Wise Caregiving

You may have noticed that our world is filled with suffering. The Buddha noticed this, too. His first teaching was that suffering exists. While it’s easy to see suffering ‘out there,’ the Buddha challenged us to see suffering ‘in here’ and know that each of us is a real mess; our minds are neighborhoods best not entered alone. This week’s Dharma talk suggests a three-step plan for coping with suff...

This week we focused on teachers: who they are, how to choose one, and how to benefit from a student/teacher relationship. Teachers come in two varieties - the Guru and the Spiritual Friend. Gurus pass an entire lineage to their students, while Spiritual Friends facilitate the student’s awakening. Gurus, Roshis, and Zen Masters embody powerful mythological forces to transmit an idealized lineage,...

Thanksgiving gives us the chance to offer thanks for our abundance (thanks-giving) and to celebrate our ability to give (thanks for giving.) Because we live this balance between gratitude and generosity in the often challenging environment of our extended families, I ’d like to offer 5 practices that can help us align our behavior with our ethical aspirations. See the Process: Everything changes....

Living ethically is an important part of practice. The 5 Mindfulness Trainings point us toward freedom without serving as judgemental commandments. In this talk, Jonathan Prescott explores how taking the precepts allows the precepts to take us.

What do we mean when we use the word, ‘Love’? It commonly refers to preference, greed, infatuation, lust, affection, and more. But in Buddhist practice, ‘Love’ means something different. Loving-kindness (along with compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity) is a Brahmavihara - a facet of Awakened Mind that is vast, bottomless, non-personal, and fully developed within each of us. Loving-kindness i...

Michael Melancon offers this talk about the nature of the illumined mind - what it is and how we cultivate it. ~~~~~~ A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” reads the mantra of the United Negro College Fund. There’s so much profound truth and wisdom in those eight simple words. The untrained mind leans toward discontent, unhappiness, fear, anger and a sense of isolation. Untrained mind pursues the...

Thich Nhat Hanh describes meditation as the art of dwelling happily in the present moment. This requires a balance between skillfulness and awareness. In this talk, Jonathan Prescott explores meditation skills, the nature of awareness, and how our own hand can help us dwell happily in the present moment.

This talk addresses how to practice when things don't go our way. Can we find peace right in the middle of this life of gain and loss? Yes, but it takes practice! Enjoy...

Practice forms help transform our self-centered stories into stories that speak instead of connection, stillness, gratitude, and presence. Forms also invite us to become intimate with life in ways that transcend whatever stories we might tell. Jonathan Prescott offered this talk to the Desert Cactus Flower Sangha in Phoenix, AZ.

Visiting Teacher Steve Wilhelm brings his knowledge of early Buddhism to AMC and shares six themes from the life of the Buddha that have relevance for our lives today.

In this short talk, Jonathan Prescott shows how our behavior is mirrored in meditation. Kind, clear behavior is reflected in kind, clear sitting. Meditation gives us an opportunity to experience the consequences of our actions and helps us develop compassion.

In this talk given at the Puget Sound Zen Center, Jonathan Prescott cuts to the bone and addresses a realization that's difficult to face: Knowing that you will die. This seemingly bad news is actually good news because it spurs us to explore how this finite body expresses reality's no birth, no death nature.

The truth of impermanence can feel like a slap in the face: We're going to lose everything we love, everyone we love, and, eventually, our own lives. But in reality, impermanence is good news. It is a gateway to happiness. In this talk given to The Anacortes Mindfulness Community on May 21, 2019, Jonathan Prescott explores how to embrace life's ever-changing nature.

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh says that the point of spiritual practice is to generate happiness and transform suffering. In this talk to the Anacortes Mindfulness Community, Jonathan Prescott explores what this means and how we can practice happiness.

Jonathan Prescott describes the formal process for taking refuge in the 5 Mindfulness Trainings, including why we do this, how we do this, and the benefits of walking the path of freedom.

In this final talk of the Four Noble Truths Practice Period, Jonathan Prescott gives an introduction to the ethical practices of Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood and the awareness practices of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

Jonathan Prescott offers the first in a series of eight talks on The Four Noble Truths, a foundational teaching of the Buddha. This talk was given at the Anacortes Mindfulness Community (www.anacortes.mindful.community) on January 15, 2019.

Welcome to week 6 of The Anacortes Mindfulness Community's 8-week long Four Noble Truths practice period. In this talk, Jonathan Prescott introduces the Noble 8-Fold Path and dives into Right View and Right Thinking. Think non-thinking!

In this fourth talk of the series on the 4 Noble Truths, Jonathan Prescott shows us how suffering arises, from sensory contact through to the creation of an 'I'. He also touches on the nature of liberation.

In this third talk of the Anacortes Mindfulness Community's Four Noble Truths practice period, Jonathan Prescott explores how we suffer even when we have what we want. This talk examines the Human, Asura, and Heavenly hell realms.

Jonathan Prescott offers the second Dharma talk of The Four Noble Truths Practice Period. He speaks about how to use mythical Buddhist hell realms to understand our own suffering. This talk addresses the Hell, Animal, and Hungry Ghost realms.