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

Three-Month Retreat - Part 1

This three-month course, including its six-week partials, 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 retreat will encourage a balanced attitude of relaxation and alertness, and the continuity of practice based on the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

2011-09-10 (43 days) Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center

  
2011-09-28 The Wandering Mind 63:09
Andrea Fella
Practicing meditation, we inevitably encounter the wandering mind. Rather than considering this experience to be a "problem", if we explore this phenomenon with mindfulness, we can learn a lot about our minds.
2011-09-29 Emptiness And Wisdom 58:03
Carol Wilson
Exploring how the wisdom of emptiness manifests as compassion and how both are developed in our practice.
2011-09-30 Awakening Joy: Dharma Practice as a Path of Happiness: Part 1 64:23
James Baraz
The Buddha was called The Happy One. With the emphasis on suffering, its cause and it’s end, we can forget that this path is really a path of cultivating true happiness. In this talk we look at three principles of the teaching that can be the foundation for true well-being and how it can be cultivated both on and off the cushion.
2011-10-02 The Four Noble Truths As Practice 56:51
Sally Armstrong
The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths – the truths of suffering, the cause of suffering , the end of suffering and the path to the end of suffering – not as a philosophy, but as practices that we can use here and now to understand why we suffer and how to find release. Using this template to gain insight into our lives can bring a radical shift to the way we relate to our experience.
2011-10-03 Unentangled Knowing 59:49
Guy Armstrong
The talk explores how the sense of self is created through the links in dependent origination. “Unentangled knowing” describes how a meditator can be in a state of full awareness of things coming and going at the sense doors without being caught in them.
2011-10-05 Aversion and Insight 61:59
Andrea Fella
We sometimes think that if we are experiencing aversion in our practice, that insight must be out of reach. Yet the Buddha teaches us that the path unfolds through understanding suffering. When we bring mindfulness to aversion itself, the understanding that develops can be very freeing.
2011-10-06 Awakening Joy: Dharma Practice as a Path of Happiness: Part 2 62:01
James Baraz
This talk continues the exploration of how the practice cultivates happiness and joy. Five wholesome states that support true well-being are investigated including practices that help us access them.
2011-10-07 Investigating Personality View 63:30
Carol Wilson
The sense of self as personality view is a construct of mind that arises and poises like any other phenomena - and we can explore it with intent rather than fear it.
2011-10-08 The Illusion Of Not Good Enough 66:51
Chas DiCapua
How this particular form of self identify view comes into being. How it can be worked with, and how it can be a vehicle for awakening.
2011-10-09 Metta: Tenderness and Connection 61:11
Guy Armstrong
The practice of lovingkindness makes the heart more sensitive to the joys and sorrows of life. It also reveals a deep sense of connection to all sentient existence that overcomes a painful sense of isolation.
Creative Commons License