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Retreat Dharma Talks

Your Life Is Your Practice

Insight meditation (vipassana in Pali, the language of the original Buddhist teachings) is the simple and direct practice of moment-to-moment mindfulness. Through careful and sustained observation, we experience for ourselves the ever-changing flow of the mind/body process. This awareness leads us to accept more fully the pleasure and pain, fear and joy, sadness and happiness that life inevitably brings. As insight deepens, we develop greater equanimity and peace in the face of change, and wisdom and compassion increasingly become the guiding principles of our lives.

The Buddha first taught vipassana over 2,500 years ago. The various methods of this practice have been well preserved in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. This silent retreat, suitable for both beginning and experienced meditators, is rooted in this ancient and well-mapped path to awakening, and draws on the full spectrum of this tradition’s lineages.

2023-08-17 (8 days) Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center

  
2023-08-18 Mindfulness and investigation, as factors of enlightenment. 49:43
Matthew Hepburn
A practical understanding how sati and dhammavicaya emerge as factors that lead toward awakening
2023-08-19 Metta (loving-kindness) guided instructions for self 38:25
Matthew Hepburn
A brief discussion of foundational understanding for the practice of meta-. Followed by guided phrases practice. Concluding with reflections on the dynamic nature of meta-for self: compassion, categories, and non-self.
2023-08-20 On Bumpy Roads and Muddy Trails: reflections on tranquility 48:06
Devon Hase
Stories and dhamma on the awakening factor of Passaddhi (calm, peace, tranquility)
2023-08-21 Metta For A Friend 43:34
Devon Hase
Guidance on using metta phrases, and the cultivation of friendliness for a good friend, prentices, (including pets, trees, and nature)
2023-08-21 Samadhi (concentration) is a factor of awakening. 48:17
Matthew Hepburn
Stories of samadhi in unlikely places, and a discussion of what factors we can influence, and what factors arise naturally, which support the development of samadhi
2023-08-22 Guided meditation: metta for difficult beings 45:42
Matthew Hepburn
If metta is taught to be practiced boundlessly, how can we expand our own hearts to that limitless capacity through our dharma training?
2023-08-23 Guided meditation, instructions: including everything in simplicity 36:06
Matthew Hepburn
Final day guided, mindfulness instructions. Fourth foundation. Six sense spheres. Traces awareness. Just this.
2023-08-23 The parami of generosity 36:12
Devon Hase
Thoughts and reflections on the paramis, Dana parami in particular
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