Eve Decker's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley)

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The fourth Noble Truth is the Eight fold Path. The second of the paths is Wise Intention. In this talk Eve discusses Wise Intention.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Introduction to the 8 Fold Noble Path

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This talk is an exploration of the Anattalakkhana Sutta (Teaching on No Separate Self); one of the Buddha's first teachings after awakening. How can this teaching support our ease, insight, and compassion?

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This talk explores the "two truths" doctrine in Buddhism. This teaching defines reality through two concurrent perspectives: conventional truth (relative, everyday experience) and ultimate truth (absolute, empty nature). While we move toward accessing the freedom of ultimate truth, we are always human with human lives. Wisdom and compassion guide us to br...

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Dharma talk about how to nourish joy as a source of strength. (NOTE: Group discussion has been omitted.)

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Eve has been offering reflections on the Buddha's teaching - MN 20 - on dis-identifying from non-useful thoughts. After a quick review of the Buddha's five suggestions, we'll take a deep dive into #4 - 'Focusing on stilling the formation of non-useful thoughts', which means bringing awareness directly, with curiosity and respect, to the physical tension o...

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Dharma Talk about the Majjhima Nikaya #20. (Group discussion has been omitted.)

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Eve has been offering reflections on the Buddha's teaching - MN 20 - on dis-identifying from non-useful thoughts. Some of these practices are straightforward, like simply ignoring difficult thoughts. And, we all know that some challenging thoughts will not just be ignored. One of the more complex but deeply rewarding practices, particularly for overcoming...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Thoughts driven by greed, hatred, or delusion lead us farther and farther from both inner and outer peace, and yet they are rampant. How do we work with them when they arise? One way the Buddha taught was to deliberately substitute spinning painful thoughts with thoughts that incline toward peace. These sorts of thoughts are often connected to the Brahma...

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Begins with a 30m meditation and is immediately followed by a Dharma talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Thoughts driven by greed, hatred, or delusion lead us farther and farther from peace, and yet they are rampant. How do we work with them when they arise? In this talk we'll look at some Buddhist teachings that offer a framework for dis-identifying from and working skillfully with thoughts that don't serve us or others.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Equanimity is a quality the Buddha described as essential to awakening. This talk discusses what that means and how do we practice?

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Compassion - turning toward suffering with care and wise responsiveness - is a familiar tenet of Buddhism. Renunciation is also a central teaching. What does that mean for lay practitioners and how does it relate to compassion?

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Awakened heart dwells in the present moment and chooses wise response to the unfolding, ever changing, less-predictable-than-we-think experience of now. The Buddha taught four basic qualities of the awakened heart: friendliness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. These qualities frequently overlap, are innate (though sometimes/often not in charge) and c...

(Big Bear Retreat Center) The story of the Buddha's time from royalty to spiritual teacher and his emphasis on wisdom and compassion. The story of Ledi Sayadaw in Burma bringing mindfulness to lay people in response to colonialism.

(Big Bear Retreat Center) Talk begins by bringing in the concept of "backdraft" - how distress can seem temporarily worse when we apply self-compassion. Majority of talk is about the necessity of joy for resilience, and the practices of glimmers, knowing what you love & gratitude

(Big Bear Retreat Center) Our practice begins with lovingkindness phrases, moved to mindfulness, then equanimity and self-compassion

(Big Bear Retreat Center) Description of the components of self-compassion including Buddhist teachings, neuroscience, the 3 components of self-compassion, soothing touch and the self-compassion break

(Big Bear Retreat Center) Description of metta, heart practices, metta sutta from the Buddha. Guided metta phrase practice

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Buddha taught transcending (and not identifying with) the thinking mind through present moment awareness. He also taught about using the thinking mind skillfully to incline toward wholesome, well-being inducing states. These two bodies of practice are different but each crucial in their own way, and support each other. This talk looks at working with...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Buddha taught that the two wings of awakening are wisdom and compassion. Compassion is much more than a concept, and it's more than a feeling. It's an understanding, a motivation, and an ever-growing collection of pragmatic responses to distress that we have available internally for ourselves and others.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Buddha taught that the two wings of awakening are wisdom and compassion. Compassion is much more than a concept, and it's more than a feeling. It's an understanding, a motivation, and an ever-growing collection of pragmatic responses to distress that we have available internally for ourselves and others.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Dhama Talk

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Dharma Talk. (Group discussion has been omitted.)

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Buddha's teachings point to the need for clear understanding of our own minds and hearts, along with intention, compassion, and practice. As the adage goes, we must become the ones we seek while we work to change (or even consistently comfort) the world. To do that, we need to know what's going on for us internally and know how to wisely self-soothe w...