08/25/2016 “Analog or Digital?” with Rich Howard

Nature is a seamless whole, flowing and changing continuously. The world we inhabit is increasingly digital, measured, quantified, and reduced to numbers and words. How do you think of your practice? Minutes on the cushion? Days in retreat? Years of practice? Or does the practice flow through every waking moment? We spend this evening examining our view of practice as analog or digital. We  ask ourselves if it makes a difference. We think about our own practice and discuss how it might be digital, analog, neither, or both. And how that serves our life and the world.


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08/18/2016 “The Power of Negative Thinking” with Laura Rosenthal

In Buddhist teaching, ethical conduct constitutes an essential training: sila, one of the three trainings that form the ennobling eightfold path. While contemporary teachers frequently discuss the ethical precepts in positive terms, emphasizing the wholesome qualities we are cultivating, traditional Buddhist teaching frames them in the negative, as core unwholesome behaviors with respect to which we practice renunciation. In this dharma talk and group discussion, we will explore why the precepts may have been framed in this way as well as the freedom and richness found in exploring this path of “not doing.”

This talk references a handout: click here

Laura Rosenthal, a long-time participant in the SIM community, is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP 4) and is currently participating in Spirit Rock’s Advanced Practitioners Program (APP).

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08/11/16: “Right Effort and Right Action” with Dennis Warren

The previous two talks (Jul 28, Aug 4) focused on Right Effort, or Energy, and the prominent role it plays in Buddhist practice. This talk has a focus on the important relationships between Right Effort or Energy, on the one hand, and Right Action on the other. Understanding these two different elements of practice; how they are similar; and how they are different is an important step in making them operational in daily life. This talk explores the meanings of Right Effort and Right Action, their role in practice and their place in Buddhist psychology.

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08/04/16: “Right Effort, Part 2” with Dennis Warren

Right Effort, or Energy, plays a prominent role in Buddhist practice. It is one of the “5 Spiritual Faculties”, one of the “7 Factors of Awakening”, one component of the “8 Fold Path”, and is a foundation for the “4 Foundations of Mindfulness.” It’s obviously pretty important for the Buddha to have included it as an element in all of these groupings of core spiritual tools.

This talk is a follow up to the initial discussion of Right Effort held July 28. We switch gears and look at Right Effort or Energy from a different perspective – as the application, monitoring, and adjustment of both physical and mental energy as the basic underpinning of all of our practice efforts.

In its most basic form, this involves non-conceptually figuring out, and using our effort to support, what works — what allows us to remain mindful and see into the nature and consequences of what is unfolding — in any moment of experience. In this sense, Right Effort’s contribution to helping us get free of suffering in our lives involves using it to stay focused on a particular way of investigating our experience and the nature of our lives. Understanding Effort in the context of meditative psychology, and how to use it as a reliable and practical tool in formal meditation practice, as well as daily life, is essential to developing, stabilizing, and maturing our practice.

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07/28/16: “Right Effort, Part 1” with Dennis Warren

This talk has a focus on Right Effort and presents a model for understanding and working with this core practice that may be a little different than you have heard before. Drawing on a number of talks of the Historical Buddha and other teachers, Dennis explores a practical approach to jump starting your practice.

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To listen to Part 2 of the series, click here.

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07/21/16: “Four Personality Types,” with Diane Wilde

Have you ever wondered why there are people who, though born in poverty and deprivation, yet managed to evolve as wise and compassionate people, seemingly content with very little, while others, born with privilege and wealth, seem to require more and more “stuff” and often succumb to cruel behavior towards themselves and others. The Buddha had something to say about these “four types of people” in the Tamonata Sutta:

“There are these four types of people to be found existing in the world. Which four? One in darkness who is headed for darkness, one in darkness who is headed for light, one in light who is headed for darkness, and one in light who is headed for light.” The Buddha did not speak in riddles. His teaching is clear and well-explained. Whenever he said something that people might not understand properly, he explained it immediately. What is darkness? What is brightness? How does one keep on running from one to the other?

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07/14/16: “What is the Benefit of Living the Contemplative Life – Part II

“What is the benefit of living the contemplative life?”

This is the question put to the historical Buddha by King Ajatasattu. The dialogue that continues is one of the most comprehensive and eloquent presentations of the Buddha regarding his teachings; a comparison of his teachings to the other major spiritual and philosophical theories of the time; the original Sangha’s code of ethics; the Buddha’s own lifestyle, and more.

This talk is part of a continuing discussion of this fascinating Sutta that began during Dennis’ talk on June 9th. You might listen to that talk as a way of preparing for this evening.

The evening will explore the specifics of this sutta and how they have direct application to our practice and daily life today in an urban setting.

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07/07/16: “The Practice of Gratitude,” with Rich Howard

This evening we discussed gratitude in the context of the Highest Blessings or Causes for Happiness found in the Maha-mangala Sutta. For those interested in reading this short and original sutta, you may find it at here:

“Maha-mangala Sutta: Blessings” (Sn 2.4), translated from the Pali by Piyadassi Thera. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.2.04.piya.html .

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06/30/16: “Death, Dying and…What?” with Diane Wilde

Death and dying are topics we are simultaneously fascinated with and repelled by. The fascination with death has made it a contemporary entertainment topic. Just witness the number of deaths and murders we see on TV, in the movies and in video games. On the other hand, bring up the subject of your own death to friends and loved ones and you most likely will receive a chorus of pleas to “Please change the subject!” On the other hand we are fascinated with past lives, near death experiences and the endless theories on what comes after death. Things were not so different in the Buddha’s time, and he had a lot to say about death and dying and “what comes next.” We will also look at contemporary research into the dying process and reflections on its aftermath.

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06/09/16: “The Fruits of Living a Contemplative Life,” with Dennis Warren

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF LIVING THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE?

This is the question put to the historical Buddha by King Ajatasattu. The dialogue that continues is one of the most comprehensive and eloquent presentation of the Buddha regarding his teachings; a comparison of his teaching to the other major spiritual and philosophical theories of the time; the original Sangha’s code of ethics; the Buddha’s own lifestyle, and more.

The Samannaphala Sutta is consider one of the most useful and helpful discourses of the Buddha. The question “What is the benefit of living the contemplative life?” is as relevant to all of us today as it was in the time of King Ajatasattu. Ajatasattu was a layman who become a devoted follower of the Buddha after this encounter and sponsored the First Buddhist Council.

The evening will explore the specifics of this sutta and how they have direct application to our practice and daily life today in an urban setting. This will be the first in a series of two or three talks Dennis will give based on this sutta.

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