In response to the California wildfires, Noah reflects on Buddha’s advice to the group of fire worshippers who became some of the earliest members of the sangha.
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Could you imagine getting to a place, in your meditation practice, where you could communicate with people and be free from a comparing mind, and just be present with someone, just as they are rather than the whole sizing up dance of superior, inferior or even equal.
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The fact that we have a map of how to traverse, navigate our way through this human experience.
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In order to wake up and see reality clearly, we must first learn to be kind, patient, accepting and forgiving. Without kindness our meditations, actions and thoughts become ruled by the habitual reactive patterns that cause suffering.
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I have come to believe that the states of generosity, compassion, lovingkindness, appreciation, forgiveness, and equanimity (balance) are natural by-products of the meditative path.
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Impermanence & Change: The Unreliable Nature of Things
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What’s it mean to be free? The buddha said, “I only teach the truth of suffering and how to end suffering”. How do we alleviate suffering…..And then what? What would life be like?
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The Middle Path. Finding the balance between the internal and external aspects of the Buddhist practice. When is being of service to others an act of avoidance?
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Instead of clinging to these things as who we are, mindfulness loosens our identity. It is a process of unraveling our identity, rather than this tight rope of self, “I Am”, mindfulness starts to say, “OK, there’s a body, there’s memories, pleasant, unpleasant memories, It’s a loosening of the rope of self.
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Reconnecting with the sangha to celebrate the unity of having suffered isolation alone together.
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Compassion: The Path to Freedom
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Reflecting on how incredibly radical this proposal is; the Buddha’s proposal that we can be at ease, we can be at peace, we can be free from suffering no matter what is happening.
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May 19, 2020 Nothing must be accepted on blind faith.
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Mindfulness dharma talk with Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx, Against the Stream, Heart of the Revolution and Refuge Recovery.
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May 12, 2020 For a real revolution to take place, our spiritual life and practice have to be so much more than just getting our ass on the meditation cushion for a period of time each day
Our sitting meditation is only the formal training period in our spiritual life.
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The Buddha – in the Satipatthana; translated as the word for mindfulness - the four foundations, levels, the four aspects we are mindful of; the body, the feeling tone – pleasant, unpleasant neutral perception of all sensations in the body, the mind – turning towards our mind, the truth of your experience and the experience of awakened factors, “Sukha”, the happiness, joy and pleasure that comes from our meditation; the spiritual experiences coming from our own heart and mind
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Obviously we need to learn the practices that will reveal the truth to us—but that is all. A teacher’s role is only to point out the instructions and encourage students to do the work for themselves. A good teacher constantly empowers students to trust themselves, to train their minds, and to uncover their own heart’s wisdom. A good teacher is nothing more than a wise and caring friend who has traveled the terrain on which the students are now treading. The teacher can point out the pitfalls and detours of the path, but we each must do the walking for ourselves
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Breaking our addiction to our minds. Do you consider yourself a thinking addict? How often are you drawn into thought you don’t really want to be thinking? Identified with those voices in our head that are not wise, are not friendly, are not compassionate?
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We have all been seduced by the world’s enchanting offers of happiness through pleasure and accumulation, but they are lies, shams, fallacies. In order to find the true happiness and freedom that are available, we must understand this clearly. We must experience a revolution in our perception of the material world. Inside each one of us resides the truth; and however deeply buried or obscured that truth has become, we have the ability to uncover and experience it for ourselves— and happiness and freedom will follow.
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