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.
To download one of Phillip's talks, right click on the mp3 file name. A menu will pop up that allows you to save the link wherever you'd like. To right click, press the control button on your keyboard and click your mouse. If this doesn't work, it probably means your browser settings won't allow you to do it, so you need to change your browser settings or try a different browser.
Audio Dharma Talks
Mood and attitude affect how our mindfulness works in daily life. Can we be conscious of what's happening in the current moment without being drawn away from aversion, desire, or disassociation? When we'
In our society, January is a month of beginnings, changes and transitions. Throughout life you are faced with making choices about how you want your life to be and these choices involve making changes. All change is fraught with concerns, fears, and questions: How do I know if this change will make me happy? Is it meaningful? How do I know if I'm making the right decisions? How can I stay true to myself during this transition? Who am I anyway?
Whatever arises has to vanish. If you're living for the future achievement, you're missing the beauty of now. Goals tend to focus on an imagined future and are not necessarily concerned with what is happening to you in the present moment. Living from your intentions is quite different from living from your goals. It is not oriented toward achieving a future outcome. Instead it is a path of practice that is focused on how you are being in the present moment. Your attention is on the ever-present now in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions by understanding what matters most to you and making a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values.
True generosity arises out of unconditional caring and compassion for another. Each of us is dependent upon others for our blessings. We flourish or perish together through interwoven acts of generosity arising from the benevolence and integrity of others, many of whom we shall never meet. This is the power of generosity. When we mindfully practice generosity, we come into contact with its joyful, healing power.
Practicing generosity is the intention to find release from attachment to gratifying our ego needs by giving freely of what we have that is of value. What we have to give may be material in nature, or it may be our time, energy, or wisdom. We practice generosity to eradicate the attachments that come from our feelings of scarcity and separateness. The practice of generosity allows us to see the world from the point of view of what we have and what we have to give, instead of seeing it from the perspective of what we don’t have and desperately want.
The Buddha taught that perception is one of the five aggregates that comprise each moment of experience. The five aggregates are matter, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. The way these aggregates coalesce in a moment can create suffering, or not. You can affect whether suffering occurs by developing new habits of perception, thereby changing what you notice in the future.
It takes effort and practice to break old patterns of perception. You are essentially developing a new relationship to “pleasant” and becoming mindful that what matters in life is something greater than “happiness,” which is fleeting. You are discovering that “pleasant” and “happiness” aren’t reliable sources of well-being. And you are developing the capacity to meet pleasant and unpleasant moments of life equally, which conditions future moments of perception and leads to a sustained sense of well-being.
Mindfulness is also important in knowing what’s true for you. Throughout each day, ask yourself if you’re being true to your deepest intentions. If you're not, start doing so immediately, as best as you're able. The outcome of your inquiry and effort may seem modest at first. But be assured, each time you start over by reconnecting to your intention, you are taking one more step toward finding your own authenticity and freedom.
The Five Spiritual Faculties—faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom—come together to allow us to change in wholesome ways and to move into a more liberated place.
The five faculties come together to allow you to change in wholesome ways. When you are trying to make a difficult life change, cultivating each of these qualities is a wise and proper thing to do. These five qualities are truly spiritual characteristics, so they are not to be treated lightly, but rather evoked in the pursuit of finding your own Buddha nature when coping with change.
