Dharma Talk Recommendations

Great idea.

excellent talk, Mike

http://www.realitysandwich.com/zen_trickster

This is a recent interview with Brad Warner. It is interesting, especially when he talks about the differences between the "state of mind" that is the goal of zen practice versus the state of mind people may think is the goal or the goal of other spiritual practices.

nice interview

http://www.everydayzen.org/index.php?Itemid=26&option=com_teaching&sort=date&task=viewTeaching&id=audio-1075-819

http://dharmapunxnyc.podbean.com/2011/06/11/how-to-create-the-world/

Two talks that go very nicely with all the recent scientific oriented material on brains and consciousness and perception and stuff.

I recommend the following short (under six-minutes) dharma talk by Reggie Ray:

"Problem with Disembodied Meditation"

http://www.dharmaocean.org/default/index.cfm/teachings/audio/

(It's located near the bottom of the page, under the "Union of Heaven and Earth" category.)

This talk really hit home for me right now. It's difficult to articulate why, but I seem to be going through a stage where lots of unresolved karmic stuff is showing up in practice. "Going beyond" this stuff doesn't seem to work, so I'm left with the choice to work with it on its own terms by bringing awareness right into the thick of it. This has been pretty difficult for me, but I'm not in a state of crisis. Just going through some emotional shit that I didn't expect; unfinished business, if you will. Such is the way of the yogi.

Enjoy!

-Jackson

Wow, Jackson, that is a really excellent talk. A different tradition, but I have been thinking a lot this week about the Cross and Crucifixion as this connecting point between Relative and Absolute, Above and Below, Heaven and Earth. Right now it seems to me this is so important, also.

I also liked some of Adyashanti's talks about what he calls integration and embodying after awakening. I'll try to find the link. I know he has much of it on a DVD called "Journey after Awakening." It's good stuff.

Wow. That went completely over my head. I'll have to try to listen to it again.

It's always odd and interesting to me when someone talks about reincarnation as if it was a normal fact. I know that some meditators actually SEE the truth of rebirths in some kinds of visions and I bet Mr. Ray is one of those.

Mike, would it help to consider that 'reincarnation' is what happens every morning when you wake up having been in the 'death' of deep sleep; it's what follows every 'cessation' in the Theravadan scheme of meditation practice it's what puts us back together after the brief, blackout bardo of spacing out, blacking out, for whatever cause. We reincarnate constantly, innumerable times-- just in this one life that almost all of us remember. [Yeah, there are others whose memories are of a different order altogether-- but he's not talking JUST to them.]

Mike, would it help to consider that 'reincarnation' is what happens every morning when you wake up having been in the 'death' of deep sleep; it's what follows every 'cessation' in the Theravadan scheme of meditation practice it's what puts us back together after the brief, blackout bardo of spacing out, blacking out, for whatever cause. We reincarnate constantly, innumerable times-- just in this one life that almost all of us remember. [Yeah, there are others whose memories are of a different order altogether-- but he's not talking JUST to them.]

-kategowen

Help what? That I think it is odd to hear rebirth talked about as if it were a fact?

No, all that doesn't help.

Isn't Ray talking about people being born in new bodies after dying?

No, I don't think so: I think he's using the symbol system of his dharma-world-- in a kind of off-hand way, because it's been his personal context for almost 50 years now-- to point to a common human experience. That experience of suddenly 'coming to' yourself. ALL of yourself-- 'Heaven' and 'Earth', 'absolute' and 'relative' [more symbols, both dyads].

This may or may not be apropos: [via Hokai on FB]

http://integrallife.com/member/ken-wilber/blog/death-rebirth-and-meditation

I am reminded of a passage that Than Geoff quotes in an essay about gratitude and debt:

A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find… A being who has not been your father… your brother… your sister… your son… your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find. Why is that? From an inconceivable beginning comes transmigration.

…

Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, exprienced loss, swelling the cemeteries—enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released.

From the Mata Sutta.

For me that reads as true whether or not rebirth is literally, physical true. YMMV.

It's good, but is a bit of a cliffhanger. Episode 2 should be great.

That's the best Buddhist Geeks interview I have heard in a LONG time.

That's the best Buddhist Geeks interview I have heard in a LONG time.

-awouldbehipster

This is a great podcast ... for graduate students.

Josh Korda just added a bunch of new talks to his podcast page. Please don't make me explain why these are worthwhile.

http://dharmapunxnyc.podbean.com/

He is zach's teacher

Which must be interesting. Glad you are enjoying him