True North Insight: Narayan Helen Liebenson's most recent Dharma talks: Recent Episodes
via dharmaseed.org
I try to help practitioners approach their meditation practice and their lives with compassion and wisdom. Bringing a loving attentiveness into each moment allows us to learn kindness rather than condemnation, and discernment rather than judgment.
I feel that it is essential not to make a split between the formal practice that happens on retreat and the informal practice that happens in daily life. At the core, formal practice and daily life practice are the same. In all arenas of life we can create the same dedication to wakefulness and sensitivity. The right place to practice meditation is wherever we are. The right time to practice is right now. And the right way to practice is to know what we are doing whenever we are doing it.
We can live each moment in a fresh way, free from expectations of how things should be and open to how things are whether we are sitting on the cushion, washing the dishes, or talking with a friend. With practice, we can discover a current of underlying joy and find that all of life is sacred.
Meditation practice is an offering to the world. When we meditate, we practice not only for ourselves, but for all beings. In meditation there is a gradual purification of heart. This purification allows us to trust ourselves and to respond spontaneously to others with compassion and insight.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Teaching in a guided meditation on using thoughts as a meditation object
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Instructions for bringing the second foundation of mindfulness to secondary objects of attention. Day three of Retreat.
(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center) Narayan and Larry reflect on the recent events of the marathon bombing in the Boston-Cambridge-Watertown area.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Learning the four guidelines of mindful speaking which allow us to see with greater clarity
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Acceptance is the wise understanding of what is. The kindness of acceptance is the alchemy that allows for transformation
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) To be mindful is oftentimes perceived as a risk because it challenges our habits. By taking the risk of being present with all things, we move from the known to the unknown.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) practicing with support, comfort and protection in community
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) As we deepen in practice we learn to love stillness and understand the wisdom of non-doing. From this stillness profound insight is born.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The heavenly messengers awaken us from delusion and complacency. They invite us to discover enduring wisdom and freedom.
(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center) Faith is not magical but grows in the light of understanding and experience. Faith enables us to embrace the obstacles and imperfections our life brings.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Awareness illuminates the path of awakening. Our understanding of what the path is deepens simultaneously with our practice.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Hungry Ghost Mind is a state of deprivation, need, & want. Identifying & working skillfully with this mental state is discussed in this talk.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The Buddha called the practice the path of awakening, yet we can't always see where we're going. This talk addresses making the path visible.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) This talk explores the nuances between planning and worry. Looks at ways to let go of worry.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) This is the fifth in a series of five talks/guided metta sessions. This one emphasizes metta in all categories, including all beings.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The fourth in a series of five talks/guided sessions of Metta Meditation. This one focuses on the difficult person and includes self, benefactor, good friend and neutral categories as well.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) This is the third in a series of guided meditation sessions. In this talk/guided session, metta is extended towards oneself, one's benefactor, a good friend and a person who is neutral.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) This is the second in a series of four talks/guided meditations on the practice of Loving Kindness. This one focuses on the benefactor and includes oneself.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Patience: relaxing into things as they are. Instead of resignation or passivity, patience is an alive quality that we can bring to all mind states, including our impatience.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The first of a four part series of guided metta meditation sessions. This one focuses on extending loving kindness towards oneself.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Although it is effortless to be MF, it takes effort to remember to be mindful. The practice of recollection; remembering that which is most true to our hearts.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Life teaches us the lessons of impermanence in each moment. Understanding the lessons liberates our minds from clinging.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Learning to apply the practice to the complex world of relationship.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Through the use of Thai Forest stories, this talk discusses ways and aspects of the importance of training the heart and taming the mind.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Aspects of wise effort are discussed, including reflections on unwise effort.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Aspects of wise effort are discussed, including reflections on unwise effort.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The second foundation of mindfulness is the awareness of pleasant, painful, and neutral feeling. Awareness of the texture of our experiences brings liberation.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The Path of Awakening is available to all. This talk describes how to cultivate innate qualities that lead to inner freedom.
(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Most of us want to know the right answer to complex situations. This post-September 11th talk explores the value of letting go of prematurely trying to figure things out, and replace it with patiently listening inside to our wisest understandings and responses when they are ready to be heard.
(Unknown) The Buddha pointed to impermanence-- the changing nature of things-- as one of the basic laws of nature. The events of September 11th have highlighted this truth dramatically for us. This talk encourages the possibility of softening, seeing clearly and being present to the truth so that we can continue to learn through deepening our understanding of this law of impermanence.
(Unknown) The Buddha pointed to impermanence-- the changing nature of things-- as one of the basic laws of nature. The events of September 11th have highlighted this truth dramatically for us. This talk encourages the possibility of softening, seeing clearly and being present to the truth so that we can continue to learn through deepening our understanding of this law of impermanence.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) How do we work with the energies that are touched in us by the terrorist attacks and all the upheaval in society and the world since then? This talk is an offering of teachings from the Buddhist tradition intended to support us in addressing the current situation wisely within ourselves.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) In an era of terrorism, vengeance and a thirsting for enemies, the practice of insight meditation offers the possibility of a trustworthy and transformative response to the heartbreak of these times. Following the talk is a guided forgiveness meditation.
(Unknown) After the horror of September 11, 2001 the mystery of our suffering can become our healing.
(Unknown) The creation of war begins in the mind. Can we own the shadow in ourselves that wages war with our own experience? Can we see this in the roots of the incredible violence in the world? What would it be to put down the collective and individual struggles that we keep creating?
(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center) Being able to connect with an inner silence amidst the outer turmoil will help the mind become clear and find beneficial ways to meet the challenges that face us. Many issues surrounding the crisis are discussed. Encouragement and suggestions are given for putting the teachings to the test of practice at a critical time.
(Cambridge Insight Meditation Center) Please note that some of the comments and questions from the audience in this segment may be difficult to hear, but the main speaker is not.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The five powers of mind are confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. This talk addresses how they balance and work together, bringing inner freedom.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) This talk is an exploration of what the Middle Path is: it includes discussion on the extremes of self indulgence and self-denial, as well as fantasy and worry.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Learning the four guidelines of mindful speaking which allow us to see with greater clarity.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Understanding the true meaning of renunciation. Renunciation is not what it sounds like.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Defining patience, its place in practice, and the connection between patience and expectation.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The awareness of suffering is a way to let it go.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The path of awareness and the discovery of no self.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The Seven Factors of Enlightenment are mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, calm, concentration and equanimity. When brought to fruition they lead to the highest happiness we can experience. How can we cultivate these qualities consciously in our meditation practice and in our life?
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) The unreliable nature of life, and the possibility of finding peace within it.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) what equanimity is and how it relates to the eight worldly Dharmas
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) a description of each one of the seven factors: mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, calm, concentration and equanimity
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) a discussion of meditative investigation and methods
(Unknown) Cultivating a living response to a living question--what is the truth of this moment?
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) discerning the difference between connection (with oneself, others, the world) and attachment
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Exploration of what it means to study the self.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) meditative approaches to working with difficult emotions
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) viewing our reactive conditioning as a passageway to freedom
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Discovering inner authority and authenticity bring balance and ease to our lives. Investigation, acceptance and renunciation are all part of learning to be at home in our lives.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Awakening from the false through discovering what is true is the path of insight. Some of our personal mythology we have inherited, some is born of our own experience. We can learn to discern what is true in the moment and release sorrow.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Transforming our sense of deprivation into contentment.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Transforming our sense of deprivation into contentment.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Traveling through our lives in openness and wisdom.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Nurturing the mother of transformation and change.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) calmly seeing into phenomena exactly as they are
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Recognizing the light of confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration and calm.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) coming to inner stillness and cessation in this very moment
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) opening to all experiences in an intimate way