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.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) In the first part of a two-part talk, we first identify the value of having a comprehensive map of our practice, and how a contemporary map builds on traditional maps but includes dimensions of practice not identified traditionally. We then explore the three traditional areas of training--in wisdom, meditation (including the development of concentration, mindfulness and insight, and the heart practices), and ethical practice--while briefly mentioning (more next time) two further contemporary areas of practice: Psychological learning of different kinds and social engagement that extends ethical practice. The talk is followed by discussion.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Connected with the talk giving a contemporary map of our practices, we review four foundational practices: (1) developing concentration (samadhi); (2) cultivating general mindfulness, (3) cultivating mindfulness of pleasant or unpleasant feeling-tones, and being mindful of any ensuing reactivity (grasping after the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant in relatively unconscious, automatic, and habitual ways); and (4) a heart practice developing kindness, compassion, or other heart qualities. The guided meditation is followed by a brief period of discussion.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) What does it mean to truly keep a vow to ourselves? Devon Hase explores adhiṭṭhāna—the cultivation of resolve—as both the courage to stay with what is difficult and the wisdom to soften, surrender, and listen when pushing harder becomes its own form of self-abandonment.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Includes a meditation and dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Includes a meditation and dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Includes meditation, dharma talk and a few key areas of discussion
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The four boundless qualities off the cushion, as they meet the actual world. A motel chain's accidental bodhisattva vow, a bus station, the Lincoln Memorial steps, a border crossing, a hospice room, and the Buddha's final instruction with the Karajakāya Sutta's promise about how far love can carry a heart.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Guided Meditation opening to boundless unconditional quality of Metta, Compassion, Supportive Joy and Equanimity
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is immediately followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Includes meditation and dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) A main way to understand generally our practice is by seeing it as combining (1) avoiding “unskillful” or “unwholesome” actions and states of mind (and knowing how to practice when they arise), and (2) developing skillful or wholesome qualities. We explore different aspects of this way of seeing our practice: Understanding its relationship to the teaching on wise effort; seeing the core unskillful quality as reactivity (dukkha) in its two forms as grasping after the pleasant and pushing away the unpleasant, each in myriad ways; and developing positive qualities like concentration, mindfulness, kindness and compassion, generosity and the other paramis, and the Seven Factors of Awakening. We examine some of the complexities of practicing with reactivity, with a main one being that reactivity is often enmeshed with discernment; I can be judgmental and caught in reactivity, for example, as an activist who sees injustice clearly, with discernment. This calls therefore for transforming the reactivity, so we can make use of the discernment skillfully. We also look into some examples of both forms of practice, both in meditation and in the flow of daily life. The talk is followed by discussion.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We begin with a brief introduction to the theme of this evening's talk on the foundations of our practice—avoiding “unskillful” or “unwholesome” actions and states of mind (and knowing how to practice when they arise), on the one hand, and developing skillful or wholesome qualities, on the other. There is then a guided practice, linked with the talk theme, focused on developing (1) concentration (samadhi), (2) mindfulness (sati), and (3) awareness of reactivity, developed in part by noticing how we relate to what is moderately pleasant or unpleasant.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The Buddha placed patience first when he summarized the whole path (Dhammapada 184) as the felt texture of wise effort. The question is what is the heart is doing while the time passes. With the hen who warms her eggs, Sona's lute, and an old trumpet player in the desert; a talk on how the heart opens: not by pushing, but by keeping something warm.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is immediately followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Sympathetic Joy
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Recognizing and observing the hindrances with interest and curiosity, we are placed before the movie theater of our life and are offered a magnified view of our habits and tendencies.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Compassion is the great circuit that connects our interrelationships and allows us to turn toward the difficulties of life and respond with skillful care. In truth It is a kind of fearlessness. A protector. A strength in itself. But it also has impostors.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) The mind is limitless in its power and often misunderstood. Left untrained, it clings, distorts, and generates suffering. When met with awareness, it becomes a gateway to clarity, compassion, and liberation.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is immediately followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Further into the Brahma Viharas, talk about equanimity or Upekha, the two types of equanimity , how to cultivate the second one, given that the first one can only be achieved by cultivating all the Paramis. Then a short guided meditation based on the Tibetan Tonglem of bringing other's pain/suffering into our hearts to tranform them into light.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is immediately followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Guided meditation starting with settling the body, then the breath as air element,then identifying the the rest of the four elements in our bodies,the solidity of air, the fluidity and cohesion of water and the temperature of fire. At last a guided with instructions sky gazing meditation to do outside.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Includes a meditation, dharma talk & a few key areas of discussion.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Guiding Meditation. Starting with settling the Body and then the breath. A subtle balance between relaxation adn allertness. Focusing on the breath sensations in relationship with the air element.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) We are nothing but Earth inlcuding all its elements, not separete from her/them, Inviting to honor, revere it, seeing clearly the interdependence. Inviting to shift from seeing Earth as a resource to recognizing it as our creator, sustainer, healer, and home. By remembering that we are not separate from the living world—but an expression of it—we cultivate humility, gratitude, ethical responsibility, joy arises from a deeper sense of belonging, inspiring both inner transformation and compassionate care for all life.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) This talk explores the core teaching of letting go and how it relates to profound states of well-being. We learn about Natural Awareness-- the luminous quality of the mind-- and try a few "Glimpse practices" to access it. Diana then shows us how Natural Awareness practice can help us navigate the complex, challenging, and heart-breaking times in the world today.
(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) This session explores equanimity-- what it is, how to cultivate it, and how to work with the "mosquitoes" we encounter.
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