NBMC Dharma Talks: Recent Episodes
Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center
A series of Buddhism-related talks given by various speakers at the Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center in Northfield, Minnesota
Summary: Over the past two years Ajahn James has been on a journey of transformation, navigating the radical changes experienced while transitioning from the life of a contemplative monk to entering mainstream Western society. Ajahn James will discuss the challenges, pleasures and lessons experienced along the way. Biography: Ajahn James Morrison was a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition. After completing a bachelor’s degree […]
Talk Title: Trauma, Suffering and Liberation Talk Summary: This talk’s title is a reflection on personal engagement with direct suffering in the world as a practice and its relation to traditional Buddhist understandings of the path to liberation. The talk will address such topics as: What is the value of our finding personal peace, equanimity and happiness in […]
Talk Title and Theme: The Heart at Home in the Body Biography: Chas DiCapua has been practicing Buddhist meditation for almost 30 years. He has trained with Burmese meditation masters, western monastics of the Thai Forest tradition, senior western vipassana teachers, and he has spent over two years in silent, intensive retreat. Chas is a […]
Talk Title: Doomscrolling, Dhamma & the Middle Way Talk Summary (as stated by Doug): “Whether we are newshounds or not, or consume media compulsively or not, we are all doomscrollers* now. The sheer bulk and velocity of deeply disturbing news is unavoidable today, and we tend to absorb it osmotically. How is one to cope without collapsing? A […]
Senior Theravadin Teacher Deborah Ratner Helzer joined us on January 7, 2024 with a talk entitled Surprise! Biography: Deborah Helzer began practicing Buddhist meditation 30 years ago, to reduce stress while working on her engineering degree. She has been teaching at Insight Meditation Society since 2004, as well as with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, […]
On Sunday, November 5, Shodo Spring will gave with the title: “Making Peace: With the Sutta-Nipatta, and considering the current state of the world.” She is well-known in the sangha as a Zen priest, an activist, and the head of the Mountains and Waters Alliance in Faribault, where she lives on a permaculture farm.
Ben delivered a dharma talk on Imagination, Interdependence, and Liberation: Practicing Yogacara Buddhism with Vasubandhu’s “Three Natures.” Ben teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police training and addiction recovery groups. He works with multi-faith groups focused on intersectional liberation, racial justice, and climate justice. Ben serves the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, […]
Sam Johnson delivered a dharma talk on March 5, 2023 on the subject: Is it really just a small world after all? Bhikkhus, I say that the end of the world cannot be known, seen, or reached by travelling. Yet, bhikkhus, I also say that without reaching the end of the world there is no making an end […]
On June 20, 2021 Rocky gave a talk about the challenging journey that led him to join the Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center in 2019, and how the sangha and meditation changed his life. As someone who was able to overcome intense anxiety through sitting, he asks how we (the sangha) can help others who may … Continue reading "Rocky Casillas Aguirre – The Doorway I’d Never Seen Taught Me to Let Anxiety In"
On October 10, 2021, Ben Connelly gave a talk entitled: Show Up In A Good Way – Lessons from Zen practice at Indigenous Led Water Protector Camps. About Ben: Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police training and addiction recovery groups. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen … Continue reading "Ben Connelly – Show Up In A Good Way"
Recorded on Zoom on April 11, 2021. The subject of Shodo’s talk was refuge. About Shodo Spring: Shodo Spring is the founder of Mountains and Waters Alliance, dedicated to working together with all beings to protect and restore the earth. She is also a Zen priest, Dharma heir of Shohaku Okumura Roshi, mother and grandmother, leader of the 2013 … Continue reading "Shodo Spring – Refuge"
Mindfulness is an ancient and powerful practice of awareness and nonjudgmental discernment that can help us ground ourselves in the present moment, with the world and our lives just as they are. But there’s a risk: by focusing our attention on something (or someone), we might always see it as something other, as separate from … Continue reading "Ben Connelly – Mindfulness and Intimacy"
How should we practice through the Covid-19 pandemic? In a recent interview Sayadaw U Tejaniya, the Burmese monk and meditation teacher, answered simply, “the same as we always practice.” Yet the intensity of the crisis, he said, reveals many aspects of Dhamma in unusually high relief, including the need to “quarantine not only the body but … Continue reading "Doug McGill – Practicing Through the Pandemic"
Courtney Work is a Professor of Ethnology at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan
About Gabe Keller Flores: Gabe Keller Flores is Common Ground Meditation Center’s Office Manager and serves on the Board of Directors, as well as the Advisory Committee on matters of equity and accessibility. He is a dedicated dharma practitioner, having spent about one year of his life doing intensive retreat practice. He’s been practicing at … Continue reading "Gabe Keller Flores – Gathering, Stewarding, and Directing Energy for Awakening"
About Beth Goldring: Beth Ann (Kanji) Goldring began Zen training in 1979 and became Maurine Stuart Roshi’s student in 1982, receiving Jukai from her in 1986 and ordination in her name in 1995. A former university humanities teacher, she was engaged in human rights work in Palestine 1986-93, a Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellow 1993-4; in … Continue reading "Beth Goldring – Buddhism and Justice"
About Ajahn Chandako: Originally from Minneapolis, Ajahn Chandako was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1990 in the Thai Forest Tradition in the lineage of Ajahn Chah. After practicing intensive meditation in various monasteries in Thailand and traveling extensively in Tibet, Nepal, and India, he settled at Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand, the monastery established … Continue reading "Ajahn Chandako"