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

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley)

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Join Eve for an evening of exploring the Buddha’s teaching on Intention - a powerful and potentially transformative mental energy that precedes action. Live at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave., Berkeley, and online (Zoom link below). We will also share some songs in remembrance of Alan Senauke, the Abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center who p...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Join Eve for an exploration of holding all aspects of inner experience with curiosity and kindness. The practice of mindfulness invites us to ‘see things as they really are’ - not as we imagine them to be or wish them to be. This is usually a big challenge, especially in painful areas or the ones we try to avoid. The Buddhist teachings of lovingkindness i...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Vedana (वेदना) is an ancient term from Sanskrit and Pāli that refers to the automatic experience of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral that arises when the senses come into contact with objects (including thoughts). Vedana can be translated as "feeling tone". Using mindfulness to become aware of vedana can be a powerful way to support ease. Identifying or f...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) An investigation into the teaching and practice of Wise Action. Born of Wise Understanding and Wise Intention, Wise Action is motivated by clarity and compassion, and is an essential part of the path to freedom.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) Short talk, practice, and songs.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) This opening night "Founders Retreat" talk includes Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein, Howie Cohn, Jane Baraz and Jane Baraz reminiscing about the early days of Spirit Rock.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Join Eve for a look at the Buddha's foundational teaching. The Buddha said that he wished to teach only two things - suffering and the end of suffering. And the 4 Noble Truths, concluding with the fourth truth which is the Eightfold Noble Path, are his birds-eye view of how to do that.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Join Eve for explorations of the Buddha's teachings on 'The Three Characteristics of Existence' - impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and interdependence or not-self. The Buddha shared these insights because he saw that as we turn toward and embrace them, we suffer less and experience more peace.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Buddha taught that there are three kinds of 'dukkha', or 'unsatisfactoriness'. Join Eve Decker to to explore these three and the power of deliberate presence and compassion to cool the flames of stress around life's challenges.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Pali word 'dukkha', most often translated as 'suffering', in fact has multiple meanings depending on context. Join Eve Decker to take a look at this concept and some of the teachings on working skillfully with it.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The truth of impermanence means, among other things, that gain and loss are part of the territory of life for us all. When we face unwanted loss, grief is natural. Join Eve Decker for an exploration of Buddhist inspired teachings on wisely engaging with impermanence, loss, and grief.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Three Characteristics of Existence

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Many of us have learned to motivate ourselves with self-criticism. At what price? Negative criticism is a form of aversion - one of the three "poisons" to well-being taught by the Buddha. We can practice and get better at motivating ourselves with self-compassion instead. Join me for an evening of exploration and practice with self-compassionate motivatio...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Many of us learned, for multiple reasons, to ignore our own needs. While this may support being of service to others in the short term, in the long term we can burn out and become resentful if we don't know what our authentic needs are and endeavor to meet them. We are each our own primary caregiver, and how we meet and respond to our own version of Unive...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Compassion for self, others, and the world is essential for well-being and freedom. This form of love often needs to manifest tenderly - and - just as often, needs to be fierce. Join Eve for a look at bringing together 'a sword and a lotus'.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Self-Compassion requires us to cultivate capacities of presence with difficulty, kindness, and awareness of common humanity. But this doesn't mean that it always must be tender and internal. Often, our self-compassion requires us to be action-oriented and courageous. Join Eve for a look at these two forms of self-compassion and some ways to practice.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) During mindfulness practice, we might anchor our awareness through a focus on breath or body. We can also become mindfully aware of vedena, or feeling tone: whether we experience something as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Becoming mindful of this mental function helps us interrupt our own reactivity, in order to both experience and offer greater level...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Mindfulness helps us see our minds. Neuroscience and our own observations make clear that the natural negativity bias is there, and can be overridden in favor of intentional practices that increase contentment. Join Eve to explore two of these practices - appreciating others ('mudita' in Pali) and appreciating ourselves (noticing and savoring our innate a...

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) The Dalai Lama said “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” And the Buddha taught that the wholesome energies that support goodness are the stepping stones to freedom. Join Eve for a deeper look at appreciation for goodness, the ensuing increase of inner ease, and ways we can practice. With metta, Eve

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This week, join Eve Decker as we consider elevating 'wise joy' in our practice and life, as an essential source of energy and contentment.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) a look into a few of several practices that support us in deepening contentment.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) There are often things about ourselves that can be hard to forgive: the ways we have caused harm to others, the way we have caused or chronically cause harm to ourselves, and the ways we perceive ourselves as imperfect. Join us for an exploration of two possible paths that can lead to a greater sense of self-forgiveness.

(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) Join Eve Decker for an exploration of the why and how of increasing our capacity to experience and offer peace through mindfulness of thoughts. "As contemplation deepens, the seemingly solid, stable mind reveals itself to be a stream of mental acts flashing in and out of being, coming from nowhere and going nowhere, continuing in sequence without pause."-...