Dharma Talk and Meditation Podcast

I'm going to talk a bit about the Buddha's first noble truth, that the beginning of the path to freedom starts by acknowledging and turning towards becoming fully aware and breaking any shred of denial that we might have about our suffering, about the dukkha, about the sorrow, the grief, the sadness, the loneliness, the afflictive emotions that we experience as humans. As well as all of the loss and the sadness and difficulty, the difficult situation that we're all born into.

What kind of sorrow have you experienced in your life? In the world? About yourself?

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I feel like the core of what I'm going to talk about tonight is Sangha, it's community and the importance of drawing near and sustaining connections with Sangha. With people who are wise, or at least trying, attempting to be wise and have the intention to be wise.

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So I don't have a have a Dharma talk really for tonight. I'll share a couple of reflections. Last week I was in Thailand for the second time in a month, just a short trip. I went out there with my friend Russ, who's here in the room tonight, to interview Ajahn Amaro who's been one of my core teachers. He's a Buddhist monk, he's an English guy who's a Buddhist monk for like 40 something years…

What comes up for you around the holidays? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you bring your practice into it?

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Tonight I'm going to talk about the reality of the suffering in the world and the suffering of existence. Why life is not easy and pleasant and why people aren't wise and compassionate.

What is it that you find most difficult of existence? Why aren’t you happy all the time? Why aren’t you at peace? What gets in your way of joy?

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The topic tonight is about love and loving ourselves. A core part of what the Dharma is teaching us is to love ourselves and each other. 

Do you love yourself? What do you love about yourself? Something that I love about myself is ____. 

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Tonight I'm going to talk about maladaptive strategies. It's that strategy that's like, well, it feels really good when I do it, but I know it's creating negative karma for me because I'm lying or stealing or cheating. I love lying and stealing and cheating. It feels so good.  But I know that in the long run, it's an unhealthy behavior. In the long run, it destroys my fucking life.

What’s something that you do that brings you temporary relief but is bad for you in the long run? Some things that you do that feel good but you know aren’t good for you? 

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I'm going to talk about how  Buddhism, the Buddhist teachings and this path that we call the middle path, is meant to be practiced in every aspect of our life. Our mindful awareness, intention to be kind, sexuality, our relationships, our relationship to money, our relationship to work, responsibility,  our relationship to the world, politics, all the intention is that we bring this practice and these wisdom perspectives to every single aspect of our life. 

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I don't really have a topic topic tonight. I'm just going to do a Q and A. I'm not going to do a full Dharma talk, but we’ll be reflecting on what you understand of Buddhism so far.  Maybe some people are pretty new to Buddhism, but reflecting on what you do know of Buddhism.  Is there anything that you know about Buddhism that doesn't quite  fit or that you kind of have questions about?  Like, the common one is, “is reincarnation really true?”

What do you know about Buddhism so far? Is reincarnation really true? What do you find challenging to believe?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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Living with impermanent experiences

I'm gonna to focus on the Buddhist teaching on non attachment, letting go. The teaching of accepting the impermanent nature of all things and trying to see how much suffering we create for ourselves when we cling or get attached. Also, the antidotes to the suffering that is based in attachment is letting go or letting things be impermanent rather than trying to create permanent structures out of that which is constantly changing.

What is something you’d like to let go of? 

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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Death with Noah Levine

Impermanence Of This Body

So tonight the topic for exploration, meditation, and, discussion is death. We talk a lot about impermanence and the Buddha had a lot of teachings about death. So we're gonna talk about death tonight, our relationship to death and the importance of having a relationship with the reality of these temporary nests of our lives and of the lives of everyone that we know and care about. The reality on this planet that we don't last all that long.

What is this body? How do you feel about dying? Do you talk about death? Is it on your radar? 

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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Suffering with Noah Levine

Tonglen Meditation

Tonight I'm gonna talk a lot about suffering, the first noble truth. We're gonna do a Tibetan meditation tonight called Tonglen. We’ll breathe in the suffering and breathe out compassion. Developing an attitude of friendliness and care, warmth and mercy, compassion towards pain. Our pain and each other's pain and the pain/suffering in the world.

What are you suffering about today?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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Forgiveness is not, it's not really all that directly taught by the Buddha in the Metta Sutta, there's a few lines on forgiveness.

The Buddha says “in order to really have loving kindness, we have to free ourselves from ill will. Let none despise any being in any state”. So this is a instruction… Just for a moment reflecting on how many people you actually despise. That's maybe not the way you think about it, but think of the people you judge, that you resent, that you wouldn't mind if they didn't exist…

What does this topic of forgiveness bring up for you?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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Tonight I'm going to talk about equanimity, which is a balancing to compassion. The whole goal of Buddhism is to learn to end suffering, not to add to it, not to compound it, but to end it. The whole teaching of the four truths and the eightfold path is this is how we can end our suffering. Compassion is central, caring, loving, kindness, generosity, it's all central to the teaching.

How do you deal with the suffering in your life and in the world? 

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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Compassion is a central aspect of what the Buddha's path to liberation entails. Without compassion, there's certainly no freedom, certainly no happiness. It's a necessary skill that we have to develop. It's a radical one. It’s not a decision we can make. We actually have to retrain our minds. We rewire our nervous system in some ways to experience compassion, especially when it comes to ourselves.

What is it like to receive compassion from someone else? Do you like that when someone cares about you or does it feel a little too intimate? How has your compassion grown since you started meditating? Are you more open to empathizing?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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Tonight I'm gonna talk about and start a series for the next few Mondays where I'm gonna give teachings and practices on the, the Buddha's heart practices, what we call developing a wise heart. Positive emotional responses which are Loving Kindness, Compassion, Forgiveness, Loving Kindness, Appreciation & Equanimity. We'll start with loving kindness meditation tonight, and we'll move on the next few weeks.

How are you skilled in these areas? What are the areas that need work? Which ones are you really good at?  What are you working on? How have these practices helped you? What is your experience with these practices? 

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My father developed a soft Belly Meditation. It’s a mindfulness practice. If we wanted to fit it completely into the Buddhist teachings, it would be part of the first foundation of mindfulness. Mindfulness of the body, and becoming aware in our bodies of the ways that our body holds tension, on some level or another as resistance. Part of what mindfulness is inviting us to do is to not resist, but to accept what's happening.

When you experience a little bit of stress, fear or resistance to what's happening, what gets tight in your body?cWhere does your body hold tension?

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I'm often talking about the difference between wanting and needing and that which we are attached to. Of course, the whole emphasis of Buddhism is that everything that we're clinging to, that we're attached to, is causing us suffering. The cause of suffering is attachment, clinging, craving and that the end of suffering comes from non-attachment. So I'm gonna talk tonight about that dilemma that we have as householders.

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The transformation that Buddhism offers, the path to end suffering, it's such a gradual long-term process. Something that’s really a lifetime's endeavor. It's not a quick fix. It's not like you can learn meditation in 10 days, do 10 minute meditations and get that much benefit. Buddhism is asking for quite a deep commitment if you want the results. The results of happiness and freedom. Alleviating suffering takes a lot of work and perseverance.

How long have you been meditating? What are some aspirations you have? What else are we going to do with this life? 

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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I'm gonna talk tonight about acceptance and the role of acceptance. Just kind of reflect a little bit on acceptance. I have a hard time accepting all of the oppression in this world. All the ignorance. 

What does Buddhism teach us about acceptance and where's that line between acceptance and complacency when we shouldn't be accepting? We should be working for a positive change. We should be engaging with things rather than acceptance as this sort of complacency that doesn't do anything to change, to try to create a positive shift towards wisdom, justice, equality, whatever it is that we're talking about.

What is, what's something that you find unacceptable or suffer about accepting and don't want to accept?

#AgainstTheStream #Buddhist #Meditation

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I have no planned topic for tonight and would like to just talk with you about whatever might be interesting for you. So reflect for a moment on questions you might have around meditation practice this form of theravada inspired Buddhists meditation practice.

Or areas of teachings, the Buddha's teachings, we call it the dharma. Topics that you are curious about or wanna know more about or confused about. Anything that you'd like to ask me or topics you'd like to hear me reflect on.

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