The Heart of Light Podcast: Recent Episodes
Mike McGarry
This is my dharma talk on May 20, 2024, about Impermanence. How do we see through our many illusions of permanence? What does impermanence imply how our personalities change throughout our life? How deeply do we acknowledge the profound fragility and vulnerability of human life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on May 13, 2024, about the Drawing Power of Love. How comfortable are you in allowing love to draw you into emotional intimacy? How do we work with the magnetic pull of our own wholeness? How do we cultivate the experience of Archetypal Love? This Dharma talk fell in the week before the Christian holy day of Pentecost.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
I will lead the sangha. In the dharma talk, I will talk about Saying Yes to Life. How heavily do you lean on excuses in your life? How willing are we to experience the full spectrum and depth of all our emotions? What are we willing to risk in order to experience the bliss at the center of our being? This Dharma talk fell a couple days after the Celtic holiday of Beltaine.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on April 22, 2024, about Story Stewardship. How deeply do you treasure the stories of those dear to you? In what ways are the stories that you tell yourself holding you back or keeping you small? Where did we find the stories that call forth our deeper strength and wisdom? This was the final in a series of three Dharma talks about Brené Brown’s Theory of Cultivating Meaningful Connection.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on April 15, 2024, about the Courage to Walk Alongside. How well do you respect your own boundaries and the boundaries of others? How much do you focus on how you can empower others? How attentive are you that all the aspects that make a relationship thrive? This was the second in a series of three Dharma talks about Brené Brown’s Theory of Cultivating Meaningful Connection.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on April 8, 2024, about Grounded Confidence. How deeply have you arrived in yourself? How rigorously honest are you with yourself? How fully do you accept the totality of who you are? This was the first in a series of three Dharma talks about Brené Brown’s Theory of Cultivating Meaningful Connection.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on April 1, 2024, about Facing Difficult Truths. How open and undefended are we in the face of feedback? How do we expand our emotional capacity? How rigorously honest are we with ourselves?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on March 25, 2024, about Surrender. Why do we cling so tenaciously to the illusion of control? How is letting go conducive to our growth, joy, and freedom? How do we learn to trust the deeper and wiser forces that govern our destiny?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on March 11, 2024, about Self-Love. Why is one's level of self-love such an important issue in all areas of one's life? What is the relationship of self-love and self-discipline? How does the path of self-love involve embracing the paradoxes of healing?
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This is my dharma talk on March 4, 2024, about being a Spiritual Warrior. How deep is the strength of your discipline? How courageous are you in facing yourself? How fiercely do you pursue what you know is best for you?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on February 26, 2024, about White Privilege. For white people, how does the challenge of seeing and unpacking our white privilege resemble many other challenges on the spiritual path? How does Buddhism help us to understand the harm caused by white privilege? How willing are we to embrace all the sacrifices necessary to love all beings?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on February 19, 2024, about Living a Noble Life. What does it mean to move through the world in a noble way? What truly motivates our virtues and our efforts to do good in the world? Why does Buddhism describe the four central truths and the eightfold path as noble?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on February 12, 2024, about Emptying and Emptiness. Why do the world's religious traditions all urge us to empty ourselves out? How does the deep spiritual logic of emptying ourselves run so counter to the stories about consumption and filling ourselves up that are so prevalent in this culture? What is meant by the Buddhist idea of emptiness? This talk fell on the Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on February 5, 2024, about Radical Self-Responsibility. What does it mean to take deep responsibility for how we feel and for our emotional states? How do we embrace responsibility for our boundaries and for how others impact us? Why is it that we cannot find the rich satisfaction that we seek and that we intuitively know we deserve unless we make the decision to grow up fully in life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on January 29, 2024, about the Archetypal Feminine. How deeply and how well do we receive life? What is our relationship to flow? How do we understand our place in the interconnection of all things? This talk fell during the week of the Celtic holiday of Imbolg.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on January 22, 2024, about the Buddhist path to facing difficulties. What is our attitude toward difficulties? Do we recognize the futility of playing the blame game? What would it look like to embrace deep responsibility in our lives?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is the blog article quoted in the talk.
This is my dharma talk on January 15, 2024, about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. How just and fair are the “rules” that we follow and that we use to judge others, especially when we’re upset? In what ways are we merely lukewarm in our commitment to what we know is right? How much are we willing to embrace being extreme in the pursuit of what we know is for the highest good?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail full text
This is my dharma talk on January 8, 2024, about starting a meditation practice. What does it mean to commit to meditation? What are the predictable challenges to this commitment that we should expect? What does it mean to trust our capacity for growth?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on January 1, 2024, about commitment. What are the tangible self-care practices, if any, that you practice every single day without fail? Why do we expect rigorous commitment from romantic others, but can manifest nothing like that level of commitment toward ourselves? How is commitment the doorway to our freedom?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on December 26, 2023, about loving the outcast. What is our relationship to people we avoid and/or consider our enemies? What are the parts of life that we completely reject or avoid? Do we have the courage to give a bold YES to absolutely everything that we are, including the places we have long avoided or neglected?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on December 18, 2023, about joy. What does it mean to say that we are responsible for our own joy? What does it mean to trust the joy at the core of our being? What are the practical steps we can take to cultivate joy in our life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on December 11, 2023, about inner peace. What is the relationship of mental discipline and inner peace? What is the relationship of responsibility and inner peace? How is letting go at many levels essential to inner peace?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk on December 4, 2023, about Hope. How do we hope without falling into the trap of expectations? What does it mean to relate well to the unknown? How do we cultivate a deep sense of hope from our core?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 27, 2023, about Perfection vs. Completion. How is perfectionism a no-win internal hell? What are the many dysfunctional forms of perfectionism? What is so healing about Jung’s contrasting idea of completion?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 20, 2023, about Gratitude. How is taking things for granted such a poison in spiritual life? How does Buddhism help us to appreciate the gift within each challenge? How does gratitude have the potential to fully transform our entire experience of life
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 13, 2023, about the Eightfold Noble Path. To what are we prepared to commit ourselves in life? How intentional are we about how we talk, what we do, and how we move through the world? What is the typical quality of our attention in everyday life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 6, 2023, about the Four Noble Truths. What is our relationship to fantasy? How are we defended against life? How courageous are we in letting go?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 30, 2023, about the relating with the Unconscious. What is our relationship to control? How deeply do we listen to ourselves? How responsible are we for our projections? This talk fell days before the Celtic holiday Samhain.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 23, 2023, about the Major Arcana of the Tarot as a path of healing. What are the virtues that support the unfolding of the healing process? What do we risk about ourselves when we undertake healing? How does the healing process restore us to a deeper level of innocence?
This is the slideshow used in the talk.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 16, 2023, about the book Dancing in the Flames. How do we create our own reality? How do we recognize and pursue the wisdom inside us? What leads us to our wholeness?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 9, 2023, about deep belonging. How do societal messages distort our understanding of belonging? How do we cultivate deep belonging within ourselves? How does our own belonging impact our ability to belong with others?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 2, 2023, about Chinese Bagua as a model of healing. What is the therapeutic value of shock in the healing process? What is the role of gentleness and self-compassion in the healing process? What is required to integrate head-level insights deep into the body?
This is the slideshow used in the talk.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 25, 2023, about inner protection. What does the First Noble Truth imply about many of the kinds of protection we seek? What is the role of good boundaries in protecting ourselves? What is the true nature of inner protection? This talk will fall on the Monday before the Christian holiday of Michaelmas.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 18, 2023, about facing the unknown. What is our relationship to the unknown? What stories or motions come up when we face the unknown? How do we relate to the unknown within ourselves? This talk fell on the Monday before the Autumnal Equinox.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 11, 2023, about grief. What is our relationship to grief? What is the cost of avoiding pain? What are the deeper layers of grief that we carry within us?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 4, 2023, about nonattachment to outcome. What is our relationship to the unknown? What is the source of our inner urgency? How do we cultivate a heart ready for anything?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 28, 2023, about Antiracist Work as a Yoga. What are the characteristics of a yoga? What does Resmaa Menakem call the six intelligences of the body? How do we live out the magnanimous love at the core of the antiracist message? This talk fell on the 60th anniversary of Dr. King's “I Have a Dream” speech.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 21, 2023, about rising to a challenge. What is our relationship with risk? How well do we balance what we control with what we don’t? How eager are we to rise to the challenge of whatever the next step of our growth demands?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 13, 2023, about stepping into our power. What are the four principles of personal power? What are the paradoxes of moving toward our power? Why does moving toward our power activate our deepest fears?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 6, 2023, about what Jennifer Welwood calls the true ride. What does it mean to be a grown-up adult? How deeply have we integrated the Buddhist teaching of impermanence? How does trying to avoid pain create even more pain?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 31, 2023, about archetypal masculinity. What does it mean to live from the depths of our psyches? what wisdom does the Chinese yin/yang system offer for modern gender roles? In our present time, what does healthy masculinity mean?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 24, 2023, about a heart ready for anything. What are the ways we resist fully growing up? How does spiritual growth demand letting go? How can we cultivate a heart ready for anything?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 17, 2023, about self-love. What are the misleading misconceptions about self-love? Why is self-love so difficult? Why is self-love essential for the spiritual path?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 10, 2023, about emotional capacity. Why is the size of our capacity such a fundamental moral & spiritual issue? What are the everyday consequences of having a small or large capacity? How do we increase our capacity?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 2, 2023, about the spiritual foundations of America. What does it mean to be American? What does “pursing happiness” mean in the original sense? What wisdom teachings are contained in the Great Seal of the US? How do we align our personal spiritual work with the public good
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
Great Seal of US, side 1
Great Seal of US, side 2
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 26, 2023, about making friends with Death. What does it mean to have a healthy relationship with death? How does the awareness of mortality support and strengthen all other spiritual values? How does affirming death help us to affirm life fully?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the I-Revolution at East Bay Healing Collective on June 25, 2023, about freedom. What are the limitations of conventional definitions of freeom? What does the psychology of addiction teach us about freedom? How do we work toward genuine inner freedom?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 12, 2023, about abundance. How are we ultimately responsible for our own experience of scarcity? How is abundance about growing up? How do we open ourselves more fully to the Love that is greater than we ever could imagine?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 12, 2023, about insight (prajna). What are the limits of a head-only experience of Life? How do we connect more genuinely with the wisdom of the body? How do healing, disattachment, and letting-go open up deeper ways of knowing Life? This talk was the sixth in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 5, 2023, about concentration. What does it mean to be an excellent listener? What is the inestimable healing value of inner silence? What is the powerful connection between high-quality attention and overall life-satisfaction? This talk was the fifth in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 29, 2023, about enthusiasm. What is the difference between enthusiasm and excitement? How hungry are we for truth and growth? What is the critical role of accepting feedback in spiritual life? This talk was the fourth in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the I-Revolution at East Bay Healing Collective on May 28, 2023, about memory. How do we work with the stories we tell ourselves? What kind of commitment do we have with ourselves? What does it mean to “remember” the part of us that is eternal?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 22, 2023, about patience. What does patience have to do with expectations and capacity? What is the “near enemy” of patience? How do we cultivate equanimity and presence? This talk was the third in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 15, 2023, about discipline. How do we cultivate discipline? What is the connection between discipline and self-love? What are the subtle differences between self-discipline and the paramita of discipline? This talk was the second in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 8, 2023, about generosity. When is giving true generosity? What are the connections between generosity and vulnerability? What are the many forms of generosity in everyday life? This talk was the first in a series of six talks on the Paramitas in the Mahayana tradition.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 1, 2023, about the Jungian idea of the Shadow. How does pretend otherness differ from true otherness? How do we work with the deeply held patterns of permission that bind us? What is so frightening about stepping into our authentic power? This talk fell on the Celtic holiday of Beltaine.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 24, 2023, about the meaning of life. How does living in the head prevent us from having richly meaningful experiences? How deep is our ability to connect? What is the role of inner silence in contacting what is most meaningful?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 17, 2023, about humility. How does the wounding of toxic shame pervert our understanding of humility? How can we joyfully embrace letting go of ego’s many self-glorifying attachments? How is healthy humility deeply grounded in self-love?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the I-Revolution at East Bay Healing Collective on April 16, 2023, about emotional sovereignty. How are healthy boundaries a gift to ourselves & others? What does it mean to cultivate a warrior’s discipline? What are the challenges and rewards of embracing deep self-responsibility?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 10, 2023, about recognizing the Sacred. How is taking anything for granted a poison in in spiritual life? Are we alive to the way that beauty can move us? Do we allow out heart to be touched by all the love around us?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 3, 2023, about the Last Supper discourse. What is the role of humility & humiliation in spiritual life? What ideal of love furthers our unfolding? How do we move closer to the interconnection that is our primary reality? This talk fell on the Monday of Holy Week.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 27, 2023, about transformative healing. How do we work with the core pain of shame & self-hatred? What are the paradoxes of healing? How do we trust in the possibility of healing our life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 20, 2023, about inner renewal. How do we contact the vivid freshness of life? How do we honor what is emerging in those close to us? How do we keep up with the edge in us that is fearless about growth? This talk fell on the Vernal Equinox.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 13, 2023, about the first chakra. What is our relationship to belonging? How do we work with toxic shame? How do we arrive fully in our bodies and in our lives? This was the last in a series of three talks on the first three chakras.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 6, 2023, about the second chakra. What is our relationship to patterns of holding & release? What is our relationship with pleasure and addictions? How do we relate to those aspects of the world and to those aspects of ourselves that are in uncontrollable flow? This will be the second in a series of three talks on the first three chakras.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 27, 2023, about the third chakra. What are healthy boundaries and why are they rare in our culture? How do we strengthen our boundaries? What does it mean to cultivate one’s own power? This was the first in a series of three talks on the first three chakras.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 20, 2023, about discipline, one of the paramitas of the Buddhas. Why is self-discipline so hard in modern times? What are the potential pitfalls of cultivating discipline? How do we craft a discipline that affirms and nurtures all of who we are?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 13, 2023, about mysticism in everyday life. What is irreducible about ordinary sense experience? How does silence reveal the radiance of the world? How do we approach the intimate mystery beneath our own deepest vulnerability?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 6, 2023, about antiracism & Buddhism. How does antiracist work dovetail with Buddha dharma? How do we unpack the racism held in our bodies? How do we embody love & compassion in a healing & integrative way? This talk fell on the first Monday of Black History month.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 30, 2023, about desires vs. real needs. How do we distinguish authentic needs from imagined fantasized needs? How well do we distinguish between enough and too much? How do we simplify our needs?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 16, 2023, about the sacrifice of love. How deeply do you give? In what ways are you prepared to risk yourself in love? How do we cultivate the capacity to step into the more profound levels of letting go? This talk fell on the evening of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 9, 2023, about believing in oneself. What would it mean to have faith in oneself? How would we live if we really trusted ourselves and our intuitions? How do we cultivate greater self-trust and self-fidelity?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 2, 2023, about confinement and choice. What true choices do we have in relating to outer unpleasant constraints? How do we relate to our own inner stuckness? What is the paradoxical wisdom of transformation that opens the door to a whole new experience?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is a dharma talk on December 27, 2022, about unique vs. special. What are the profound ways we are unique? What are some of the traps around seeing ourselves or our lives as special? What is the relation of humility to these ideas? This talk fell on the Christian feast of St, John, Apostle & Evangelist.
Here is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 19, 2022, about resilience. How do we cultivate resilience? How do we push past ego’s imagined limits? How do we cultivate faith in our core wisdom & strength? This talk fell on the first day of Hanukkah and a couple days before the winter solstice.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 12, 2022, about reckless love. How do we respond to the overwhelming reckless love of the Sacred for us? How can we be more reckless, in totally healthy & functional ways, in our practice of compassion & love? What are the risks inherent in the most noble forms of love?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 5, 2022, about intense experiences. How does Buddhism enhance our ability to integrate intense experiences? How does intensity enhance our attention and vitality? How do we bring that heighten vitality back to stillness and to the safety of everyday life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 28, 2022, about waiting. How do we wait and what does the way we wait say about us? What are the gifts and challenges associated with waiting? How do we relate to the disconnected parts of ourselves that have been waiting for love & connection since before our earliest memories? This talk fell on the first Monday of Advent.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 21, 2022, about the four levels of gratitude. How do we open our eyes to the miracles of life? How is “taking for granted” a toxin to the soul? How can we begin to receive even difficult experiences as gifts?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 14, 2022, about Buddhism in a time of moral conflict. What guidance does Buddhism give us for relating to polarized conditions? What nuance does Buddhism offer to our own cherished moral ideals? How do we embody an invitation to a deeper human unity?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 7, 2022, about the Christian ideal of loving one’s enemies. How is this seen through the lens of the Buddhist ideal of compassion? How does our relation to inner otherness limit how open we can be to external others? What is the work we can do to move beyond fear and moral disgust toward genuine love?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 31, 2022, about risk and safety. Where in our bodies do we find a true feeling of safety? Do we recognize and embrace risk as an irreducible part of all growth and all authentic connection? How do the tools of Buddhism help us to live with courage in an uncertain world? This dharma talk took place on the Celtic holiday of Samhain.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 24, 2022, about patience, one of the paramitas of the Buddha. What typical mind-patterns lead to impatience? What is the Buddhist perspective on impatience? How do we develop and deepen patience?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 17, 2022, about the dynamics of pain. How does emotional pain bamboozle the strategic rational mind? How do the dysfunctional inner bids for connection demand that we wisely reparent ourselves? How do Buddhism and the other Wisdom Traditions offer us a treasure trove of healing possibilities?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 10, 2022, about impermanence. To what extent do we understand ourselves as journeying through the temporary conditions of our life? How do we relate to those parts of Life that are in uncontrollable flow? As we experience a world and a body that constantly change, and often not for the better, how do we continue to affirm love and joy? This talk took place on the first day of Sukkot.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 19, 2022, about facing darkness. Darkness calls to mind what metaphors and what experiences? How do we respond to those metaphors? What can we learn from reflecting on darkness? This talk took place a couple days before the Autumnal Equinox.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 12, 2022, about avoidance. When is avoidance healthy vs. unhealthy? What do patterns of avoidance reveal about our boundaries and attachment style? How do we generate additional suffering when we try to avoid the unavoidable pain of life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 5, 2022, about spiritual work. How do we know that we are doing the Work at all? How rigorously honest are we with ourselves? How do we actively expand our capacity? How much do we act from true freedom?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 29, 2022, about control & anger. What is our relation to the aspects of Life that are always in uncontrollable flow? What is the core anger that arises when our control & independence feel threatened? What is our fierce core resistance to the wisdom of surrender?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 22, 2022, about Story Stewardship. What does it mean to listen well? How do we contribute to narrative trust in a relationship? How do we hold the stories of others in a way that both affirms them as they are and invites their deeper growth? This dharma talk was Part 3 in a 3-part series on Brené Brown’s theory on Cultivating Meaningful Connections.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 15, 2022, about the Courage to Walk Alongside. How do we accompany others so that our compassion authentically lands in their lives? How are our own boundaries a profound gift to others? How does risking ourselves in compassion to others bring us closer to our own essential nature? This dharma talk was Part 2 in a 3-part series on Brené Brown’s theory on Cultivating Meaningful Connections.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 1, 2022, about the archetypal masculine. How does the healthy life-affirming masculine look, and what are the crucial differences from toxic masculinity? What is the healing wisdom that we all can draw from archetypal masculine? This talk fell on the Celtic holiday of Lughnasa.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 25, 2022, about freedom. What is problematic about our ordinary ideas about freedom? How do we recognize our unfreedom? What does true freedom look like?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 11, 2022, about the Zen ideal of the Wabi Sabi. How does “wanting it all” function as an addictive trap? What do our fantasies reveal about the deep patterns of clinging that cut us off from joy? How do we find peace and fulfillment with the imperfection in ourselves and in others?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 27, 2022, about making friends with Death. How do we cultivate a more conscious and mindful relationship with Death? What is the wisdom that comes from an ongoing awareness of Death? Why does a “yes” to Death lead to a much deeper “yes” to Life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 20, 2022, about the paradoxes of fullness. In various area of your life, how well do you discern the boundary between enough and too much? What are the kinds of emptying out that lead to the fullness we seek? How do these processes relate to the Daoist and Buddhist perspectives on emptiness?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 13, 2022, about joy vs. fun. When does fun derive from pure joy and when it is merely an escape or distraction? How do the dynamics of addiction warp our sense of happiness? How do we invite more playfulness into our lives?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 6, 2022, about alignment with the Sacred. In what ways is our life off-kilter from how we know we should be living? How deep is our commitment to inner growth? How can the inner invitation of the Sacred transform our lives by its magnetism? This talk fell on Whitsuntide Monday, the Monday following Pentecost Sunday.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 30, 2022, about enthusiasm, one of the Paramitas of the Buddha. How does enthusiasm differ from excitement? What is the profound relationship between enthusiasm and the quality of our attention? How can we draw on and live from the enthusiasm that is part of our essential nature? This talk fell on the Monday before Pentecost Sunday.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 23, 2022, about grief. What invitation do we make to grief? How do we hold grief in our bodies? How do we cultivate a more noble and magnanimous attitude toward life’s inevitable experiences of loss?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 16, 2022, about the attachment to being right. What are the profound differences between being right and right understanding? How does dogmatism of any kind reveal our deepest wounding? How do infantile traumatized places, in their fixation on being right, perpetuate our suffering in adult life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 9, 2022, about helpfulness vs. compassion. How much of our giving aligns with the true ideals of generosity? How well do we understand our own motivation for being helpful? What are the rich lessons of being completely unable to help despite our sincere desire to do so?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 2, 2022, about celebration as a spiritual practice. What are the permissions we feel around celebrating? What does celebrating imply about the quality of our attention? What would it mean to celebrate the ordinary? This talk fell on the Muslim holiday of Eid.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 25, 2022, about discipline vs. tameness. How does the Buddhist paramita of discipline differ from neurotic over-control? How do we practice healthy discipline without over-taming our authentic animal nature? What is the relationship between animal wildness and wisdom? This talk fell in the week leading up to Beltaine.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 11, 2022, about healing into life. What parts of us feel dead, imprisoned, or closed off from life? How do we open the inner conversation and initiate the process of re-integration? What is the role of truth in healing? This talk fell on Easter Monday in the Christian calendar.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 11, 2022, about arrival and loss. What is our relationship with our imagined future moments of fulfillment? What is our story about when or how we will arrive at who we are? Are we ready to embrace the letting go and loss that are essential parts of the cycle of arriving? This talk drew on themes from the events of Christian narrative of Holy Week.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 4, 2022, about the sacrifice of love. What do you really stand for? What are you willing to risk yourself for? How much are you willing to give in the name of love? This talk fell on the anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 28, 2022, about vulnerability. How deeply do you feel Life? How vividly do you taste the juiciness of human connection? What does vulnerability reveal about the Mahayana ideal of the Bodhisattva?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 21, 2022, inner renewal. What habits of mind keep us mired in the same old patterns? How do we explode the veneer of jaded familiarity? How do we recover the essential freshness and vitality at the heart of human experience?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 14, 2022, about the ego-cage. How do our preoccupations prevent us from seeing life as it is it? How do we create the vast majority of our misery? What does freedom really look like?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 7, 2022, about six temptations, those of Christ and Buddha. What draws us away from the Path and makes us forget ourselves? What are the patterns that trap us, sometimes without our realizing it? What does it mean to walk toward integration and wholeness?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 28, 2022, about radical simplicity. Why is it such “gift to be simple”? Why is it so hard to be simple? What is the deep link between simplicity and intimacy?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 21, 2022, about control. What are the unhealthy forms of control that drain us without serving us? What is the deep inner dynamic of control and fear? How do we find serenity with respect to the uncontrollable aspects of life, others, and our own nature?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 14, 2022, about a Buddhist take on romantic love. Where did the ideals of romantic love originate and how attainable are those ideals? What are the typical problems that arise in romantic connections? How can two people use their romantic attachment as a vehicle of spiritual growth and healing? This talk took place on Valentine’s Day.
This is the quote sheet for the talk
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 7, 2022, about inclusion and exclusion. How do we relate to those emotionally distant from us? How strong are our boundaries? How do we relate to the places within us that received an a priori exclusion even before we could form our first thought?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 31, 2022, about sacred mystery. How do we relate to the unknowable and uncontrollable aspects of what it is to be human? How well do we hold space for the mystery of our own being? How can we enter into intimacy with the aspects of the Sacred that are forever beyond our grasp? This talk was given the night of the Celtic holiday of Imbolc.
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This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 24, 2022, about discipline. How do we cultivate more self-discipline? How does a discipline, such as meditation, bring us more freedom? How does discipline align us with who we really are?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 17, 2022, about compassion and lovingkindness. What are the ways in everyday life that we choose to move closer to or further away from the path of love? How willing are we to allow the world to touch the tenderness of our hearts? How can we align ourselves more deeply each day with compassion and lovingkindness, through our thoughts, words, and actions? This talk occurred on the Monday holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 10, 2022, about states of entering & emerging. How does old trauma emerge in times of peacefulness? What are the various ego-trips in life that distract us but don’t heal us? To what extent is early-life trauma rooted in karmic wisdom?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 3, 2022, about self-improvement vs. healing. From what part of us do we allow the plan of our life to unfold? Why do we believe that we can see and understand how we need to grow? How does the logic of letting go and allowing resonate with the logic of healing?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my talk from December 27, 2021, on the Presence of the Sacred. This talk is a reflection on the Johannine I statements. What is the nourishment we receive from the Sacred? What is the nature of the guidance that the Sacred provides? What is the combination of intimacy and unknowability found in mystic states? This talk was given on the Christian feast of St. John, Apostle & Evangelist.
Here is the quote sheet.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 20, 2021, about accepting the outcast. What is our relationship to the people and experiences we have pushed away? What parts of ourselves have we rejected? How do we connect with the love & joy on the other side of pain & fear?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 13, 2021, about joy. Why does our remarkable freedom to choose in each moment so often not result in joy? How do our habits of attention affect our happiness? How do we move our lives more toward the resonant depths of joy?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 6, 2021, about kindness. What is kindness and what are its roots? What do the edges of our kindness look like, the places where our kindness stops? What practice would allow us to bring more heartfelt kindness into the world?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 29, 2021, about waiting. When we wait, do we gorge ourselves on fantasies or make room in ourselves? How do we cultivate hope without expectation? How do we wait with joy? This talk occurred on the first Monday of the Christian time of Advent.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 22, 2021, about gratitude. How do we resist underestimating the pure simplicity of gratitude? How do we avoid the tenacious poison of taking things for granted? How does all of life, all joy and all suffering, transform when we look through the lens of gratitude?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 15, 2021, about right speech. Are we always aware of which part of ourselves is speaking at any moment? How do we discern when to challenge and when to make peace? How do we use our voice to unfold our deep authenticity further into Life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 08, 2021, about peace. What are the false refuges where we all regularly but vainly seek peace? What habitual attitudes prevent us from finding real peace? What are the characteristics of genuine inner peace and how do we cultivate these?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 01, 2021, about internal boundaries. How does healthy self-regulation differ from neurotic over-control? What is the emotional tenor of our inner conversations? How can we cultivate a joyous relationship with the energies that are inherently uncontrollable?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 25, 2021, about our mortality. What valuable lessons does the awareness of death teach? How does death catalyze our apprehension of the preciousness of our life and our loves? How does death sharpen our focus, enhance our compassion, and deepen our power?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 18, 2021, about suffering. Why do we suffer? How can we bear our suffering? What meaning can find in suffering?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 11, 2021, about self-love & self-compassion. What are the typical misunderstandings about self-love? How does believing the voices of pain create such a barrier for us? What are the practical steps we can take to move toward self-compassion a little more each day?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 4, 2021, about accepting imperfections. Why do so many people embrace so tightly the poison of perfectionism? How do we nurture more self-compassion within us? How do we find our way to celebrating our wholeness?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is the poem quoted.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 27, 2021, about inner retreat. What does it mean to go inward? What are the self-generated obstacles that stand in our way? What sacrifices does this radical simplification demand? What is the deep inner letting-go that leads to true freedom?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 20, 2021, about the cycle of healing. What factors in life prevent us from healing ourselves? What does the path of healing demand of us? How can we align ourselves more with the energies of healing?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is a link for an image of the Chartres labyrinth
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 13, 2021, about community and connection. Why does it take a great tragedy for us to reconnect with the simple truth that we need each other? What are our resistances to being alive to our deepest needs? And how is all this deeply reflected in the Buddha dharma? This talk took place two days after the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 6, 2021, about the ideal of the spiritual warrior. How much self-discipline do you bring to your personal growth work? How courageously do you face yourself? How truthful are you with yourself?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 30, 2021, about judgment and judging. What are the inner dynamics of pronouncing judgments on others? What does it mean to live with good judgment? How can shifting our perspectives reorder all of our previous judgments about life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 23, 2021, about Buddhism and sensuality. How do we respond to Buddhism’s invitation to feel life deeply? How does this invitation land in our bodies? How does this invitation expose our attempts to control life? How can we step more fully into embodying the affirmation of life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 16, 2021, the conversational nature of reality. How many of our relationships with others actually involve a real conversation? To what extent are we stuck in stories from the past? How can we be more open to the vital message of Life in each moment?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 9, 2021, about deep belonging. How do we feel more at home in our bodies, in our emotions, and in the world? How do we cultivate deep belonging in our bodies as an invitation to ourselves and others? How do we expand the circle of our belonging to include all of life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 2, 2021, about the archetypal masculine. We hear a lot about toxic masculinity, but what does healthy life-affirming masculinity look like? What are the noble qualities of the masculine that enliven and affirm others? How can all people draw more deeply on the healing energies of the archetypal masculine? This talk will occur the day after the Celtic holiday Lughnasa.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 26, 2021, about desires and needs. The Middle Way exhorts us to avoid the snares of desires but to attend to our true needs. What are our true needs? How does desire distort our perception of our needs? How do we develop the discernment to know our true needs?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is the pdf mentioned.
This is my Dharma Talk from July 19, 2021 about mindfulness. How does mindfulness unlock the magic of the world? How does mindfulness open us to a more vivid experience of life itself? How does the practice of mindfulness align us with who we really are?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 12, 2021, about the Bodhisattva Vows. What invitation does the idea of a Bodhisattva offer to us? What deep values do these vows embody? How can working with these vows be a tool of transformation for us?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 5, 2021, about our divided country. What inner work can we do to bring healing to the ideological divisions in our country? How do we give our power away? How can we embody an invitational way of being? This talk took place on the Monday immediately following Independence Day.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 28, 2021, about the spiritual foundations of the United States of America. What is the intimate spiritual invitation implicit in the original American ideals? What spiritual challenges are contained in the Great Seal of the United States? What is the deep mystical truth of E Pluribus, Unum? This talk took place on the Monday before Independence Day.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 21, 2021, about impermanence. How do we find grounding and balance amid the waxing and waning of what we value? How do we live in joy while constantly letting go? How do we generate compassion for the ever-changing nature of self and others?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 14, 2021, about inner wildness. How do we relate well to the untamed qualities of our being? What distinguishes life-affirming self-control from neurotic over-control? How can a conscious relationship to our wild animal energies enrich our life and our practice with deeper vitality?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 7, 2021, about presence. What does it mean to show up fully? How do we arrive more abundantly in our own bodies here and now? How do we taste life in the present moment more completely?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 31, 2021, about memory in spiritual life. How can our memory and our memories be a means of freedom rather than a burden? How do we build the capacity to remember how we want to live? How does remembering who we are at a soul level help us to gather ourselves into wholeness? This talk took place on Memorial Day.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 24, 2021, about balance in spiritual life. How do we thaw out the stuck patterns in our life? How do we vitalize those parts of life that are dry and uninspiring? How do we align with the healing currents of our deeper nature? This talk occurred on the Whitsuntide Monday, the day after the Christian holiday of Pentecost.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 17, 2021, about enthusiasm. How conscious and intentional are we about what drives our behavior? How much do we deaden life by taking things for granted? How do we unlock the transformative energy of enthusiasm within us?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 10, 2021, about self-blame. Why do we treat ourselves so differently from the way we treat others? How does blame short-circuit both healthy responsibility and healthy vulnerability? How does self-blame arise from unhealthy attachments to control?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 3, 2021, about patience. How do we cultivate this much-admired and hard-to-embody quality? How are we abandoning ourselves when we lack patience? How is impatience a potent mirror that reveals to us everything we are not willing to face in ourselves?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 26, 2021, about the unsettling quality of the Sacred. How attached are we to who we think we are? What are the intuitions about our greatness that we dread or seek to avoid? What do the chaotic and uncontrollable aspects of Life reflect to us about who we really are? This talk took place in the week leading up to the Celtic holiday of Beltaine.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
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This is the poem quoted.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 19, 2021, about emptying and emptiness. Why is emotional emptiness such a widespread feeling in the modern world? How does the clenched fist of scarcity prevent us from contacting our inner plenitude, and how does spiritual self-emptying lead us towards it? How do other spiritual practices of inner cleansing and emptying find their culmination in the Buddhist idea of emptiness? This talk was given during the sacred month of Ramadan.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 12, 2021, about anger. How do we hold well this potent form of vitality? How do we honor the truths of anger? How do we follow the thread of anger to our rawest places of vulnerability?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 5, 2021, about the greater life we are called to live. What are the fears that stand in the way of our inner power? What are the deep attachments that keep us trapped in our small self? What are we willing to risk in order to be free?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 29, 2021, about the Teaching. How does a pattern of meaning enfold our lives? What are the sources of wisdom that shine through from behind the events in our lives? What are the potent lessons to be drawn from our most impactful experiences?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 22, 2021, about nonattachment to outcome. How do expectations separate us from a primary experience of vitality? Why do we get so hooked on our stories about the future, despite all evidence? How can we cultivate a heroic posture toward the future unknown, a heart ready for anything?
This is the blog article quoted in the talk.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 15, 2021, about inner renewal. How do we transcend the cycle of seeing our life as stale, stuck, and uninspiring? How do we break through to seeing with new eyes? How do we contact the vibrant freshness deep down in the world and deep down in ourselves? This talk took place the Monday before the Vernal Equinox.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is the poem quoted.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 8, 2021, about the trap of seeking to be right. How does focusing on being right limit our happiness? Why can humans be so deeply and painfully hooked on the need to be right? How do we heal the powerful dynamics underlying a compulsion to be right?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 1, 2021, about inner confinement. How do we imprison ourselves? How do pain and pleasure trap us? How are we limited by our misconceptions of freedom? What are the steps we can take toward true freedom?
This is the poem quoted.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 22, 2021, about the Major Arcana sequence of the Tarot. The Major Arcana lays out, in archetypal form, a detailed map of the spiritual journey, indicating the typical challenges, the strengths required, and kinds of support available. Wherever we are in our own journey, what can we learn from the path that so many before us have walked?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is the slideshow used in the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 15, 2021, about romantic love. In light of the Buddhist call for universal compassion, what is the place of this strong emotional bond with one other person? How do the problematic kinds of attachment (clinging), about which Buddhism warns, interfere with our ability to form healthy attachments (emotional bonding)? How does a romantic connection provide such a deep and intimate arena for personal growth work? This talk took place the day after Valentine’s Day.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 8, 2021, about the Chinese Bagua system, which arises from the Yijing and underlies Fengshui. Confucius’s commentaries on the Bagua elucidate a template for working with the overwhelming energies that can be released in healing and in spiritual practice: in its rich symbolism, it provides a powerful map for healing trauma.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is the slideshow used in the talk.
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on February 1, 2021, about the power of yin. What is the deep strength that superficially looks like weakness? How do we catalyze the emergence of our own power by cultivating deeper levels of acceptance, surrender, and allowing? How do we activate the transformative power of sacrifice & bliss within us? This talk occurred on the Celtic holiday of Imbolg.
This is the yin/yang sheet.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 25, 2021. I talked about synchronicity. How does the magic we can encounter depend so much on the quality of our attention? How does the deep interconnectedness of Life make itself known to us? How can we align ourselves more with the great pattern of meaning that underlies Life?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 18, 2021, MLK Day, about the measure of love. How much do you trust choosing from love? What priority do you give love? What are you willing to risk or give up for the sake of love? What would it mean to affirm love as your highest value?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 11, 2021, about walking toward the fire. In what ways does antiracist work, especially for white bodies, dovetail powerfully with transformational healing and the demands of the wisdom traditions? How does courage shape the arc of an entire life? What are we willing to face in ourselves for the sake of growth and for the sake of others we love? This talk was inspired by the ideas of Resmaa Menakem
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on January 4, 2021, about our relationship with time. How does the quality of our attention affect our experience of time? How can we have a more abundant experience of time? How can we open more intentionally to the experience of timelessness?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 28, 2020, about abundance. How do we move beyond the grasping unsatisfiable hunger of ego-mind to the expansive perspective of love and healing? How do we bring healing to those parts of us clinging to scarcity narratives? How do we open to the natural abundance of the present moment?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 21, 2020, about the archetype of the Winter Solstice, the birth of light at the heart of darkness. How do we allow healing to transform our most disconnected inner places? How do we bring vivifying hope to the places within that have been most locked out from the flow of life?
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This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 14, 2020, about power vs. control. How can we distinguish the neurotic control that disconnects us vs. the healthy self-control that aligns us with our authentic power? How can we cultivate the deep surrender that allows this power to emerge?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on December 7, 2020, about innocence. What does this magical and misunderstood quality offer us? What would it mean to see ourselves, others, and the whole world through the eyes of wonder? How can we take steps to move toward this core simplicity at the center of our being?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 30, 2020, about the holiday blues. The winter holidays can be a focal point of emotional challenges for many, and the COVID period only heightens the sense of disconnection. How do these struggles look in the lens of Buddhism? What would it mean to embrace our experience with the kind of deep self-compassion and self-allowing that supports genuine healing?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 23, 2020, about joy. In a world that offers us the glitter of endless distractions, the message that joy is part of our inmost nature may seem incongruous. Paradoxically, running after everything we want leads us away from abiding joy. With all the challenges of life, how can we touch the ground of this perennial joy within us?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 16, 2020, about hope. What does it mean to live with hope in a time of uncertainty? What does it mean to cultivate hope without expectations? How do we ground hope not on attachment to future fantasies but on the experience of vitality in the present moment?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on November 9, 2020, about loving one’s enemies. This prominent Christian ideal from the Gospel of Matthew of course finds profound resonance in the Buddhist tradition. What does it mean really to love an enemy? What is the deep inner work required to reach beyond the boundaries of otherness and live out fully this noble ideal?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 19, 2020, about inner transcendence. We are familiar with the ways we struggle, and perhaps also the places within that feel beyond hope, but do we know the part of us above the struggle and outside of it? How do we develop a relationship with that part without disconnecting from a grounded experience of being here fully? How do we embrace all we are in wholeness? This dharma talk fell on the Christian feast of All Soul’s Day as well as Dia de Muertos.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 19, 2020, about facing the unknown. How do we become more comfortable with uncertainty? How do we hold the seemingly fixed certainties of our life lightly, making allowance for the uncontrollable unpredictability of life? How do we enter into an active relationship with mystery? This talk preceded the Celtic holiday of Samhain.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 19, 2020, about grief. How do we give ourselves to this difficult emotion? What are some of the less obvious griefs we may carry? What does the experience of grief teach us about impermanence?
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This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 12, 2020, about transformative healing. How does our culture of seeking comfort and easy answers actually mitigate against deep healing? How do we cultivate the raw courage to transform our longstanding issues? What tools does Buddhism offer as we navigate the challenges of the healing journey?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on October 5, 2020, about the chakras as map of our journey to wholeness. What would it mean to occupy your entire being? What would it mean to trust and draw on all our different ways of knowing? What would it mean to taste every flavor of what it is to be alive?
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 28, 2020, about inner protection. What is the innate compass, the deep sense of health and wholeness that lies below the workings of ego? How do we align ourselves more with this fierce protective self-compassion in our depths? This dharma talk took place one day before Michaelmas, the Christian feast of St. Michael the Archangel.
This is the quote sheet for the talk.
This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 21, 2020, about boundaries. How do we develop and keep good boundaries, with others and with ourselves? How do we give both ourselves and others a great gift by keeping good boundaries? How do we authentically embrace stepping into our power?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 14, 2020, about caring and not caring. In some ways, Buddhism calls us to radically vulnerable forms of caring, yet in other ways, it asks us not to care at all. Much of human dysfunction stems from caring and not caring about the wrong things. What are the kinds of caring, and the kinds of not caring, that nourish our growth and lead to true freedom?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on September 7, 2020, about coming to ground. What are the ways we try to control our experience, our vulnerability, and the emotions we don’t want to feel? How do we relax into what we don’t want to feel? How do we surrender into the deep vulnerability of the present moment?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 31, 2020, about listening. What are the qualities of an excellent listener? How do we underestimate our own lack of listening and how much we are not hearing the subtle messages from others, from ourselves, and from the world? What would it really mean to open up and take in everything deeply?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 24, 2020, about silence. Some kinds of silence stifle us and even support inequity in the world, while other kinds of silence unfold our deeper nature—how do we distinguish? How does working with inner silence paradoxically make our voice more powerful in the world? How can the power of deep inner silence shatter the outer silences that separate us?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 17, 2020, about spiritual bypassing. How is it so human to misuse spiritual ideas & tools as ways to avoid pain and discomfort? How does using meditation and mindfulness solely for comfort and peace of mind actually lead us away from our deeper nature? What does spiritual bypassing have to do with White Privilege? How do we move toward a more sincere relationship with ourselves and our practice?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on August 10, 2020, about surrender. How do the powerful positions of surrender and letting go differ so significantly from resignation and giving up? What is the kind of courage required to surrender? How does surrender put us into deeper accord with Life and with what the Wisdom Traditions ask of us?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 27, 2020, about the archetypal masculine. What are the key differences between toxic vs. healthy masculinity? What is the wisdom of the masculine, and how can we all benefit from drawing on that wisdom from within? How do embracing the wisdom of the masculine and feminine lead to our true nature? This sangha will occur two days after the Celtic holiday of Lughnasa, an ancient celebration of the archetypal masculine.
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 27, 2020, about love vs. fear, one of the most fundamental choices in life. Which patterns in your life are aligned with love, and which, with fear? How can we use the tools of Buddhist to move beyond fear and connect more deeply with love?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 20, 2020, about antiracist work in a Buddhist perspective. How are the challenges and imperatives of antiracist work deeply aligned with the dharma? How does doing this political work on ourselves move us toward our deeper nature?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 13, 2020, about mystery of being human. How much are you able to regard yourself and others with a sense of open-ended wonder? How much can you embrace the deeply mysterious and mystical in yourself and in others?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on July 6, 2020, about self-love. How well do you receive compliments and appreciation? How deserving do you feel? How can you move more the direction of lovingkindness and compassion of the self, in spite of feelings to the contrary?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 29, 2020, about toxic shame. What are the many guises of this core emotion, the multiple strategies people use to avoid this primary experience? What is the work that brings deep healing to the core places of shame?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 22, 2020, about allowing. To what extent does your love for others truly invite them to be who they are? To what extent does your acceptance of Life enthusiastically affirm the world as it is? In your own self-care, how can you give long-withheld permissions to own inner brokenness?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 15, 2020, about control. How can we distinguish healthy forms of self-control from neurotic over-control? How does our attitude toward our own out-of-control elements shape how we respond to perceived out-of-control forces in the world? How does affirming life and love require us to confront the roots of neurotic over-control?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 8, 2020, about peace. The pursuit of inner peace involves many apparent paradoxes. At the same time, this ground of inner peace is the surest basis of bring peace into the world. As always, Buddhism has a lot to say on this topic, including some things we rather would not hear.
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on June 1, 2020, about extremism. We live in extreme times—what advice does Buddhism, the Middle Way, have for relating to extremism? In what ways does Buddhism call us to extreme forms of compassion and of opening to the experience of Life?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 25, 2020, about emptiness and fullness. Ramadan ending in Eid, like Lent ending in Easter, is an image of a prolonged period of emptiness leading to fullness. This deep archetypal truth appears throughout the world’s wisdom traditions, including in the Christian idea of kenosis and the Buddhism concept of sunyata.
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 18, 2020, about anger. What is your relationship to anger? How can you cultivate a healthy relationship to this potent form of life-energy, a relationship to anger that is healing to yourself and others?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 11, 2020, about freedom. What is freedom in a Buddhist context? How do popular misconceptions about freedom leave us less free? How can we find true freedom?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on May 4, 2020, about inner strength. When we are faced with challenges, how do we tap into our own reserves? How do we find that inner ground of resilience and confidence that allows us to weather outward difficulties?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 27, 2020, about cultivating a heart ready for anything. How do we embrace loss and all our difficult emotions? How do we make room in ourselves for all of us? How do we open up so that we can be deeply touched by the raw vital beauty of life?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 20, 2020, about patience. Whether we shelter-in-place alone or with others, these times can try one’s patience. What is patience? What steps can we take to develop this often praised yet elusive virtue? How does developing patience align us with our deepest nature?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 13, 2020, about joy. It’s a cliché that happiness comes from within, and our current conditions really challenge us to find the wellspring of joy within us. What does Buddhism teach about connecting the essential joy that is the ground of our nature? How do we move more toward that in the struggles of our daily life?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on April 6, 2020, about a Buddhist perspective on the Passion & Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even if we don’t believe the Christian story, what lessons does this story hold about the nature of the sacrifice demanded of us and the nature of the transformation possible?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 30, 2020, about opening to Life. In what ways are your present to Life, fully here and able feel it deeply, and in what ways are you defended against the raw energy of Life? In what ways are you a spectator, simply watching Life go by? How can you show up more powerfully?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 23, 2020, about the third jewel, the sangha. What gifts do we gain from a spiritual community? What benefits do we derive from being in connection with others doing the work?
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This is my dharma talk from the East Bay Healing Collective on March 16, 2020, about facing fears. How do we remain grounded when fear arises? How can we connect to a deep sense of trust and safety within?
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