Audio Dharma Talks
From 1998 until the end of 2013, Phillip Moffitt gave a dharma talk to the Marin Sangha nearly every Sunday evening. Many of those talks, as well as some that were recorded at Spirit Rock are available for downloading from the dharmawisdom.org audio library. New talks are posted frequently, so check back often to hear recent ones.
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Audio Dharma Talks
"Fully Arriving In The Here And Now Meditation" is a guided meditation that can help you stay in the present, here and now. Here, now, not before, not after. There is no presence, no agency in the past. It's a memory of something gone, no longer present. Listen HERE.
During "Do We Dare To Create A Blank Page?" Phillip discusses how as we begin this new year, we are coming out of the darkest time of the year and we are starting to notice the return of the light. Our journey towards wisdom follows a similar cycle of light and dark. Can we begin the year on a blank page? It's not that we don't have habits or previously formed realities. But we have a choice not to be defined by the past. We have a choice how we relate to this moment, this new chapter, here and now. Listen HERE.
In this short, 8-minute talk Phillip gave at Marin Sangha on November 1, 2020, he shows us how to engage skillfully with the turmoil of a momentous election. He counsels that there are times when we are called to surrender and be present as best we are able with our mind-heart. The dhamma shows us how to meet life with grace and an onward leading attitude that manifests our deepest intentions. When we put our practice at the center, we can ride the ups and downs — as Phillip puts it, “This, too, is a moment of the dhamma.”
In this time that is characterized by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are called to cultivate resilience and optimism. This optimism is not one that is based on a certain outcome but is based in a willingness to meet life as it is. It’s hard to meet life without a view but when we can see life from a dharma point of view, we can hold it all — the suffering, the joy, the uncertainty, the ease, the anxiety. The well-being of the Buddha is not based on conditions but instead a well-being that’s lodged in the unconditional.
When we are on the threshold of something new--whether it’s a new year, a new job, a new relationship, or any other new endeavor--there are three questions I have found to be very useful for sorting myself out. These three questions help me be interested in, available for, and reflective about understanding where I currently am, what's next, and how I can be current with the me that’s here now. These questions address who’s present now rather than the old version of me or the me in the future I’m about to step into.
Being mindful of your fear allows it to become your teacher and gives purpose to what is otherwise meaningless suffering.
In this talk from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Fall 2019 retreat, Phillip explores the unfolding of the path in the context of the origin story of the Buddha. When we have a clear understanding of what the Buddha set out to do, then we can have a clearer orientation to how and why we practice.
One key understanding is that the Buddha did not seek to cure all afflictions of the mind. Therefore we can help ourselves on the path by not getting into any kind of perfectionism. Phillip emphasizes that what we need is “good enough commitment to the path" and to be realistic with ourselves about the fact that at times, we each choose suffering. Instead of perfectionism, we clean things up in our lives enough and use the rest as stimulus, as teachers, and as purification as we go along the path.
In studying the dharma, we are often instructed to surrender to the present, but what does it mean really? When we surrender, we are relinquishing our demand that the present be something other than it actually is and we are fostering a willingness to be present with what is. Surrendering to the present entails surrendering to our current limitations, both internal and external. The ability to surrender is essential not only for practicing the dharma, it is equally critical for living skillfully in daily life.
Phillip talks about learning from all our experiences and understanding the nature of conditioned reality.
The one constant in our lives is change. How well we navigate change has a direct impact on the degree of well-being, purpose, and satisfaction we experience on a day-to-day basis. At the beginning of each year we often consider making changes but do we have clarity of purpose? It's important to identify our values and intentions so we have a basis for making wise decisions.
The Four Noble Truths was the Buddha’s first teaching after he found freedom from his own suffering. Understanding the meaning of these Noble Truths—that your life contains moments of dukkha; that the cause of your dukkha is clinging to desired objects and states of being; that you can release dukkha
by letting go of clinging to those desires; and that there is an Eightfold Path to freedom from dukkha that you can follow in order to accomplish all this—is the foundation of Buddhist wisdom. If you give yourself the chance to investigate your suffering more deeply, you will discover that being “with” your pain can lead to wisdom and happiness. But without compassion one can fall into judgment. Phillip explains the difference between "penetrative wisdom" (the path to freedom) vs "vast wisdom" (the compassionate response to what is).
