Spirit Rock Meditation Center: dharma talks and meditation instruction

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The teachings of the Buddha (Dharma) and the practices of Insight Meditation (Vipassana) and loving-kindness meditation (metta) are at the heart of all the programs we offer at Spirit Rock. Practicing Insight Meditation develops mindfulness, the capacity to pay attention to each moment of life and to see clearly the truth of our experience. Studying the Dharma provides insights into the conditions that define and limit our experience of life. And cultivating an attitude of loving-kindness allows us to stay present to what's true and what's difficult in our lives with compassion for ourselves and others. Ultimately, our relationship to life is transformed as we learn to live more wisely and kindly.

via dharmaseed.org


    • Jul 30, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • weekdays NEW EPISODES
    • 1h 2m AVG DURATION
    • 789 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Spirit Rock Meditation Center: dharma talks and meditation instruction

    Donald Rothberg: Guided Meditation: Concentration, Metta, Mindfulness (including of Negative Views), and Reflections

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2025 40:18


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) In this guided meditation, connected to the later talk on "Non-Harming," we begin with about 8 minutes of settling and becoming more present, developing more samadhi (concentration). Then there is a period of lovingkindness (metta) practice, including starting where the lovingkindness flows the easiest and then extending the lovingkindness to many other beings. This is followed by mindfulness practice, with guidance on exploring when there are negative or blaming views of self or another. Finally, we close with several reflection questions related to how there is harming of self and/or others at times in our lives.

    Tempel Smith: Morning Instructions: Mindfulness of Self'ing

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2025 48:08


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Once we have a base of simple connection to breath, body, and our immediate senses, we can explore our driven habits of adding a sense of self to these very simple experiences. As stated in the Bahiya Sutta, in the seeing just let there being the seen, with out adding a sense of "you" to what is being seen. We can compare moments of the day where the the mind isn't entangled in concocting a sense of self versus the mind which is adding a very thick sense of self.

    Juliana Sloane: Cultivating Equanimity in Difficult Times

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2025 57:46


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)

    Tempel Smith: The process of self obsession and how we untangle this very deep habit.

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2025 66:12


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) For those new to directing there mindfulness practice towards the experience of self production, there are a few relatively simple practices to expose and let go of the over concoction of a thicker sense of self to life's present time experiences.

    Donald Rothberg: Honoring the Life and Work of Joanna Macy

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2025 66:54


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) This talk occurs five days after Joanna's death at age 96, and two days after Donald attended a wake for Joanna at her home, saying good-bye to her. Donald first met Joanna Macy in 1977, while still a student. When he moved to Berkeley, California in 1988, he helped start a neighborhood daily meditation group of ten households, including that of Joanna and her husband Fran. So he got to know Joanna and Fran as friends and neighbors. In 1991, he first trained in her approach, later called "The Work That Reconnects" and offered this work in different venues. Over the years, they have stayed friends and colleagues, and sometimes taught together. In this talk, Donald gives a sense of the trajectory of Joanna's life and work, showing photos of Joanna spanning her life-time and interspersing stories of training with Joanna and using her practices and perspectives in his own teaching. He focuses in the second part of the talk on the four aspects of the "spiral" of her teaching: (1) starting with gratitude, (2) honoring our pain for the world, (3) seeing with new eyes, and (4) going forth into the world. We close with a brief account of Joanna's wake from two days before the talk, and a video recording from the wake of group singing about the "Great Turning." The talk is followed by discussion and closing intentions. For the slides shown during the talk, see document 318, below.

    Donald Rothberg: Guided Meditation Inspired by Joanna Macy's Work

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2025


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We begin with a period of settling, developing greater samadhi or concentration, and then move to mindfulness practice, including giving some attention to noticing moderate or a little greater levels of pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tone. When we notice pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tones, is there any tendency toward grasping or pushing away, in habitual or automatic ways? We then explore gratitude as a practice, simply reflecting on ways that we are grateful, first for aspects of our own lives, and then for aspects of the wider world. This is followed by opening with mindfulness to some difficult or painful aspects of our world, whether close to home or farther away, inspired to see and be with what is painful through wisdom and care. We end with a return to mindfulness practice for a short time. (This guided meditation is related to the talk that follows, honoring the life and work of Joanna Macy.)

    Cara Lai: What Really Matters?

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2025 100:19


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The beautiful adventure of curiosity and how if we follow it, we find that everything in our experience is always calling us home to love.

    Juliana Sloane: The Freedom of a Flexible Mind

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2025 64:26


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

    Tempel Smith: Mettā practice and Wise Speech

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2025 63:47


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The blessings of a strong mettā practice developed on retreat include how we can cultivate wise actions and wise speech when we leave retreat.

    Rebecca Bradshaw: Appreciative Joy Introduction (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2025 42:02


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Intro to mudita and short guided intro to meditation.

    Heidi Bourne : Honoring Joanna Macy, Pt. 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2025 122:05


    Tempel Smith: Guided Forgiveness Practice

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2025 56:14


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) From a base of loving kindness and compassion we can consciously aim our heart's attention into a practice of Forgiveness.

    Devon Hase: Resiliency: Grief, Equanimity, and Joy

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2025 110:04


    Noliwe Alexander: Love in a World on Fire: The Practice of Metta in Troubled Times

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2025 74:24


    Rebecca Bradshaw: Practicing with Challenges in Formal Metta Practice (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2025 62:48


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The classic “five hindrances” as applied to formal metta practice. Includes the “near miss” of attached love, and “far neighbor” of aversion.

    Tempel Smith: Morning Instructions - Mettā (Loving Kindness) including Dear Friends

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2025 50:54


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Extending loving kindness meditation from the primary practice of ourselves and a chosen easiest being, we can open at times to include any dear friend whom also easily come to mind. At this stage of practice we are inclining out mettā practice to rest where mettā is easiest. This would be any beings for whom it is easy to see the good in them, and we easily feel warmth.

    Walt Opie: Dharma & Recovery: Step Seven: Humbly Let Go

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2025 77:19


    Tempel Smith: 1st Night - Why Come on a Loving Kindness retreat?

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2025 63:07


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) What is special about a 9-day Loving Kindness retreat? The form of Buddhist practice helps cultivate positive qualities of friendliness and kindness, it helps purify old habits of defensiveness and hostility, and it help cultivate samadhi (concentration).

    Grace Fisher: Metta as Connection

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2025 84:14


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

    Heidi Bourne : Honoring Joanna Macy, Part 1

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2025 102:28


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Includes meditation, dharama talk & select aspects of group discussion

    Donald Rothberg: Talk: Bringing Our Practice to the Current Difficult Times: An Eightfold Path

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2025 66:51


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) For the Buddha, practice was understood as involving three trainings, in wisdom, meditation, and ethics (sila). Ethics, typically under-emphasized in later Buddhism, including Western Buddhism, with sometimes clear negative consequences, had as its horizon helping others. The Buddha said: “Wander forth . . . for the welfare of the multitude, for the happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for the world.” The later emphasis on the bodhisattva develops this emphasis further. In this talk, we suggest a contemporary “Eightfold Path” for understanding and responding to the current difficult times in the society and world. It's outlined in terms of three wisdom guidelines, two meditation guidelines, and three ethics guidelines. The talk is followed by discussion.

    Donald Rothberg: Guided Meditation on the Two Main Forms of Buddhist Practice, Developing Concentration and Insight (Directed by the Core Wisdom Teaching)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2025 39:28


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We begin with brief instructions for developing samadhi (“placing together” or “concentration”), followed by basic mindfulness instructions and then guidance for working with the feeling-tone of pleasant or unpleasant, when it appears in the moderate range. We are mindful of pleasant or unpleasant and look for grasping or pushing away in some form, guided by core wisdom teachings.

    Grace Fisher: Finding Our Inner Refuge

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2025 61:52


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is followed by a Dharma talk. Group discussion has been omitted.

    Donald Rothberg: Talk: The Big Picture 3: Introduction to Ethical Practice

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2025 63:19


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) After a brief review of the first two talks in this series, we explore the nature of ethical practice, one of the three core inter-related areas of training for the Buddha, along with training in meditation and in wisdom. We see how ethical practice has often been understood historically as having a social dimension, both in the teachings of the Buddha and later, as in the edicts of King Ashoka. We also explore some of the ways that ethical practice has been marginalized in Western Buddhist practice, with significant consequences. Then we look at the commonality of ethical guidelines in cross-religious context, with Donald telling some personal stories. Finally, we outline several ways to carry out ethical practice and then open up to discussion.

    Donald Rothberg: Guided Meditation: Developing Concentration, Mindfulness, and Insight Practice Exploring Impermanence and Reactivity, with Reflection on Daily Life Practice at the End

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2025 39:10


    Shinmu Tamori Gibson: The Deep, Simple Gratitude for Knowing Awareness

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2025 107:23


    Mushim Ikeda: Three Messages for Thriving: Cultivating a Durable Spiritual Practice

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2025 67:03


    Grace Fisher: Meeting the World

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2025 63:55


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been removed.)

    Donald Rothberg: The Big Picture 2: Nine Ways of Deepening Daily Life Practice

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2025 65:55


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We continue our series of meditations and talks exploring the foundations of contemporary Buddhist practice. We begin by reviewing last week's talk on the basic model of Buddhist meditation, identifying three aspects of practice. These three are (1) developing samadhi or concentration; (2) cultivating three modes of liberating insight--into impermanence, dukkha or reactivity, and not-self; and (3) opening to awakened awareness. Then we focus on a crucial, central, and not always developed dimension of contemporary practice, especially for the vast majority of Western Buddhist practitioners who do not live in monastic contexts--bringing practice to everyday life. We identify nine ways of deepening daily life practice (see the attached document, #314). The talk is followed by discussion.

    Donald Rothberg: Guided Meditation: Developing Concentration, Mindfulness, and Insight into Impermanence and Reactivity

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2025 38:54


    Gullu Singh: Instructions + Sitting (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2025 55:12


    Sean Oakes: Right View Comes First: Deconstructing Identity

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2025 62:08


    Sean Oakes: Monday Night Guided Meditation

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2025 42:34


    Dawn Mauricio: Guided Positive Emotions Sitting (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2025 44:30


    Tara Mulay: Empowering Ourselves Together in the Dhamma

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2025 66:32


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

    Tuere Sala: Closing Session (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2025 66:22


    Tuere Sala: Cultivating Awakening Emotions At Home (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2025 108:10


    Tuere Sala: Inward Staying Part 2 (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2025 48:14


    Tuere Sala: Afternoon Instructions (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2025 30:46


    Grace Fisher: Working with Thoughts to Find Freedom

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2025 59:23


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is followed by a Dharma talk. Group discussion has been omitted.

    Heidi Bourne : Strengthen your Refuge wth the Refuges

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2025 101:54


    JD Doyle: The Karma of Forgotten Stories

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2025 31:36


    Amana Brembry Johnson: Awakening from the Illusion of Separation

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2025 113:35


    Anthony "T" Maes: Reflections on the Middle Way

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2025 77:36


    Emily Horn: May Loving Kindness Arise (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2025 24:43


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Guided practice "May Loving Kindness Arise"

    Emily Horn: Liberating the Sense of Self (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2025 45:44


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) In this talk, Emily explores the Buddha's teachings on the Liberating Insights and the Three Characteristics. She explains how suffering and impermanence shape our experience of self—sometimes making it feel solid and fixed, other times more open and fluid. By working skillfully with the hindrances, we can loosen our grip on a rigid sense of self and allow it to move with greater freedom.

    Juliana Sloane: Untangling Compassion and Empathy

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2025 78:35


    Ayya Cittananda, Ayya Santacitta, Ayya Santussika: Closing Guided Meditation and Dhamma Talk (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2025 90:43


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Guided meditation relating to the planet and our place on it, followed by a Dhamma Talk on the instructions given to Ven. Mahapajapati by the Buddha as encouragement for continuing practice in daily life.

    Eve Decker: The Buddha's Teaching on Alleviating Suffering

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2025 92:24


    Ayya Santacitta: Tending What Is Dense & Dark (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2025 49:02


    Ayya Santussika: Mindfulness of Breathing: Body, Feelings, Mind and Dhamma (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2025 53:26


    (Spirit Rock Meditation Center) A gentle guide through all the steps with a focus on Dhamma reflection.

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