06/13/2019 “Psychedelics and Buddhism…” with Matt Russell

Psychedelics and Buddhism: Hindrance or Skillful Means?

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You may have heard, there is a “new science of psychedelics” and major studies are showing that these substances, when properly used, can help relieve human suffering, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction. Some proponents claim that psychedelics have the potential to revolutionize health care as well as our understanding of the mind.
Psychedelics and Buddhism have a long, if seldom discussed, overlapping history in this country that continues into the present day.
This talk will offer an inquiry into the implications of the current state of “psychedelic science” on dharma practitioners, exploring the possibilities as well as the potential dangers and perils.
We will inquire into topics such as: psychedelics and the 5th precept, the impact of psychedelics on the formation of the Dharma in the West, academic research into the effects of psilocybin on the brains of long term meditators, the current landscape of contemporary dharma teachers and practitioners who integrate psychedelic use into their dharma practice, how we might think about psychedelics in the context of addiction and recovery.

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06/06/2019 “Can We Be Aware of Delusion?” with Rich Howard

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This evening will be the latest in Rich’s exploration of the three roots of suffering – greed, hatred, and delusion – and how to work with them. Since delusion is always present along with any of the unskillful mind states, it is especially important to recognize it and get to know its unique flavor. But how do we know when we’re deluded? Wouldn’t delusion prevent us from knowing we are deluded? Let’s look at these questions together in a spirit of inquiry.

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05/23/2019 “Buddhist Ethical Precepts” with Laura Rosenthal

The Buddhist Ethical Precepts – Are They Really Not Commandments?

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05/16/2019 “Vesak… and looking at ‘Nibbana'” with Diane Wilde

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The most important holiday in the Buddhist calendar is Vesak. This year for many Buddhists Vesak is celebrated on Sunday, May 19. It celebrates the important events in the Buddha’s life… his birth, enlightenment and reaching a final state of no suffering… paranibbana.
Enlightenment or Nibbana has a host of definitions, mostly consisting of what it isn’t. The Buddha never explicitly said what it is, or for that matter, even exactly “who” gets enlightened. Due to the inability to speak about “Nibbana, the“goal” of eliminating suffering is either impossibly vague or has disappeared entirely from view.
What Western Buddhists are left with is the “path” and perfecting the path now appears to be the goal rather than actual enlightenment. Why is that? Is Nibbana the same in 2019 as 2,600 years ago when the world was so radically different? We’ll investigate the traditional attempts at explaining Nibbana and also some new ideas emanating from the challenges of our times.

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05/09/2019 “The Ethical Dimension of Buddist Practice” with Tony Bernhard

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05/02/2019 “Difficult, Problematic and Obsessive Thinking – Part II” with Dennis Warren

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This is the second talk, in a series of two, on working with difficult, problematic and obsessive thinking. A useful four page handout accompanied Dennis’ first talk on this topic on March 7th. The discussion this evening will look at the differences between working with thought during meditation and working with thought during daily lives. These are two different approaches.
For example, the traditional instruction is to “not go into the content of thought” during meditation. Is that the whole instruction? Doesn’t the Insight Meditation process involve some form of evaluation of thought while one is meditating? How does this basic meditation instruction apply to thought in daily life?
Among other thing, the evening will explore the five strategies the historical Buddha recommended for dealing with difficult, problematic and/or obsessive thoughts that distract us for seeing into their implications or true nature of being either harmful or unhealthy nature.

(Note: This talk does not cover the same materials present in the talk on the “Two Types of Thinking” presented earlier this month on April 18 by Community Teacher Diane Wilde.)

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04/25/2019 “Developing Right Effort in Our Practice” with Walt Opie

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04/18/2019 “Two Types of Thinking” with Diane Wilde

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Thoughts… what a random mess! They come uninvited, stick around for a bit and then they are off. Thoughts that we enjoy as well as thoughts that we would prefer to ignore. Thoughts that are inspirational and others which bring out our worst nature. The Buddha explains in the “Dvedhavitakka Sutta” that he too wrestled with uninvited thoughts. Using mindfulness practice, he categorized arising thoughts into skillful and unskillful, i.e. which of his thoughts alleviated suffering and which made things worse. In our contemporary lives, we are unfortunately, mostly unaware of the harm we needlessly cause ourselves because we rarely monitor our own thought processes. This is true for the dramatic “big issues”, but it is also relevant for thoughts that arise from seemingly innocent and often mundane daily activities. Tonight we will discuss strategies for elevating our “thought experience” both on and off the cushion.

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04/11/2019 “Happiness and the Arising of Samādhi” with Meg Gawler

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There are two audio files available: a dharma talk and a guided meditation.

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Happiness (sukha in Pali) is the proximate cause for samādhi (collectedness, concentration). It is also traditionally taught as one of the factors of absorption (jhana). On this evening, Meg will explore the various meanings of happiness in a Buddhist context and the role it plays in our practice of meditative awareness.

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03/21/2019 “Communicating with the ‘Other'” with Diane Wilde

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Our polarized society has caused many of us to not only avoid speaking to those who don’t share our political, spiritual or cultural views, but to avoid them altogether. Social scientists state that the animosity towards the “other” is as extreme as it was in the 60s and 70s during the Vietnam war. And yet, it has never been as critical to speak about the perilous issues that effect everyone. Speaking to each other is a task we all must undertake because we now have no choice. Avoidance has been creating its own downward trajectory… the climate crisis worsens, and political polarity has resulted in societal paralysis.
Tonight we will discuss steps we might consider taking in communicating with the “other.” The Buddha offered advise in many suttas, and contemporary social scientists have weighed in on how to begin a conversation eliminating rigidly held dogma or self-righteous anger.

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