Dharma Seed - James Baraz's Dharma Talks

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In Memoriam: Rick Woudenberg

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James Baraz's Dharma Talks

James Baraz

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I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.

I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves. I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing.

The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening. I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing. It is accessing this dimension of our being that becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear. We have everything we need inside ourselves. We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.

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2017-03-09 "This Fleeting World" 62:59	Download Listen
In the Diamond Sutra, we are encouraged to see our lives in the context of impermanence this way: "Thus shall you think of this fleeting world: a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream; A flash of lightning in a summer cloud; A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream." This talk explores practicing when someone we know dies unexpectedly as happened to James this week.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley : IMCB Regular Talks

2017-03-02 "Connecting With the Enemy" 56:32	Download Listen
With James Baraz and Sheila Katz, Ph.D.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley : IMCB Regular Talks

2017-02-22 Day 25: Brahma Vihara Instructions 58:04	Download Listen
Spirit Rock Meditation Center : February Month-long Retreat

2017-02-20 Ehipassiko: Come See For Yourself (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 60:58	Download Listen
With so many different meditation instructions and approaches to practice how do we know which is the right one for us? This talk includes the Buddha's different methods for dealing with distracting thoughts as well as learning how to listen and trust your own experience.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center : February Month-long Retreat

2017-02-16 Equanimity: Bringing Balance to our Practice (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 62:41	Download Listen
Equanimity is the precursor to the awakened mind. It allows us to skillfully hold compassion, metta and joy in balance. It is the essential quality that allows us to go through life's ups and downs with wisdom and wise response.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center : February Month-long Retreat

2017-02-10 Dharma Practice as a Path to Happiness (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 62:38	Download Listen
The Buddha said that cultivating wholesome states creates the conditions for awakening. He further said that when a wholesome state is here to maintain and increase that state. But how can we do that without it increasing attachment? This talk explores why the Buddha was called The Happy One and how to see this path not only as an end to suffering but as a deepening of true well-being on and off the cushion,
Spirit Rock Meditation Center : February Month-long Retreat

2017-02-05 Opening to Experience: How and When (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 61:03	Download Listen
One of the most profound gifts of retreat practice is learning to open to our experience. We develop confidence, courage, compassion and insight as we are willing to work with all the challenging and beautiful places the mind can take us to. And it's also good to know when it's more skillful to not open to those places if we need to have a stronger container to hold them. Qualities that support this opening such as forgiveness, patience, sense of humor, and self-compassion are explored.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center : February Month-long Retreat

2017-01-30 Five Spiritual Faculties: Understanding how Intensive Practice Works (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 57:46	Download Listen
The list of the Five Spiritual Faculties provides a good explanation of how the process of intensive retreat practice unfolds.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center : February Month-long Retreat

2017-01-26 "What Are You Going To Do Now?" 48:18	Download Listen
The swirl of political events with the new US administration have contributed to a culture of apprehension and anxiety for many as they adjust to this new reality. The question many practitioners are asking is what is the place of Dharma in this unfolding of events. What is Dharma and not Dharma? What is our responsibility? How does the political environment inform our Dharma practice? How does our Dharma practice inform our engagement in the world? The talk includes Bhikkhu Bodhi's essay Let's Stand Together that appears in the journals Lion's Roar and Buddhadharma.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley : IMCB Regular Talks

2017-01-19 "Being a Sacred Warrior in These Tough Times" 49:13	Download Listen
Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." As we enter a time of uncertainty and, many are experiencing a swirl of emotions from apprehension and fear to anger and ill. How can we use our dharma practice to acknowledge and transform our negative emotions into wise effective response coming from understanding and love?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley : IMCB Regular Talks

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