Tea with Mara

When the times are a'changin, we have to be able to practice letting go. It happens all day in a thousand ways, but some things are bigger and more challenging. This Dharma talk and meditation is intended to help with those big moments. I hope you find it helpful.

Dharma talk and meditation on the topic of blame and what a burden it is in our hearts and minds, and how we can work to let go of it. I hope this talk is helpful for you!

This Two Hands Sangha Dharma talk on Allowing, Gratitude, and Equanimity - all of which are wholesome actions, or Karma - is about remembering to lean our heart in the direction we want it to move when things don't go the way we'd like. Life handed me some good opportunities for practice this week, and my practice showed up beautifully, which led to this discussion. I hope you'll enjoy...

Dharma Talk and Meditation on cultivating Wise View, Discernment particularly in the Information Age to help us cut through the noise of all the information we're endlessly assaulted with to get to the humanity and compassion and kindness we all need so badly in this world. I hope you'll enjoy!

Dharma talk and meditation on The Buddha as a doctor prescribing the cure for our suffering. This talk drew upon the book by Bhikkhu Bodhi "Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree", and I hope you'll find it useful. Enjoy!

Dharma Talk from Two Hands Sangha on July 28th, 2024 about the root teaching of the Dhamma, Dukkha and the cessation of Dukkha. Working from the Simsapa Sutta and Bhikkhu Buddhadāsa's opening from his book Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree. This talk is a reminder of how we can always check what we are learning against what the Buddha was teaching to help ourselves stay grounded in "Samana Gota...

Dharma talk and meditation on frustration and how we work with that from a dharma perspective. Expectations, clinging to expectations, karma, letting go, and more. A lot going on in those unmet expectations! Enjoy!

Dharma Talk and Meditation on taking the time for retreat whether with community or even on our own, and how it can be useful to our practice and our lives in general. I hope you enjoy this one!

Seems like everywhere you turn, things are stressful. This week in Two Hands Sangha we talked about using the teachings of the Dhamma to just simply get a little bit of relaxation from our mental and physical stress. It's the first step of a deeper dive into the practice. I hope you'll enjoy and leave a comment sharing your favorite mindfulness technique for simple relaxation!

A very short talk on wise speech, specifically in relation to politics. No Dharma Talk tonight, just this introduction to a period of community sharing and catching up, which was not recorded for personal confidence purposes, but I added a recorded bit at the end, encouraging you to leave a response to the podcast and share your own feelings or thoughts on whatever you're feeling these days. W...

Dharma talk and meditation on working with the shadow side of ourselves and some practices that can help you get through difficult aspects of your own experience. This has been very necessary for me lately and I hope you'll find it useful in these turbulent times as well.

Two Hands Sangha Dharma talk, after a month hiatus, the sangha came together tonight, and what better way to do so than with a reminder of why Sangha is so important and a call to action for those who haven't attended regularly since the Pandemic. A gentle reminder and an equally gentle invitation to make in-person Sangha a priority. Enjoy!

Pitfall Harry, from the 1982 Atari 2600 video game classic "Pitfall" shares his wisdom in this Dharma talk and guided meditation on how to deal with some of the pitfalls, or secondary challenges, that might come up as we work through rumination and anxiety, such as negative self talk and social avoidance. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed offering this talk. Enjoy!

Dharma Talk and Meditation on the topic of Rumination complimenting, or extending, what I wrote about in the recent TRIPP Blog Post on rumination. That was a secular approach, and this is the dharma view of the challenge of rumination. I hope you'll find it useful and I look forward to hearing from you about this one! TRIPP Blog Post

Short Dharma talk with no meditation on MN 60 The Incontrovertible Teaching, on of my favorites. Sadly, the full talk and meditation was not recorded last night, by mistake, so I had to re-record the talk portion this morning, minus any of the spontaneous parts that came up last night. Sorry for the trouble, but this talk was important to me to put out so I hope this version will serve as a good s...

Dharma Talk and Meditation on the topic of ill-will. Today was a hard day. I almost didn't offer this talk, but in the end it was just what I needed and I hope it will be helpful for you as well. The talk is on ill-will and some ways to work with it. I hope you will enjoy it!

Dharma Talk and Meditation on the topic of sensual desire, and how we can learn to understand the mind and work with it to overcome cravings of the senses. A dash of Moana, a sprinkle of Johnny Depp from Once Upon a Time In Mexico, and a lot of dharma. I hope you enjoy!

Dharma Talk and brief meditation on the topic of clinging to rites and rituals, or "mere rules" and rituals. When do our little rituals and habits lead toward lasting happiness and when do they get in the way of our practice, or even obscure it. We discuss in this talk and I hope you enjoy it!

Dharma Talk and Meditation on the topic of Doubt. We learn what it is and why it's so critical to be familiar with how to handle it when it arises in our practice. Enjoy!

Dharma Talk and Meditation on the topic of Sakkaya Ditthi, and some ways that we can understand and work with it. The guided meditation is based on a method of squeezing in this deep practice into just 9 minutes a day for those who are "too busy to meditate" which Joseph Goldstein has taught. I hope you'll enjoy this talk and time in contemplation!

In this episode, inspired by the story of "The Quail and The Falcon" in chapter 70 of Old Path White Clouds, we explore The Buddha's teachings on the three types of craving: sensual pleasures, becoming, and non-becoming. We look at how understanding and overcoming these cravings is essential for reducing suffering and finding true peace.

Inspired by a conversation on the Together with TRIPP community Discord server about Artificial Intelligence, this talk is actually a conversation between me and A.I. about whether or not it thinks it is good at teaching the dharma. A.I. is here to stay, and it has many wonderful qualities. So far my experience is that it isn't great at providing useful dharma instruction, but I decided to ask...

What do the classic movie "The Jerk", a Zippo Lighter, and a backpack have to do with renunciation? That may sound like the back of a Tom Robbins book, but it's tonight's dharma talk about putting down the things we don't need, so we can carry the things we truly do. I hope you'll enjoy this talk!

The Buddha was sometimes referred to as the Greatest Physician. This dharma talk and meditation are about how and why he had the cure for what ails you. I hope you enjoy!

I unexpectedly realized I had one more talk related to the last two that was itching to be heard. So this final talk in the series of 3 is about forgiveness and compassion when we inevitably make unskillful choices from time to time. "Just Because You Can" was about trying not to make those mistakes by using the eightfold path. "Doesn't Mean You Should" was about the karma...