Barre Center for Buddhist Studies: dharma talks and meditation instruction: Recent Episodes
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(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) The Pali traditions take on mind cultivation. A psychological take on four different tasks in meditation practice.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) For practicing and non-practicing Jews (and allies) alike, Yom Kippur presents an invitation and a challenge. On the one hand, it is very widely observed -- often with family -- and invites a kind of introspection familiar to lovers of the Dharma. On the other hand, Yom Kippur can be profoundly alienating in its approach to ethical refinement, its theistic liturgy, and its contemporary cultural trappings. In this session, Jay Michaelson explores some Dharmic practices, texts, and wisdom for making the most of this "retreat of retreats" (Shabbat Shabbaton).
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) As the First Noble Truth, the Buddha pointed to dukkha: some experiences are painful; enjoyable experiences are impermanent; and all phenomena lack an enduring essence.
Dukkha is routinely (mis)translated as “suffering” or “unsatisfactoriness” - but these are not inherent in it! The Buddha’s liberating teaching in his Second Noble Truth is that it is tanha - “craving” - which turns dukkha into suffering.
Biologically, we crave when we feel something is missing or wrong. So, in this conversation with Rick Hanson, we'll explore how to build up a sense of fullness and balance that’s hardwired into the nervous system, and grow the inner strengths that can meet our needs without craving . . . and face the challenges of life with an unshakable core of contentment, love, and inner peace.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) Buddhist traditions have sometimes characterized the dharma—the teachings of the Buddha—as beyond the realm of language and thought. If this is so, then why have so many Buddhists articulated their understanding of the dharma through literature, in poetry, discourses, plays, and fiction? Might the transformed modes of perception described in doctrinal texts be experienced through literature, through deeply engaging literary texts that blur boundaries between the imaginary, the representational, and the real? Join Ruth Ozeki, Zen Buddhist priest and novelist, and Francisca Cho, professor and one of the most prominent contemporary scholars on Buddhism and literature, as together, they explore emptiness and form, and the many ways that reading and writing literature can teach the dharma.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) The quality of the sacred is missing from our lives, that which is totally true and is always there. We can open to it every day, from that stable place of embodiment. From that open center, we form a relational entity that can carry our values and virtues forward.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) Impact of other people; over-reliance on others; staying open with the unknown; responding to others’ sense of entitlement; innate truth of the cosmos; citta and the sense world; fear and constriction in the energy body.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) Mostly we operate from a fragment, excluding the whole of experience because it doesn’t fit our model of what should be. Return to wholeness, first in your own heart and mind, then extending it to society. Maintain a wide focus and receptivity, an open state where citta remains attuned, and you’ll find your inner security, having plugged into the life force as it manifests in this body.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) Subject-object division of the senses; hardening in the face of trauma; greed, hatred and delusion; caring for others; broad vs. specific attention; harmonious relationships; experience of subjectivity; relationship of verbal formation (vacī saṇkhāra) to ānāpānasati.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) There is such a thing as good and evil and they give rise to fortunate or unfortunate consequences. Good and evil not as value judgments, but as particular energies that have consequences. The heart opens as a consequence of skillful energies, like generosity and love. This is the key to the celestial domains of the Sacred Cosmos, where gods are void of judgment and keen on Dhamma as a way to happiness.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) Supporting the heart with embodiment, with steady ground and safe space, allow breathing to happen naturally. Releasing what’s not needed, the subtle shielding around the body, open to what’s around with goodwill and love. Whatever arises, breathing it in, breathing it out.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) Standing can help adjust you physically, anatomically and psychologically. Establish balance, connection, openness and ease. Let breathing flow through you. Aim for what’s harmonious in all that – open, allowing. This is the birthplace of wisdom and compassion.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) Separation and interconnectedness; citta doesn’t fit in this world; destruction of the environment; fear of letting go; energy of body vs. sensations; healing divisiveness in my community.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) There are many kinds of world – biological, political, and so on. Their common source of discord is selfishness, the separatist, supremacist view. The common intention of all worlds is the search for safe ground. We might start with a safe human environment, then establish safe embodiment. When there is safety, security and truthfulness, by itself citta opens and brings forth its own qualities – love, wisdom and morality. These are our unique offerings to heal the discord in any world.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) This body that we can see as an object it’s also a subject – it’s a feeling, intelligent creature. Start with this right attitude, right view, and open the mind from the assumptions about body as an object to treating it as a sensitive creature. As we liberate this creature from clinging and identity, the witnessing heart – awareness – becomes more steady and peaceful.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) We see ourselves as separate from the rest of the world, but we’re not. We are a meeting point of all kinds of relational qualities, qualities that can be imbued with Dhamma to make our experience a mandala of sharing and communion. Stress comes from developing an ineffectual relationship with what happens. We practice to come out of the worldly dividedness into something more compassionate, deep, less isolated. This is sacred practice.
(Barre Center for Buddhist Studies) The powerful COVID-19 virus teacher has brought us to the brink of widespread systems change and deep uncertainty about how things will unfold. There is a hunger for a more profound understanding of the links between ecosystem collapse and public health threats, between patterns of economic domination and racial injustice. Systems thinking and Buddhist views together offer skillful means for making sense of these interlocking calls for action.