The following talks and courses are offered to anyone. Please click on the talk title to take you to the recording. If you find them of benefit and would like to make a teacher’s gift, you are welcome to do so here.
Wasting Our Time
Vipashyana Space Awareness
Vipashyana means “seeing fully and precisely.” We refer to sitting meditation as shamatha, being directly mindful of what is happening on the spot. But there is always vipashyana awareness of a larger space. Joining mindfulness and awareness is the heart of our meditation and our whole life. 5 talks.
Highly recommended to begin here.
Mindfulness of Breathing
The Life and Death of Breath
Being mindful of our breathing is the most basic meditation practice. Breathing is mostly invisible, but through mindfulness, we tune into its subtle power to relax our tense body and tame our wild mind. Over time, such a simple practice helps us open our heart and live and die with courage and compassion. Single talk.
Fresh Start, Further Touch
What do we do when we are totally lost in our practice, wandering far away? Why is simply coming back to the breath not the full instruction? What are we covering up? Single talk.
Taking Our Posture and Tasting Our Heart
A simple approach to confusion and challenge in our meditation practice is to take a good posture and tune into our soft spot. Single talk.
Weapons of Compassion: The Four Karmas
Compassion is peaceful at heart, but must engage with sharp clarity. In the Buddhist tradition, there are four compassionate actions: pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying. How do we know what’s appropriate? In particular, how do we work with aggression? When must we “destroy”? Four talks.
Trusting the Path of Nontheism
This talk and discussion explores our personal experience of what and who we trust, particularly on a spiritual path. Single talk.
Renunciation, Patience, and Wisdom
A Three Yana Journey
Renunciation is the ground of meditation, recognizing self-centered passion and letting it go. Patience is the path of a bodhisattva, working with vulnerability and aggression. Wisdom uncovers our ever present awareness on the spot, giving a glimpse of no path. All three work together like a circle. Single talk.
Pandemic Panic, Grief, and Compassion
In this time of so much suffering and uncertainty, our mind can spin out in fear or sink into depression. In this online gathering, we will explore together how to open our heart, embrace our feelings, and be of service to the world.
A more personal talk hosted by the Halifax Shambhala Center on May 14, 2020.
The Bone of Existence
The Path of a Lonely Buddha
Once a meditator picked up a bone in a charnel ground, and wondered how this bone came to be. Upon reflection, they realized it came from someone dying. Then how did death come to be? This lone practitioner proceeded step-by-step to penetrate their direct experience. Ultimately, they came full circle to realize the root of their confusion and suffering. Four talks.
Grandmother’s Soup
The Charnel Ground of Birth, Life, and Death
A charnel ground is an isolated place where dead bodies are abandoned, and so it is full of life with wild animals feasting. Life and death are on full display. In our life, the charnel ground is our own mind. Meditation is a gentle way of opening our hearts to the chaotic and fertile richness of our whole being. Single talk.
John Rockwell 