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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Rodney Smith's Dharma Talks
Rodney Smith
More and more, the teaching practice takes me into the community where I engage directly with students. My focus right now is on bringing the continuity of the Dharma into the market place. Although retreating is an important form for self-knowledge, I find myself less interested in the immediate results of a retreat and more interested in helping students investigate their relationship to the ups and downs of their everyday life.
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2004-05-26 The Path Of Not Knowing 46:46
The practice is simply to step out of self-deception. To do that one must be willing to surrender to the unknown.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge May 2004 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2004-05-23 Caring Attention 52:10
The means of our practice must be aligned with the ends we seek.
Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge May 2004 at IMS - Forest Refuge
2004-01-06 Precepts and Refuges 42:48
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2003-11-13 Learning 46:32
Reflect on how generosity is related to equality. When you offer a gift to someone you perceive as unequal is that generosity or pity? Feel the difference between these two forms of giving. How does the heart feel and how does the mind hold the offering in a generous act and in pity? When you perceive someone as a human being regardless of their present condition you can only perceive them as equal. When you give to the less fortunate, you are lost in the pain of the circumstances. The generous heart feels that pain but gives to the human being. This week find several occasions to give something away to someone less privileged. Before you do, release the projections and allow equality to surface. One person giving to another. Look the person in the eye when you hand them the gift. Let your heart meet theirs. Feel the humility of true generosity. Feel the joy of release. Notice the qualitative difference between giving with humility and the self-importance of "helping the disadvantaged."
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
2003-04-10 The Awakened Heart 48:13
The heart cannot open when it is on a journey in time. Love is found when we add nothing to this moment.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2003-04-08 Task-Centered & Heart-Centered Meditation 47:21
The movement from task-centered practice to heart-centered awareness contains the whole of the spiritual path.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2003-04-06 The Search For Meaning 45:05
We search throughout our lives for what is meaningful, only to find it in front of our eyes.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2003-03-27 The Spirit Of Questioning 48:45
To hold a question is to keep the mind unformed and resting in stillness. Seeking an answer reconfirms the person who knows.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2003-03-24 Wanting: The Payoff And The Pain 44:56
The whole of desire must be understood—what it gives us and its inevitable pain—in order for it to be put to an end.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Vipassana Retreat
2003-01-18 Non-Doing 45:47
Carry the statement, "Seek first to understand before being understood," throughout this week. How does this intention create a listening attitude? Experience the effect of listening on your heart, how it opens you to caring. How does your behavior change when you allow actions to flow from listening instead of making assumptions prior to the action? Watch how the phrase interrupts reactive and impulsive thinking. Do you see the potential for changing many of your relationships through this intention?
Seattle Insight Meditation Society

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