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Dharma Talks
given at New York Insight Meditation Center
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2021-11-13
Anger, Grief, Afflictive Emotions
48:17
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Ajahn Sucitto
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Anger, grief and fear are primary reflexes that have the potential of taking us back to our safe, sympathetic intimate environment. To the extent that we have lost connection to the capacity of our autonomic nervous system to discharge stress, emotional energies freeze and don’t get resolved. This leave residues that sour and cripple the heart. So we practice cultivating our intimate environment; it's from here we can meet and transmute these afflictive emotions with pure presence.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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2021-10-25
Insight Out Refuge – LGBTQI Sangha – Consolations of the Triple Gem
27:23
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Jay Michaelson
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The Buddhadharma has many applications: liberation, ethical refinement, and also, in challenging times especially, refuge (sarana). Unlike secular modalities, the Dharma is not a set of tools; it is meant also to be a shelter from the storm that offers and emotional, even embodied, consolation. Building on the framework of the triple gem — the refuges in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha — this talk explores how the Dharma can console all of us, particular LGBTQ+ and allied folks, in the contexts of climate anxiety, pandemic trauma, and political polarization.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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2019-12-17
Death and the Poignancy of Life
61:37
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Matthew Brensilver
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William James said that death was the ‘worm at the core’ of the human condition that turns us all into ‘melancholy metaphysicians.’ A century later, awareness of mortality is documented to affect our thinking and emotional lives in powerful ways. It figures prominently in Buddhist practice.
In what ways does consciousness of death distorts our view and lead us away from wisdom and compassion? Alternatively, how can we open to the truth of finitude such that our heart is softened? Can we intuit the freedom or love that might be released were we more deeply at peace with our mortality?
In this evening program, we’ll consider the way death can harden or soften our heart – and how dharma practice might lead us to a life that feels complete. All are welcome.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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2019-10-11
Cultivating Awareness + Wisdom-Q+A
41:03
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Alexis Santos
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Awareness and wisdom are qualities of mind that together provide the ingredients for clear seeing and compassion to arise. These timeless qualities are essential for meeting the challenges of our current world and in helping us live a skillful life. This evening talk will start out with a guided meditation followed by a dharma talk on how to cultivate these essential qualities.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2019-09-25
The True Promise of Mindfulness
1:24:19
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Mark Coleman
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In his new book From Suffering to Peace – The True Promise of Mindfulness Mark Coleman, author and senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, weaves together contemporary applications with mindfulness practices in use for millennia. His approach to mindfulness and meditation empowers us to engage with and transform the inevitable stress and pain of life, so we can discover genuine peace — in the body, heart, mind, and the wider world.
In this evening talk, Mark will lead brief mediations and explore the aspects of his book to help practitioners, of all kinds, access and benefit from the “true promise of mindfulness”.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2019-09-25
The True Promise of Mindfulness-guided meditation
27:05
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Mark Coleman
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In his new book From Suffering to Peace – The True Promise of Mindfulness Mark Coleman, author and senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, weaves together contemporary applications with mindfulness practices in use for millennia. His approach to mindfulness and meditation empowers us to engage with and transform the inevitable stress and pain of life, so we can discover genuine peace — in the body, heart, mind, and the wider world.
In this evening talk, Mark will lead brief mediations and explore the aspects of his book to help practitioners, of all kinds, access and benefit from the “true promise of mindfulness”.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2019-07-30
Spiritual Bypass and the War on Emotion
1:32:08
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Dave Smith
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Our emotions can lead us to our greatest joys and most painful sorrows. In their most creative capacity, they are guides pointing us toward who we truly are and what is most meaningful in our lives. At their most destructive, we are caught by them: lost in the grip of anger, sadness, fear – we’re overwhelmed. This suffering is something we have all felt, but we can create more space, choice, and ease in the face of it.
Spiritual Bypass refers to those times when we fall into the trap of misusing mindfulness practices to repress or avoid strong emotional states that we don’t want to face: anger, sadness, fear, or the feeling of being overwhelmed. In this talk Dave will discuss how our practice can be used to understand and heal emotional suffering.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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NYI Regular Talks
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2019-06-01
Spiritual Bypassing: When We Do Not Want to Look Honestly
1:38:51
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Ajahn Sukhacitto
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Sometimes, we want to escape our problems and challenges of life and turn to meditation for a rest or to experience quiet and peacefulness. In some ways, we may now be spiritually distracting ourselves from our feelings, thinking that we are walking a healthy spiritual path. This effort is often referred to as spiritual bypass, which ultimately serves as a defense mechanism.
This defense mechanism, in this form of Spiritual Bypass, shields us from the truth, disconnects us from our feelings, and helps us avoid the things we could be looking at. It is more about checking out than checking in, and we often don’t even realize that we are doing it. How can we use Dhamma practice to integrate meditation and insight more fully into our lives? Can Dhamma principles guide us in all that is happening? In this evening program, we will explore these questions and our practice by meditating with a talk and exchange and looking at honestly at our meditation practice and our intentions.
This event was offered by donation
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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Diving Deep: Living the Satipatthana Sutta
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2019-05-24
Finding Ourselves and Losing Ourselves dharma talk
61:27
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Stephen Fulder
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There is no question more engaging, universal and mysterious than the question: ‘Who Am I?’
As soon as we move out of automatic living and start to question and explore who or what we are, we open a Pandora’s Box and our life can get dramatically more deep and interesting, and sometimes more disturbing. We find ourselves in a world of paradox, mystery, and yet unimagined freedom.
‘Who is in charge of my life?’ ‘What in me is changing and what is constant?’ ‘Which of the many voices within me can I rely on?’ ‘How can I let go of the sense of separation between me and the world?’ ‘Is my life leading me somewhere?’ Questions such as these become a journey of discovery. They help us peel off the layers of conditioning and beliefs and live more wisely, more lightly and more freely.
In the dharma, we meet ourselves as a constantly changing field of experience, not as an intellectual puzzle. We are actually more transparent than we first thought. This is an insight into anatta, non-self, and sunyata, emptiness. This removes the veil or filter through which we usually view the world, which then appears meaningful, joyful, and unlimited. In this event, we will explore these questions concerning self and world, by means of a talk, meditation, and inquiry.
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New York Insight Meditation Center
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