those things that lend themselves to feeling safe and familiar, usually by reaffirming a sense of self that says, “This is right; this is who I am; this is how things should be.” The way we do this is described in Buddhism with the five aggregates, the ways we experience, perceive, and interpret reality. We will discuss understanding and seeing clearly these ways of experience and how awareness of them may lead to freedom from suffering.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2020-10-20
Real Wealth
28:28
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Kim Allen
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What kinds of wealth are most sustainable in times of loss? The Buddha defined five kinds of wealth that are especially appropriate for lay practitioners to develop: confidence, ethical conduct, learning, generosity, and wisdom. The inclusion of “learning” is interesting and not often emphasized. We will explore these five qualities in the context of our current times, considering how they can serve both ourselves and others.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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2020-09-29
The Present Moment is Not the Goal
34:41
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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There’s a common understanding that the purpose of meditation is to fully arrive in the present moment. However, the Buddha taught people to focus on the present moment not as a goal, but as a place where work is to be done to go beyond the present. This talk, based on the essay, “The Karma of Now” will explore the Buddha’s understanding of the present moment, and the implications of that understanding, not only for the practice of meditation, but also for Buddhist practice as a whole.
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Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
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