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
Delusion comes from our persistence of something that is false or distorted, even if it's only for a moment. Chances are you are not a fully enlightened being; therefore, expecting yourself to be perfect is a form of delusion. One characteristic of delusion, misperception, is when we believe what is unpleasurable to be pleasurable. This can lead us to act in an unskillful way.
Do you believe that you are capable of living with a major difficulty in a skillful way? The untrained mind naturally reacts unskillfully to difficulties. When confronted with a difficult experience, the untrained mind wants to be anywhere but in the present moment, where it perceives acute unpleasantness. So rather than staying with the experience and determining the best possible way to relate to it, the mind jumps to creating a story that involves worrying about the future or judging oneself or others. When you stop objecting to the difficult, two benefits arise: you suffer less, and you have more energy at your disposal to skillfully deal with the difficult when it arises.
The way to free the mind from suffering is through gaining insight into what truly is. Insight is a profound level of understanding that transcends mere intellectual cognition and can only be known by experiencing it. One of the tools for gaining insight is mindfulness, the ability to be fully aware in the moment. The insights that arise through mindfulness release the mind from getting caught in reactivity and can even stop the cycle from beginning.
To know something deeply, we must first gather information, realize the implications of the information, and then cultivate an understanding of the information that is deep enough so that we can create a temporary respite from suffering. This can also be described as a three-step path of information, knowledge, and realization. At each stage of awareness you create less suffering for yourself and others, independent of your mind state in any moment.
One of the first western female lamas, Lama Palden Drolma is the founder of Sukhasiddhi Foundation in Fairfax, Calif., where she is the resident lama. Here she shares her spiritual journey which culminated with her becoming a Buddhist teacher.
Phillip Moffitt shares with his students the details of his Feb. 2012 three-week spiritual journey to India and Thailand to visit his teachers.
We all have those experiences where a change occurs that we’d rather not have had happen. It can be a change to your health, someone dying, someone leaving you in a marriage or relationship, or you’re laid off your job. So many kinds of change can elicit dukkha, or suffering. We can then look to the teaching of the First Noble Truth: that we will acknowledge with mindfulness and compassion that unwelcome change happens.
Many of us are very hesitant to be changed in a profound way. Why are we not willing to be changed? We can learn to be more skillful when it comes to change if we use mindfulness. We start with the willingness to let loose of fixed views about ourselves. Then, we become very mindful of our fixed views, old habits, and inner attitudes that really fight change.
Do you believe your core being can change? There are five possible core changes: You may cease being what you’ve always been; you may become what you never were before; you could return to what you always were; you may realize what you were meant to be; and you may realize what you are not. If you don’t recognize the possibility for change, then it’s a lot less likely to happen.
This year, can you be content with what is?
In our saying "Happy New Year" one of the things we may be meaning is "This year, may you cease to be the cause of your own suffering." A responsive mind state allows us to move beyond conditions to achieve this goal.
