Suffering is a part of existence for everyone, but it doesn't have to be. The dharma is for those of us who say, “I'd rather not suffer. I'd rather not be normal. I'd like to rebel against the normal status quo of human suffering. I'd like to, take this radical path of actually freeing myself from suffering. I defy the causes of suffering.”
Read MoreThe core of what I'm gonna talk about is acceptance. I ask you to reflect for a moment about what are some of the difficult things for you to accept about reality? What do you find hard to accept?
I believe it's part of our practice to see clearly and accept the world as it is. Right now, it’s like this, the world is like this. In no way does acceptance mean complacency. It means to see clearly what's happening in you and around you.
Read MoreThe promise of Buddhism is that it is possible to not suffer about the pain and difficulties in our life. What hinders your ability to not suffer?
The buddha gave a list of the 5 hindrances:
1. Craving for pleasure
2. Aversion to pain
3. Restlessness, anxiousness, and impatience
4. Laziness and procrastination
5. Self-doubt and unworthiness
Mindfulness allows us to slow down and name these hindrances without allowing them to overtake us and cause us suffering.
Read MoreJoin Noah for this special talk on his birthday as he reflects and shares about his story and the last 35 years of his practice and transformation through the Dharma.
Read MoreEmotional intelligence is about developing a wise relationship to human emotion through Loving Kindness and Meta practice.
The intention with these practices is to develop positive emotions so that we can more easily access kindness, compassion and forgiveness - towards others and ourselves.
Read MoreSuffering is normal, suffering is the reality of this world. But how do we take that suffering and learn to have a wise relationship to it?
Buddhism offers us a wise response to living on this planet. Compassion and equanimity are the solutions to suffering and through meditation we can access that loving, compassionate heart and that is our true nature.
Read MoreJoin Noah Levine for a special Q&A about the Dharma and this practice.
In this talk Noah answers questions from the community around mindfulness and how much benefit we get from learning to be uncomfortable.
Read MoreThe importance of ethics comes back to karma and the truth that we are totally responsible for our actions. Karma means action and for every action there is a reaction.
When we are harmful or unethical we create suffering for ourselves and others. If you want to free yourself from suffering, Buddhism is how you can achieve that.
Read MoreMindfulness is the core technique that leads to freedom from suffering. All of the suffering in our life is a lack of mindfulness. Mindfulness gives us a choice.
Mindfulness is the practice of present time, non-judgmental, investigative, kind awareness.
There's a quality of mindfulness, which is contemplating and investigating and using your mind to look at what's happening. What is this? What does this feel like?
Read MoreWhat kind of personality do you have? The Buddha broke personalities down into three categories - greed, hatred, and delusion.
It is through mindfulness meditation that we will become more aware of our personality tendencies and begin to change our relationship to the ways that our personality tendencies create unnecessary suffering for us.
This path is about looking at the causes of suffering and how we can suffer less.
Read MoreThe Mind & Our Relationship to Our Mind
The reality is that most of our suffering is created in our own mind. The Buddhist path has the goal of ending suffering by radically changing our relationship to our minds.
Reflect on this question - How much of the time do you believe your mind? How often do you feel it's telling the truth? The more we meditate the more trustworthy our minds become.
Read MoreHow do you feel about death - Your own death and the death of those you love?
The Buddha encourages us to become intimate with death and to turn towards it rather than denying it and avoiding it. Becoming intimately connected with the impermanence of my own body and the impermanence of everyone that I love.
One of the most central teachings in Buddhism is the truth of impermanence and becoming aware of how much of the negative experience we create for ourselves by clinging to impermanence.
Read MoreWho do you need to forgive? Do you include yourself on that list?
What would it be like if you forgave your own mind for all the times that it’s unskillful, unkind, unloving, unforgiving, critical, judgmental, and insecure?
In this practice it’s important to work on forgiving those who have caused us suffering, but it’s equally important to forgive ourselves and more specifically, to forgive our own mind.
Read MoreJoin Noah Levine for a special Q&A about the Dharma and this practice.
Noah answers questions around the goal of Buddhism and the Eightfold Path, as well as, attachment in parenthood, where does humor fit into the dharma, and much more!
Read MoreBuddhist Mindfulness Meditation leads to transformation, rather than just an altered state.
When we follow the Eightfold Path and establish a mindfulness practice we turn towards our mind and our pain rather than the natural tendency to ignore or push it away. By training our minds in this way we develop wisdom and begin to end the causes of suffering.
Read MoreThe Buddhist path is one that leads towards an internal friendliness with our own mind and seeks out wise friendships with others who can walk the path beside you.
In this talk Noah discusses the 7 qualities we should look for in friendships and invites us to reflect if we poses these qualities ourselves.
Read MoreWhen we begin meditating something gives us faith, faith that this hard work will be worth it - What is it for you that gives you faith or confidence in the Dharma?
When it comes to the teachings of the Buddha having faith isn’t about trusting blindly, it’s about having confidence that this will help relieve suffering in your life.
In Buddhism faith is not demanded, it’s an invitation.
Read MoreFear is a natural part of the human experience, but it can often take control over our minds.
How can you begin to identify our fear and change your relationship to it?
As we apply the teaching of the Buddha we can gradually decrease the amount of fear we experience. It doesn't completely get rid of fear in the mind, but it allows us to respond with friendliness and compassion when fear is present.
Read MoreThe Buddha viewed the world as what he called Samsara - meaning a realm of perpetual wandering from one realm to the next. In Samsara there are three core causes of suffering - greed, hatred, and delusion.
The promise of Buddhism is that it is possible in this lifetime, through our own efforts, to free ourselves from greed, hatred and delusion.
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