Tag Archive for: Dennis Warren

06/30/2022 “Revisiting Fundamentals: Thinking” with Dennis Warren

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“Thinking is a good servant but a poor master.”
This short, well-known statement sums up the conflicting potentials inherent in thought. But what does it mean, specifically, in terms of our how we conduct our spiritual practices and live our lives?
Buddhist practice is designed to develop a fundamentally different, more helpful relationship with thinking. This evening will look at the possibilities available to us as practitioner.
We’ll work with a number of familiar situations to explore these themes. In particular, we’ll look at how thinking can turn a simple, straight-forward situation into one that is complex, confusing and problematic…and how work with it.

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04/28/2022 “Revisiting Fundamentals: The Meaning of ‘The Middle Way’” with Dennis Warren

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The Historical Buddha explicitly described the three trainings of the Eight-Fold Path as “the Middle Way.” At first glance, this description seems to provide a clear and tangible guide to evaluating elements of practice: What practice represents the middle point between extremes?

Is this what is meant by this teaching? Is it that simple? What standard would we use to make this seemly straight-forward evaluation? Or is there something more? How does the notion of “the Middle Way” fit into the Buddha’s finely woven net of teachings, psychology, methods and values.

During this evening we’ll examine the historical factors that led to this teaching. The context in which it was first introduced. And practical and powerful applications which provide a more expansive basis for understanding the role of the Middle Way in practice and life. The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all stages of practice.

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03/24/2022 “Revisiting Fundamentals: ‘Right’ Understanding” with Dennis Warren

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Deciding what is the “Right” or skillful thing to do can be confusing when we are suffering. On one hand, the modern interpretation of the Historical Buddha’s teachings seems to offer an endless number of potential methods and solutions. On the other, what method or approach is actually effective in a particular situation can be elusive. The Buddha’s teachings on Right Understanding describe a straight forward, practical and helpful model for working with confusion, struggle and suffering. These teachings become a powerful set of tools for living, problem solving and growth when they are combined with the teachings on Right Intention and Right Effort. Together, they provide short term strategies for working with the immediate, real-time challenges in our lives; as well as strategies for pointing the mind, body and heart into long term satisfaction and peace.
The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all levels of practice.

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02/10/2022 “Mindfulness, Mindfulness Based Programs and Buddhist Mindfulness Are Not the Same Thing” with Dennis Warren

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There are an endless number of on-line podcasts, events, retreats, magazine articles, websites, books, YouTube videos and personal services describing themselves as involving “Mindfulness” or being “Mindfulness-Based.” Popularized Mindfulness, Mindfulness-Based programs and Buddhist Mindfulness are not the same things.

This evening will explore some of the important commonalities and differences to help us evaluate available practice options and to be clear about what we are doing in our own individual practices.

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01/20/2022 “Healing and Our Biographical Narratives” with Dennis Warren

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Buddhist practice has a unique approach to problem solving and healing. The teachings, methods and underlying psychology dismantle the confusing, and sometimes overwhelming, emotional energy of difficult reactive patterns and our attachment to a biographical narrative that identifies us as damaged. This approach focuses on how we relate to the narrative, not the biographical details of the narrative.

This evening will explore two practical questions:

  • What is the Buddhist approach to problem solving and healing?
  • What role does our individual biographical narratives play in this process?

The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all stages of practice. 

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12/16/2021 “Establishing the Wonderful Quality of Beginner’s Mind” with Dennis Warren

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“Beginner’s Mind” is a wonderful quality of mind. It has the potential to significantly improve our practice of meditation and the quality of our mindfulness and experience in daily life. Despite the widespread (and often confusing) coverage it receives in Buddhist, business, athletic, therapeutic and pop culture publications, it is something that remains elusive for many of us.
This evening will explore the following practical questions:

  • What is Beginner’s Mind, really?
  • Why is it considered so valuable?
  • Why does it seem elusive?
  • How do we establish it in meditation practice? And in daily life?

The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all stages of practice.

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11/18/2021 “Guidance on Establishing Mindfulness” with Dennis Warren

The Historical Buddha’s Guidance on Establishing Mindfulness In Meditation

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The Historical Buddha’s formula for being skillful in meditation starts with “establishing Mindfulness” as a foundational element. This guidance points to the fact that the kind of Mindfulness needed in meditation does not just happen or appear by itself. It is something that needs to be intentionally established, monitored and sustained every time we meditate in order for our meditation practices to be skillful.
During this evening we’ll take a hands-on-look at: What does it mean to “establish Mindfulness” in our meditation practices? What does one do to establish Mindfulness? How do we know if it has been established? If established, how is it sustained?
These are basic, practical, experiential questions that provide a framework for helping us evaluate the soundness and quality of our meditation practice.

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09/16/2021 “Reconsidering Sitting Meditation” with Dennis Warren

Reconsidering Sitting Meditation: An Experiment & Exploration

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Sitting Insight Meditation is one essential element of a purposeful and intentional life. It is, at its core, about laying the foundation for a rich, full, satisfying life. It points our mind, heart and body towards a conscious and awake relationship with ourselves, with others and the world around us.
Several preconditions must be in place in order for sitting meditation to play these defining and guiding roles. Specifically, we need to develop a combined conceptual and experience model of what we are doing in meditation, how we are doing it and why we are doing it. If this is not present, our sitting meditation will be unfocused and misdirected. More importantly, it will not direct, support and sustain us on the path to a more satisfying life or a practice with the potential of being release from the constant and punishing management and control of the self or ego.
This evening will involve a reconsideration of several fundamental elements of Sitting Insight Meditation. It will include an experiment during the 700 pm hour.

You will need to have a straight back chair available to use during the meditation.

– the kind that would normally be part of a kitchen or dining room set. We will use the sitting experiment during the first hour as part of our exploration of sitting fundamentals during the 800 pm hour.

The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all stages of practice.

Slides (.pdf) RECONSIDERING CHAIR MEDITATIONDownload
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08/12/2021 “Is Movement Meditation?” with Dennis Warren

Is Movement “Meditation”? An Exploration

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You hear people say “running is my meditation.” Or maybe yoga, biking, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, kayaking, archery, dancing, golf, swimming or gardening. Or how about aerobic exercise and weight lifting?
Are people who talk this way talking about the same thing? Or different things? Can we be in movement, even vigorous movement, and simultaneously be in “meditation”?
During this evening we’ll explore whether movement, in its many different forms, is “meditation.” If the answer is “Yes,” what allows movement, or a particular activity, to become meditation? If the answer is “No,” why not? And a pivotal question: can movement be meditation when done by one person, but not when done by another person? What if the person is a world class Olympic athlete?
This will be a practical dive into a rich and wonderful field of exploration. There is a wealth of commonalities, and valuable practice and life lessons, that emerge from an investigation of the relationship between movement and meditation.

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07/15/2021 “Consciousness – A Concrete & Defining Spiritual Experience” with Dennis Warren

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Here is how we grow spiritually: We develop a Conceptual Model of the teachings of the Historical Buddha, their underlying psychology and supporting practice methods; we test that model through trial and error in living so it becomes an Experiential Model; then, we internalize it so it becomes an Intuitive Response.
A pivotal aspect of this growth process is fully integrating the understanding and experience of “Consciousness.” In Buddhist practice, Consciousness is not an idea, abstract theory or philosophical term. It is a concrete and defining experience.
Opening to this experience through specific practice methods is what allows us to access qualities of mind and heart like expansiveness, spaciousness, a deep experience of rest rather than struggle, and a pervasive sense of inter-connectedness.
During this evening, we’ll explore specific elements of the meditation process that lead to these experiences as well as ways to explore the experience of Consciousness in daily life.

Two books that Dennis mentioned are
* In Love with the world: A monk’s journey through the bardos of living and dying by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
* Interconnected: Embracing Life in Our Global Society by The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje

Zoom Chat
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