Dharma Seed - Dharma Talks given at Insight Meditation South Bay

2017-02-14 Everyday Dhamma 4:02:31

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Can busy lay practioners realize the fruits of the Buddhist path? How can we bring mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion into our family, community, and workplace activities? This speaker series will explore the intersection of the Buddha's teachings with the complex demands of contemporary daily life. Each speaker will explore a theme that highlights social issues or practical applications related to living a mindful life at work, with family, and in today's society.

2017-02-14 Four Gateways of Samsara: I, Me, Mine, and Mind 36:18
Ronald Purser	Download Listen
Ron Purser gave the first talk in a speaker series titled "Everyday Dhamma." He explained how our minds filter almost all of our experiences through the framework of "I, me, and mine." Is it possible to develop another way of knowing? Our practice can help us to loosen our minds' strong addiction to "I."
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
In collection Everyday Dhamma

2017-02-21 Dharma in Challenging Relationships 43:10
Lisa Dale Miller	Download Listen
Lisa Dale Miller gave the second talk in a speaker series titled "Everyday Dhamma." She explored how difficult relationships can be rich grounds for practice, because they require us to use skills of wisdom and compassion.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
In collection Everyday Dhamma

2017-03-07 Money 41:24
Kim Allen	Download Listen
Kim Allen gave the third talk in a speaker series titled "Everyday Dhamma." She discussed how money is an important part of our life, as well as a potent realm for practice. Much of what the Buddha said about wealth and money was about our relationship to money, because this is where our suffering and freedom lies. More specifically, we can easily have an unwholesome relationship to our wealth. For example, we can become miserly and crave even more wealth. Or we can establish a wholesome relationship with our wealth, such as supporting our family, our friends, and the Dhamma. In this way, we can relate to money with wisdom and generosity, instead of grasping and fear.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
In collection Everyday Dhamma

2017-03-14 Happiness at Workplace 35:30
Laura Lin	Download Listen
Laura Lin gave the fourth talk in a speaker series titled "Everyday Dhamma." Laura observed that most Americans spend most of our waking hours at work. So, work provides us with a great opportunity to continue our practice and training off the cushion, and bring them into our workplace. When we bring wholesome states of mind, such as mindfulness, loving-kindness, and sympathetic joy, to work with us, these states of mind can transform our work into a happier and more rewarding experience. Without using some of these tools from our meditation tool box, the ups and downs of office politics and interpersonal dynamics can easily influence an untrained mind in averse ways.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
In collection Everyday Dhamma

2017-03-21 Wisdom, Skill, and Virtue 42:25
Misha Merrill	Download Listen
Misha Merrill gave the fifth talk in a speaker series titled "Everyday Dhamma." She explained that wisdom is the faculty of making the best use of knowledge, experience, and understanding. Skill is the ability to take that understanding and manifest it in our daily life. Virtue encourages us to practice up-rightedness, a general moral goodness. Virtue requires actually doing it; standing up for what is right.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
In collection Everyday Dhamma

2017-03-28 Trauma, Purification and the Nervous System 43:41
Sean Feit Oakes	Download Listen
Sean Feit Oakes gave the sixth talk in a speaker series titled "Everyday Dhamma." He explained that when we feel threaten, our sympathetic nervous system kicks in two modes: fight or flight. We get activated when we perceive threat, but our usually body calms down once we perceive that we are safe. Anxiety, stress and vigilance are symptoms of trauma. To use the language of Buddhism, restless mind, anxious mind, and fearful mind are minds that got stuck in the activated mode, instead of being reset to neutral. In other words, trauma happened when at one point in our lives we felt threatened, and we never felt safe again. Purification comes when we can learn to turn off the activated mode, and work through the aspects of our conditioning that are painful and let go, so we can return to balance.
Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley
In collection Everyday Dhamma

2017-01-12 Wisdom 43:32
Berget Jelane	Download Listen
Berget Jelane gave the tenth talk in a eleven-week series titled "Ten Perfections", on the parami of Wisdom. Wisdom is broader than knowledge, also encompassing compassion. Three characteristics of wisdom are: understanding impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and emptiness, or non-self.

2016-12-29 Energy, Effort 58:55
David Cohn	Download Listen
David Cohn gave the eighth talk in the eleven-week series "Ten Perfections," on the parami of Energy and Effort. David discussed bringing the present moment into awareness, letting go of negative states, and cultivating positive states of mind.

2016-12-22 Determination 41:04
Chris Clifford	Download Listen
Chris Clifford gave the seventh talk in the eleven-week series "Ten Perfections." Four factors focus our resolve and strengthen our determination, namely discernment, truth, relinquishment and calmness.

2016-12-01 Patience 30:48
Sharon Allen	Download Listen
Sharon Allen gave the fourth talk in the eleven-week series "Ten Perfections." Mindfulness and patience are important qualities to develop on our path.

2016-11-10 Loving-kindness 54:51
Kim Allen	Download Listen
Kim Allen gave the second talk in the eleven-week series "Ten Perfections." She discussed loving-kindness, or Metta, a strength of heart we develop through goodwill, both inner and outer. We develop goodwill through interpersonal relationships, and also through complete acceptance of all aspects of ourself. The path to complete Metta is inward through the heart.

2016-11-03 Generosity 35:52
Drew Oman	Download Listen
Drew Oman gave the first talk in the eleven-week series "Ten Perfections." He began with a brief introduction to the Paramis (Ten Perfections), and then discussed the first perfection, Generosity (Dana), in more detail. He presented material from the suttas and from contemporary research on the relationship between giving and happiness.

2016-10-20 Fourth Noble Truth 50:33
Shaila Catherine	Download Listen
Shaila Catherine gave the fourth talk in the five-week series "Four Noble Truths." This talk discusses the Fourth Noble Truth, the path leading to the cessation of suffering and known as the Noble Eightfold Path. We must know this path and actually travel it. This practice allows us to live a life that is noble and upright, and helps us distinguish between that which is wholesome (which leads to ending of suffering) and that which is unwholesome (which leads to more suffering).

In collection Four Noble Truths

2016-10-13 Third Noble Truth 36:21
Laura Lin	Download Listen
Laura Lin gave the third talk in the five-week series "Four Noble Truths." She discussed the third noble truth, that of the cessation of suffering. Only by giving up and relinquishing craving can we end suffering. She also discussed meditation's role in calming the mind, allowing us to explore more subtle layers of attachment, investigate them, and eventually let go to realize peace and happiness.

In collection Four Noble Truths

2016-10-06 Second Noble Truth 40:09
Shaila Catherine	Download Listen
Shaila Catherine gave the second talk in the five-week series "Four Noble Truths." This talk explores the causes of suffering (in Pali dukkha), and explains how conditioned mental and sensory experiences are unsatisfactory and stressful. Craving causes suffering when our perceptions are accompanied by delight and lust. Practicing mindfulness reduces suffering, because when we are present we experience things as they actually are, and do not crave something different.

In collection Four Noble Truths