The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Retreat Dharma Talks at Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center

Three-Month Retreat - Part 1

This six-week partial of the three-month course is a special time for practice. Because of its extended length and ongoing guidance, it is an opportunity for students to deepen the powers of concentration, wisdom and compassion. Based on the meditation instructions of Mahasi Sayadaw and supplemented by a range of skillful means, this silent retreat will encourage a balanced attitude of relaxation and alertness, and the continuity of practice based on the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

2015-09-12 (43 days) Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center

  
2015-10-08 Perception and Papanca 53:51
Andrea Fella
2015-10-09 Seven Factors of Enlightenment 61:04
Guy Armstrong
The Buddha pointed to seven meditative factors that when developed lead to liberation. This talk explains how the factors are developed, beginning with mindfulness and continuing through the arousing factors and the pacifying factors.
2015-10-11 An Independent Abiding 49:58
Greg Scharf
2015-10-12 The Third Foundation of Mindfulness: Mindfulness of States of Mind 59:26
Sally Armstrong
In the third foundation of mindfulness, the Buddha instructs us to bring awareness and clear seeing to the contents of mind. In a nonjudgmental way, we are invited to be aware of whether the mind is affected by lust, ill will or delusion, and also when the mind is not affected by the states. Included in this practice are various experiences of concentration, expansion and contraction in the mind. The section ends by including awareness of the liberated mind, even if this is only a temporary experience. The thrust of this section is to notice the wholesome and the unwholesome qualities of the mind, and by that very noticing increase the wholesome and decrease the unwholesome.
2015-10-13 The Sure Heart's Release - Part 1 - Dana 50:57
Kamala Masters
2015-10-15 The Experience Of Wisdom 60:22
Andrea Fella
2015-10-16 Impulses Come From Ignorance 56:48
Guy Armstrong
Ignorance is the first link in the chain of dependent origination. The talk explores how formations are conditioned by ignorance to create three levels of obscuration, and how the path of sila, samadhi, and pañña works through them to touch enlightenment.
2015-10-17 The Sure Heart's Release (Part 2) - The Two Guardians Of the World 38:20
Kamala Masters
Hiri and Ottappa: A deep respect for oneself and others to practice the precepts of non-harming
2015-10-18 Greetings, Sisters and Brothers In Aging, Sickness and Death 48:01
Greg Scharf
2015-10-19 The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness 57:05
Sally Armstrong
The Satipatthana Sutta (usually translated as the Foundations of Mindfulness) offers a complete description of the practice of mindfulness, beginning with the direct awareness of the breath and the body, progressing through mindfulness of vedana or feeling tone, to the more subtle object of the Third Foundation, mindfulness of mind states. The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness represents the culmination of this series of practices, and can be seen as a direct pointing, again and again, to the possibility of freedom through direct awareness of where we get caught, and how to turn the mind towards liberation. This talk is an overview of the practices of the Fourth Foundation, which can be seen as both the last in the sequence of practices, and as a progression in itself. It also covers how the Fourth Foundation can be skillfully interwoven into our practice of the other foundations.
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