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Please note, this is a re-posting of the previous podcast. If you’ve already downloaded it, please delete the previous file and use this one instead! The previous version has half missing… Sorry!

A short but sweet talk from San Francisco’s very own Suvarnaprabha, in which she explores the Buddhist vision of compassion through her own experience of meditation and contact with inmates within the U.S. prison system. Moving stuff.

Talk given at the Western Buddhist Order convention, 2005

Contents

01 Survanaprabha - poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca; a personal interest in violence

02 Violence as resistance in meditation; compassion as not resisting experience

03 Prisoners talking about self-perpetuating violence

04 The vastness of compassion; the difficulty of talking about shunyata and compassion

05 An anecdote about selflessness; quote from Shunryu Suzuki

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 Violence and Emptiness [00:18:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A short but sweet talk from San Francisco’s very own Suvarnaprabha, in which she explores the Buddhist vision of compassion through her own experience of meditation and contact with inmates within the U.S. prison system. Moving stuff.

Talk given at the Western Buddhist Order convention, 2005

Contents

01 Survanaprabha - poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca; a personal interest in violence

02 Violence as resistance in meditation; compassion as not resisting experience

03 Prisoners talking about self-perpetuating violence

04 The vastness of compassion; the difficulty of talking about shunyata and compassion

05 An anecdote about selflessness; quote from Shunryu Suzuki

To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

 

 Violence and Emptiness [00:18:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Time for another talk from Vajradarshini. More poetry, more Rumi, more listening joy. Actually, we just liked the title so much we had to go for it this month - but, in fact, it’s another splendid journey around the idea of Enlightenment, using the languages of surrender and discipline from the Sufi context. It’s as heady as a sumptuous wine, but also sobering and down to earth, whether we’re “following a railing in the dark” or walking lost “inside the red world”. Drink up!

Talk given at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2005

Contents

01 Starting with a poem by Rumi - not a ’sensible’ talk

02 ‘Enlightenment’; following a railing in the dark; wine in Rumi’s poetry; the Dharma as studying the self; surrender and discipline

03 The Tavern - pushing off for Truth; ‘managing’ samsara and settling down

04 Fermentation; being cooked - slowly

05 How we are cups; two ways we limit ourselves - i. literalism; a quote from Aloka - abandoning ideas of what the ‘path’ is

06 Sangharakshita on literalism and craving; effective Going for Refuge and giving up limited ideas; the antidote to beauty

07 ii. Utilitarianism; Sangharakshita’s idea of the Greater Mandala of Uselessness; literal takes on aesthetics; breaking the cups

08 Pushing off into truth; kinds of connection with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; Reality and form and emptiness; visualistaion practice and life - things arising and disolving

09 ‘Fana’ and ‘baka’ in Rumi’s poetry - two streamings across the doorsill; Shams-e-Tabrizi - Rumi’s teacher

10 The importance of reflecting on form and emptiness; the eight-point mind training - taking all obstacles with you on the path; the Bodhisattva Ideal from the perspective of emptiness; spiritual practice in a world neither real nor illusory

11 Pema Chodron on how to avoid burn-out; shunyata and unrealistic ideals; a quote by Dennis Potter near to death; the trivial and the important; birdsong

12 Hsuan-Tsang’s ‘trusting mind’; introducing the dirt we buy to the dirt we already have

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 We Have a Huge Barrel of Wine But No Cups [00:51:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here is the second part of Paramabandhu’s excellent exploration of the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health - especially to problems with depression and addiction. Drawing on many years of experience as a consultant psychiatrist and Dharma teacher, here he takes questions on his previous talk and elaborates on the general theme. There’s a wide range of material opened up - and considerable detail about how we can actually go about applying these techniques to whatever challenges we face in your own lives. Essential listening.

Please note - the questions in this recording were made at very low levels. We’ve amplified and clarified where possible - but the general sound quality drops noticeably at these points. However, they are all now audible and, in almost all instances, questions are repeated by Paramabandhu before he answers.

Talk given at San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006

Contents

01 Question-and-answer session - two books to reference on mindfulness; working with depression - discrepancy monitor and rumination

02 Knowing what you can and cannot change - considered action

03 Difficulty doing mindfulness work when actively depressed; noticing subtle shades of pleasant and unpleasant

04 Can mindfulness initiate depression? Stepping out of patterns of thinking; difference between rumination and ’staying with’; body awareness

05 Over-active mind; 12 step program - something to actually do; expectations and suffering; having your experience - the truth as sometimes uncomfortable

06 Letting go of what you don’t have; relationship break-up; staying with unpleasant experience and not compounding it - the Buddha in the ‘Dart Sutta’

07 Not identifying with one feeling; sexual addiction; recovery from addiction and mindfulness practice

08 Rumination in the body; working with internal sensations; using metaphors to work with your mind

09 Psoriasis and mindfulness

10 What is meditation? A brief introduction and exercise - the ‘Three Minute Breathing Space’

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 Mindfulness For Just About Everything (Part 2) [00:33:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is a timely and invaluable talk from Paramabandhu. Drawing on many years of experience as a consultant psychiatrist and Dharma teacher, he invites us to consider the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health - especially to problems with depression and addiction. The talk evokes the Buddha in the Satipatthana Sutta to explore the four traditional foundations of mindfulness and discuss their potential use in therapeutic contexts. It is a kindly and empowering expression of practical hope, whose message applies to us all as we struggle to overcome whatever it is that holds us back from greater freedom in our lives.

Part 2 of this podcast will feature a question-and-answer session based on the material

Talk given at the San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006

Contents:

01 Contemporary interest in mindfulness; brief therapeutic history of meditation since the 1960s; the Buddha as behavioural therapist - the obese king, Kisa Gotami and her baby

02 John Kabat-Zinn and mindfulness-based stress reduction; other therapies based around mindfulness

03 Mindfulness in Buddhist tradition; the Satipatthana Sutta; sati and sampajanya; analogies for mindfulness; the four foundations of mindfulness - an analysis of technique in practice

04 Four aspects of mindfulness in therapeutic context; i clocking what’s going on - being on automatic pilot

05 ii Sitting with your experience; Rumi’s poem ‘The Guest House’; the kindly aspect of awareness; body awareness and mental proliferation

06 iii Perspective; cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy - the implicit and the explicit; not taking our thoughts so seriously; iv choice - mindfulness of purpose

07 Taking awareness deeper; freedom; Kotita’s ‘Song of Realization’

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 Mindfulness For Just About Everything (Part 1) [00:39:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download